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The VICC.ORG Investigator Directory

Jennifer A. Pietenpol, Ph.D.

Director, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
Benjamin F. Byrd, Jr. Professor of Oncology
Professor of Biochemistry
VICC Member
Administrator and Researcher

Contact Information:

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
652 Preston Research Building
Nashville, TN 37232-0146
615-936-1512

Profile

Jennifer A. Pietenpol, Ph.D., is the director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and Professor of Molecular Oncology. She has led the center's basic science and translational research programs as associate director since 2002 and is a past program leader for Signal Transduction and Cell Proliferation, one of seven research programs in the center. She has served as the principal investigator of the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation Center for Cancer Genetics and Genomics since 2002.

Professor Pietenpol's research focuses on the p53 signaling network - the most frequently targeted area for mutation in human tumors. The goals of her research are to define molecular changes that are frequent in tumor cells and to use bench-based discoveries to advance patient care. Currently, her research is funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Department of Defense, the Komen Foundation, and AstraZeneca.

For the past 12 years, she has instructed numerous medical and graduate student courses at Vanderbilt University. In 2004, she was honored with the Excellence in Teaching Award at Vanderbilt for her mentoring of graduate and medical students in the research setting. From 1994-2005, Pietenpol was the co-director of the American Association for Cancer Research Course Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology.

Pietenpol has authored or co-authored over 80 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific literature. She is a member of several review panels at the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society and the Komen Foundation. Since 2002, she has served as the chair of the American Cancer Society Institutional Review Group. She is currently an associate editor for the journals Cancer Research and Cell Cycle and is also on the Editorial Board for several other journals including, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Breast Cancer Research, Carcinogenesis and Cancer Biology & Therapy.

Professor Pietenpol received her B.A. in Biology from Carleton College in 1986 and earned her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1990, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. In 1994, Pietenpol joined the Vanderbilt faculty and was soon honored with a Burroughs Wellcome Award for her investigations in the areas of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology.

Research Specialty:

p53 family signaling axis (p53, p63, and p73); Mechanisms of cell cycle checkpoints; Breast Cancer; Head and Neck Cancer

Research Description:

Pietenpol Research Summary

Some defining properties of tumor cells are increased cell proliferation, decreased cell death and genomic instability. These characteristics are acquired as a consequence of mutations in genes that control the fidelity and frequency of cell division as well as the ability of the cell to initiate pathways of apoptosis. A goal of cancer-based research is to provide new therapeutic approaches that specifically target the molecular interactions and biochemical pathways that are changed in tumor cells. In order to achieve this goal, a much greater understanding of the signaling pathways that control normal proliferation is required and is the continuing focus of research in the Pietenpol Laboratory.

Research in the Pietenpol laboratory has set the stage for current and future studies that are focused on further dissection of select biochemical pathways that control processes of tumor suppression, development, metabolism, and aging. An overall focus is to determine the role of the p53 family signaling axis in normal proliferation and tumorigenesis of squamous and glandular epithelial cells and to translate mechanistic findings to advances in cancer patient care and treatment in the clinical setting.

Current research aims in the laboratory:

• Determining the role of novel p53 target genes in pathways of apoptosis and cellular response to genotoxic stress.

•Defining the role of novel p63 target genes in basal epithelial cell differentiation, migration, adhesion, and tumorigenesis.

• Discovering novel p73 target genes and defining the role of p73 in tumor suppression, metabolism, and aging-related diseases.

•Translating our molecular findings about the p53 family signaling axis and cell cycle checkpoint pathways to humans through analysis of breast, head and neck and prostate cancer.

Publications:

Education

  • B.A. - Carleton College, 1986
  • Ph.D. - Vanderbilt University, 1990
  • Fellowship - Johns Hopkins University, 1994

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