Catharine Smith

Education: 

• PhD, University of Vermont, 1988, Biochemistry

Dr. Smith has 25 years of research experience in the study of steroid receptor action, transcription, and epigenetics. She began her career as an independent investigator at the National Cancer Institute in the Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression. She was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Arizona in 2006. Her work is focused in the role of histone deacetylases in nuclear receptor signaling, particularly in the control of metabolic equilibrium. In addition, she studies the role of histone deacetylases and their clinically-relevant inhibitors in regulation of lymphoma proliferation and differentiation. Through interactions with members of the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (SWEHSC), she has become interested in environmental chemicals that might have histone deacetylase inhibiting activity and thereby disrupt endocrine pathways. Dr. Smith is the recipient of a SWEHSC Pilot Project award and is currently a member of RFG3, ROS & Disease Prevention.

Environmental research interests - Epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation, steroid receptor action in breast cancer, signal transduction and cell cycle control, mechanism of anti-cancer drug action.