University of South Florida

Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program at the

Richard S. Pollenz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in the Department of Biology

E-mail: pollenz@cas.usf.edu
Phone: 813-974-1596
Web page: http://www.biology.usf.edu/cmm/faculty/rpollenz/

Training
B.S.: University of the Sciences Philadelphia (USP), Toxicology, 1983 Ph.D.: Northwestern University, Cell Molecular Biology, 1991
Postdoctoral Fellow: McArdle Cancer Center, Univ. of Wisconsin, 1991-1994.

Assistant Prof., Medical University of South Carolina, 1994-1990. Associate Prof., Medical University of South Carolina, 1999-2000.

Research Interests
Our overall focus is to better understand the response of organisms to environmental stress at the molecular level. The stresses of interest are chemical contaminants (halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons, typified by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, TCDD) and low oxygen (hypoxia). The models of interest include both aquatic and mammalian species with emphasis on the Ah receptor and hypoxia signal transduction systems. These pathways have wide ranging impact in cancer, development and reproduction.

Search for publications by:   
This search will be conducted at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and PubMed.

Selected Publications
Necela, B., and Pollenz, R.S. 1999. Functional analysis of activation and represssion domains with the rainbow trout ARNT protein Biochemical Pharmacology 57:1177-1190.

Davarions, N.A. and Pollenz, R.S. 1999. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor imported into the nucleus following ligand binding is rapidly degraded via the cytoplasmic proteasome following nuclear export. J. Biol. Chem. 274:28708-28715.

Pollenz R.S., N.A. Davarinos, and T.P. Shearer. 1999 Analysis of AHR-mediated signaling under physiological hypoxia reveals lack of competition for the ARNT transcription factor. Molecular Pharm. 56:1127-1137.

Heid, S.E., Pollenz R.S, and Swanson H.I. 2000. Role of heat shock protein 90 in mediating agonist-induced activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. Molecular Pharm. 57:82-92

Pollenz, R.S., and Barbour, E.R. 2000 Analysis of the complex relationship between nuclear export and Ah receptor-mediated gene regulation. Mol. Cell. Biol. 20-6094-6105.