Guillermina Lozano

Last updated
Guillermina Lozano
Alma mater Pan American University (BSc)
Rutgers University (PhD)
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Thesis Isolation, characterization and analysis of the gene encoding the Alpha 2 type IX collagen polypeptide  (1986)

Guillermina 'Gigi' Lozano is an American geneticist. She is a Professor and Hubert L. Olive Stringer Distinguished Chair in Oncology in Honor of Sue Gribble Stringer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Lozano is recognised for her studies of the p53 tumour suppressor pathway, characterising the protein as a regulator of gene expression (transcription factor) and that is disturbed in many cancers. She was the first to recognize that the p53 gene encoded a transcriptional activator of other genes [1] Her lab has made significant contributions by developing and analyzing mouse models to study the activities of mutant p53, revealing how these mutations drive tumor development and progression. [2] She also found out how the Mdm2 and Mdm4 proteins work in the body, especially in stopping cancer and controlling p53. This research suggested that blocking Mdm2/4 could be a new way to treat cancer. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Lozano was born in East Chicago, Indiana, the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She attended a private Catholic high school, Bishop Noll, up until her senior year, when her family moved to McAllen, Texas. [4]

Lozano completed a Bachelor of Science in biology and mathematics, graduating Magna Cum Laude, at Pan American University (now University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) in 1979. She earned a doctor of philosophy in biochemistry from Rutgers University and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1986. [5] Lozano's dissertation was titled Isolation, characterization and analysis of the gene encoding the Alpha 2 type IX collagen polypeptide. [6] She completed postgraduate training in molecular biology at Princeton University from 1985 to 1987. [5]

Career and research

Lozano is Professor and Chair of the Department of Genetics [7] at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is also a professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. [5]

Lozano is recognised for her studies of the p53 [8] tumour suppressor pathway, from characterising p53 as a transcriptional activator [9] to revealing the importance of two inhibitors of p53, Mdm2 and Mdm4. Her lab has generated dozens of mouse models of p53 to explore effects of mutations in this tumor-suppressing protein on tumorogeneis. [10]

Awards and honours

Lozano is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, [11] National Academy of Medicine, [12] Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas. [5]

Awards:

Related Research Articles

p53 Mammalian protein found in humans

p53, also known as Tumor protein P53, cellular tumor antigen p53, or transformation-related protein 53 (TRP53) is a regulatory protein that is often mutated in human cancers. The p53 proteins are crucial in vertebrates, where they prevent cancer formation. As such, p53 has been described as "the guardian of the genome" because of its role in conserving stability by preventing genome mutation. Hence TP53 is classified as a tumor suppressor gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bert Vogelstein</span> American oncologist (born 1949)

Bert Vogelstein is director of the Ludwig Center, Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Johns Hopkins Medical School and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. A pioneer in the field of cancer genomics, his studies on colorectal cancers revealed that they result from the sequential accumulation of mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. These studies now form the paradigm for modern cancer research and provided the basis for the notion of the somatic evolution of cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mdm2</span> Protein-coding gene in humans

Mouse double minute 2 homolog (MDM2) also known as E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase Mdm2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MDM2 gene. Mdm2 is an important negative regulator of the p53 tumor suppressor. Mdm2 protein functions both as an E3 ubiquitin ligase that recognizes the N-terminal trans-activation domain (TAD) of the p53 tumor suppressor and as an inhibitor of p53 transcriptional activation.

p14ARF is an alternate reading frame protein product of the CDKN2A locus. p14ARF is induced in response to elevated mitogenic stimulation, such as aberrant growth signaling from MYC and Ras (protein). It accumulates mainly in the nucleolus where it forms stable complexes with NPM or Mdm2. These interactions allow p14ARF to act as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting ribosome biogenesis or initiating p53-dependent cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, respectively. p14ARF is an atypical protein, in terms of its transcription, its amino acid composition, and its degradation: it is transcribed in an alternate reading frame of a different protein, it is highly basic, and it is polyubiquinated at the N-terminus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MDM4</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Protein Mdm4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MDM4 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald DePinho</span>

Ronald A. DePinho is an American physician and research scientist. He served as president of MD Anderson Cancer Center from 2011 to 2017. DePinho states that his concern for reducing the burden of cancer suffering became his life goal in 1998, when his father died of colon cancer.

Graham Andrew Colditz MD, DrPH is an Australian chronic disease epidemiologist. He is the inaugural Niess-Gain Professor at Washington University School of Medicine, where he is associate director for Prevention and Control at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center. He directs the Master of Population Health Science at Washington University School of Medicine. During medical training he was excited by the potential for prevention of chronic diseases. With encouragement from mentors he pursued training in the US as it was routine for academics in Australia to obtain overseas training at that time. He is internationally recognized for leadership in cancer prevention, and is often interviewed by media for input on this topic. With members of Cancer Prevention and Control at Siteman, he blogs on issues relating to cancer prevention and screening. According to Google Scholar statistics, Colditz has a h-index of more than 300. Colditz was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines but resigned, along with Ruby H. N. Nguyen, before it produced its seminal report.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph F. Fraumeni Jr.</span> American physician and cancer researcher

Joseph F. Fraumeni Jr. is an American physician and cancer researcher. Born in Boston, he received an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.D. from Duke University, and an M.Sc. in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his medical residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He then joined the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health in 1962 as a commissioned officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, becoming the founding Director of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics in 1995. He stepped down from this position in 2012 to become a senior investigator and advisor to the National Cancer Institute.

Luis F. Parada is a Colombian developmental biologist and neuroscientist who currently serves as Director of the Brain Tumor Center, Albert C. Foster Chair and American Cancer Society Research Professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, New York.

Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale is a Norwegian biochemist. She is a senior scientist at Oslo University Hospital and Professor of molecular tumor biology at the University of Oslo. She received the 2002 Nordic Medical Prize. In 2015 she received the Fritjof Nansen medal and award for Outstanding Research from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and in 2017 she was appointed to Commander of the Royal Norwegian St. Olavs Order by the King of Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Kaelin Jr.</span> American Nobel Laureate, Professor of Medicine at Harvard University

William G. Kaelin Jr. is an American Nobel laureate physician-scientist. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard University and the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. His laboratory studies tumor suppressor proteins. In 2016, Kaelin received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the AACR Princess Takamatsu Award. He also won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019 along with Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza.

Charles J. Sherr is the chair of the Tumor Cell Biology Department at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He studies tumor suppressor genes and cell division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl H. June</span> American immunologist and oncologist

Carl H. June is an American immunologist and oncologist. He is currently the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He is most well known for his research on T cell therapies for the treatment of several forms of cancers. In 2020 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott W. Lowe</span> American geneticist

Scott William Lowe is Chair of the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program in the Sloan Kettering Institute at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is recognized for his research on the tumor suppressor gene, p53, which is mutated in nearly half of cancers.

Professor Carol L. Prives FRS is the Da Costa Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. She is known for her work in the characterisation of p53, an important tumor suppressor protein frequently mutated in cancer.

Stephen Bruce Baylin is the deputy director and associate director for research at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research and medicine and chief of cancer biology of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focus is epigenetics in the development of cancer, and he was one of the first researchers in this field in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis C. Harris</span> American cancer researcher

Curtis. C. Harris is the head of the Molecular Genetics and Carcinogenesis Section and chief of the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis at the Center for Cancer Research of the National Cancer Institute, NIH.

Dafna Bar-Sagi is a cell biologist and cancer researcher at New York University School of Medicine. She is the Saul J. Farber Professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology and the department of medicine and senior vice president and vice dean for science at NYU Langone Health. Bar-Sagi has been a member of scientific advisory boards, including the National Cancer Institute, Starr Cancer Consortium, and Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Philip Greenberg is a professor of medicine, oncology, and immunology at the University of Washington and head of program in immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research is centered around T cell biology and therapeutic cell therapies. He is a co-founder of Juno Therapeutics.

Lisa M. Coussens is an American cancer scientist who is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology and Deputy Director for Basic and Translational Research in the Knight Cancer Institute at the Oregon Health & Science University. She served as 2022-2023 President of the American Association for Cancer Research.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.2144364?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
  2. ↑ https://oir.nih.gov/wals/2022-2023/mutant-p53-activities-mouse-tumor-models
  3. ↑ https://www.aamc.org/about-us/aamc-awards/distinguished-research/2022-lozano
  4. ↑ Hardy, Michael. "Her discovery expanded our knowledge of cancer genetics". MD Anderson Cancer Center. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Guillermina (Gigi) Lozano". MD Anderson Cancer Center. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  6. ↑ Lozano, Guillermina (1986). "Isolation, characterization and analysis of the gene encoding the Alpha 2 type IX collagen polypeptide". ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. ↑ "Guillermina (Gigi) Lozano". MD Anderson Cancer Center. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  8. ↑ Moyer, Sydney M.; Wasylishen, Amanda R.; Qi, Yuan; Fowlkes, Natalie; Su, Xiaoping; Lozano, Guillermina (2020-09-22). "p53 drives a transcriptional program that elicits a non-cell-autonomous response and alters cell state in vivo". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (38): 23663–23673. Bibcode:2020PNAS..11723663M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2008474117 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   7519296 . PMID   32900967.
  9. ↑ Raycroft, L.; Wu, H.; Lozano, G. (1990). "Transcriptional Activation by Wild-Type but Not Transforming Mutants of the p53 Anti-Oncogene". Science. 249 (4972): 1049–1051. Bibcode:1990Sci...249.1049R. doi:10.1126/science.2144364. PMC   2935288 . PMID   2144364.
  10. ↑ Jeffers, John R.; Pinto, Emilia M.; Rehg, Jerold E.; Clay, Michael R.; Wang, Jinling; Neale, Geoffrey; Heath, Richard J.; Lozano, Guillermina; Lalli, Enzo; Figueiredo, Bonald C.; Pappo, Alberto S. (2021-05-01). "The Common Germline TP53-R337H Mutation Is Hypomorphic and Confers Incomplete Penetrance and Late Tumor Onset in a Mouse Model". Cancer Research. 81 (9): 2442–2456. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-20-1750. ISSN   0008-5472. PMC   8137600 . PMID   33637564.
  11. 1 2 "Guillermina Lozano". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  12. ↑ "Member". National Academy of Medicine. Retrieved 2022-02-11.[ permanent dead link ]
  13. ↑ https://oir.nih.gov/wals/named-honorific-lectures/margaret-pittman-lecture
  14. ↑ https://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/guillermina-lozano-receives-aamc-award-distinguished-research-biomedical-sciences.h00-159543690.html
  15. ↑ "Guillermina (Gigi) Lozano, PhD". American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  16. ↑ "Guillermina Lozano". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  17. ↑ "E.E. Just Lecture", American Society for Cell Biology
  18. ↑ "Guillermina Lozano Member Directory", National Academy of Sciences
  19. ↑ "AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship Recipients" Archived 2019-03-08 at the Wayback Machine , American Association for Cancer Research
  20. ↑ "AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Memorial Lectureship Recipients" Archived 2019-03-08 at the Wayback Machine , American Association for Cancer Research
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.