Cancer Biology Research

Faculty in this focus group study molecular mechanisms of cellular transformation and tumorigenesis, genetic susceptibility to cancers, and cancer therapeutics.

Faculty in Cancer Biology

Susan M. Bailey
Associate Professor (Environmental & Radiology Health Sciences); Ph.D. New Mexico 2000. Potential role of dysfunctional (uncapped) telomeres in tumorigenesis studied with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH).

James R. Bamburg
Professor (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology); Ph.D. Wisconsin 1969. Regulation of the cytoskeleton in neuronal growth and pathfinding; signal transduction pathways regulating actin dynamics; abnormalities in actin behavior in neurodegenative diseases.

Joel S. Bedford
Professor (Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D. Oxford 1966. Cellular radiation biology; radiation cytogenetics.

Barbara J. Biller
Assistant Professor (Clinical Sciences); Ph.D. Colorado State University 2007. Chemotherapy and antitumor immunity; preclinical and clinical cancer immunotherapeutics.

Debbie C. Crans
Professor (Chemistry); Ph.D. Harvard 1985. Biological chemistry; vanadium and transition metal chemistry relating to insulin mimetic effects; vanadium compounds with bone stimulating activities; enzyme mechanisms; phosphorus metabolism. 

Jennifer G. DeLuca
Assistant Professor (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology); Ph.D. University of California at Santa Barbara 2000. Mechanisms of Mitotic Chromosome Segregation.

Stephen W. Dow
Professor (Microbiology, Immunology & Pathology and Clinical Sciences); Ph.D.; Colorado State University, 1992.  Innate immunity and the lung; bacterial pathogenesis; cancer immunology; vaccines.

Dawn L. Duval
Assistant Professor (Clinical Sciences); Ph.D. University of Nevada 1994. Molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis and metastasis in osteosarcoma and breast cancer models.

Nicole Ehrhart
Associate Professor (Clinical Sciences); V.M.D. University of Pennsylvania 1990. Limb preservation; musculoskeletal sarcoma; orthopaedic oncology; bone regeneration, and tissue engineering.



Daniel L. Gustafson
Associate Professor (Clinical Sciences); Ph.D., University of Nevada, Reno, 1992. Cancer pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and toxicology.

Charles S. Henry
Associate Professor (Chemistry); Ph.D., Arkansas, 1998.  Bioanalytical chemistry; chemical separations and chemical nature of disease.

Susan Kraft
Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D., Washington State University, 1991. Cancer imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and spectroscopy, radiation therapy and neuroradiology.

Susan M. LaRue
Associate Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); D.V.M., Georgia; Ph.D., ColoradoState 1992. Experimental therapeutics; hyperthermia; tumor physiology; tumor cytogenetics.

Paul J. Laybourn
Professor (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology); Ph.D. California (Davis) 1989. The mechanism of transcription regulation in a chromatin context.

Marie M. Legare
Assistant Professor (Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D., Texas A&M, 1995. Genetic and molecular approaches to studying neurotoxicology.

Howard L. Liber
Professor (Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980. Molecular mechanisms of mutagenesis in human cell.

Jac A. Nickoloff
Dept. Head & Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); PhD. University of Colorado. Cellular processes that maintain eukaryotic genome stability, including homologous recombination, nonhomologous end-joining and other DNA repair processes.

Jennifer K. Nyborg
Professor (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology); Ph.D. California (Riverside) 1986. The mechanism of transcriptional deregulation by the human T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV-I) tax protein.

Sandra L. Quackenbush
Associate Professor, Associate Department Head (Microbiology, Immunology & Pathology); Ph.D.,Colorado State University. Viral pathogenesis, particularly viral-induced oncogenesis.

F. Andrew Ray
Associate Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); PhD. University of New Mexico School of Medicine. How the SV40 virus causes cancer traits in normal human cells.

Douglas H. Thamm
Assistant Professor (Clinical Sciences); V.M.D. University of Pennsylvania 1995. Signal transduction and its inhibition in comparative cancer models.

Henry J. Thompson
Professor (Horticulture & Landscape Architecture and Head of the Cancer Prevention Laboratory); Ph.D. Rutgers 1975.  Biochemical and molecular approaches to cancer prevention; preclinical models and clinical investigations. 

John Volckens
Assistant Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); PhD. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Development of methods for aerosol and air pollution measurement, understanding the generation, fate, and transport of semivolatile organic compounds in rural, urban, and industrial environments, and development of improved diagnostic techniques for assessing human exposures to and adverse health effects of air pollution.

Michael M. Weil
Associate Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D. University of Texas, Austin 1987.  Genetic susceptibility to radiation-induced cancers.

Stephen J. Withrow
University Distinguished Professor (Clinical Sciences) and Director (Animal Cancer Center); Ph.D. Tennessee 1972.  Comparative pet animal models for cancer, with an emphasis on sarcomas and limb-sparing techniques using a multidisciplinary approach. 

Raymond S.H. Yang
Professor (Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences); Ph.D.North Carolina State 1970. Molecular and cellular aspects of chemical carcinogenesis; integration of mathematical modeling and biomedical experimentation.