Cancer Faculty

Learn more about this group by contacting Dr. Eileen Kennedy (ekennedy@uga.edu) or visiting the Cancer group website.

Molecular and cellular cancer research at UGA encompasses many departments and programs.  The common bond between these researchers is a focus to understand the fundamental mechanisms of oncogenesis and cancer progression to develop novel cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.

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Bartlett, Michael

Michael Bartlett University Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Neuroscience ADME of drugs and environmental toxicants; impact of compounds on memory, cognition, and neuropathic pain; oligonucleotide therapeutics and biomarkers. Website

Cai, Houjian

Houjian Cai Associate Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences Post-translational modification including protein acylation, fatty acid metabolism, prostate stem cell, Src family kinases, prostate cancer, small molecular inhibitor. Website

Dougan, Scott

Scott Dougan Associate Professor Cellular Biology Molecular and cellular basis of pattern formation in vertebrates; developmental genetics of zebrafish. Website

Douglass, Eugene

Eugene Douglass Assistant Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences Multi-drug resistance(MDR) causes most cancer deaths(Nat. Rev. Cancer 2018, 18, 452). We use organic chemistry, cell biology and data-science to overcome MDR. Website

Funato, Kosuke

Kosuke Funato Assistant Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Molecular and cellular mechanisms of brain tumors; oncohistone mutations; human ES cell-based tumor modeling; tumor heterogeneity and evolution Website

Garfinkel, David

David Garfinkel Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Retrovirus-like transposons in budding yeast, control of transposition, restriction factors. Website

Goll, Mary

Mary Goll Associate Professor Genetics Epigenetic regulation in the context of development and cancer. We focus on heterochromatin and primarily use zebrafish as a model system. Website

Haltiwanger, Robert

Robert Haltiwanger Professor; GRA Eminent Scholar in Biomedical Glycosciences Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Neuroscience Role of glycosylation in regulating Notch signaling, assisting protein folding, and development. Website

Hart, Gerald

Gerald W. Hart Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Eminent Scholar in Drug Discovery; Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Nutrient Regulation of Signaling and Transcription: Mechanisms Underlying Diabetes, Neurodegeneration and Cancer Website

Hooks, Shelley

Shelley Hooks Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Neuroscience G-protein coupled receptors, molecular pharmacology, signal transduction, ovarian cancer, neural stem cells. Website

Kannan, Natarajan

Natarajan Kannan Associate Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics Evolutionary systems biology; protein kinase signaling in plants, pathogens and microbes. Evolution and classification of glycoenzymes. Website

Karumbaiah, Lohitash

Lohitash Karumbaiah Assistant Professor Neuroscience Developing Translational Glycomaterials for Neural Tissue Repair and Neural Interfacing. Website

Kennedy, Eileen

Eileen Kennedy Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences Chemical biology, kinase signaling, cancer, signal transduction, drug discovery. Website

Kipreos, Edward

Edward Kipreos Professor Cellular Biology Regulation of the cell cycle; ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis and development. Website

Li, Wentao

Wentao Li Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Science; Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program The research in Dr. Li’s laboratory combines biochemistry, genetics, adductomics and computational approaches to investigate effects of epigenetics and spatial genome organization on environmental carcinogen-induced DNA damage formation, DNA repair, mutagenesis, and carcinogenesis. Website

Liu, Dexi

Dexi Liu Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Neuroscience Gene therapy, obesity, drug delivery, gene drug discovery. Website

Maier, Rob

Rob Maier Professor Microbiology Physiology and metallobiology of pathogenic bacteria. Website

Mao, Leidong

Leidong Mao Associate Professor Bioinformatics Micro- and nano-technology, lab-on-a-chip systems, microfluidics, single cell study, cancer diagnostics. Website

Mohnen, Debra

Debra Mohnen Professor Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Complex Carbohydrate Research Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Plant Biology Biosynthesis and function of the plant cell wall polysaccharide pectin. Anti-cancer effects of pectin. Website

Moremen, Kelley

Kelley Moremen Distinguished Research Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Biochemistry, molecular, and structural biology of mammalian glycoprotein biosynthesis and catabolism. Website

Prestegard, James

James Prestegard Professor Emeritus, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to the characterization of biologically important systems. Website

Schmidt, Walter

Walter K. Schmidt Jr. Professor Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Neuroscience Molecular cell biology and biochemistry of proteases associated with isoprenylated protein maturation and amyloidogenic peptide degradation; cancer; Alzheimer’s disease. Website

Tiemeyer, Michael

Michael Tiemeyer Distinguished Research Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Neuroscience Mechanisms that regulate the expression, function, and structure of tissue-specific glycans. Website

Urbauer, Jeffrey

Jeffrey Urbauer Associate Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Chemistry Structural biology of transcription regulation, steroid hormone activation and breast cancer. Website

Weiss, Ryan

Ryan Weiss Assistant Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Investigating the regulatory mechanisms of glycosylation using genomic, chemical, and genetic approaches with particular focus on the discovery of novel drugs and targets to treat human diseases. Website

Wells, Lance

Lance Wells Professor, Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center Role of protein glycosylation in intellectual disability, congenital muscular dystrophy, cancer, and viral infection. Website

Wood, Zachary

Zachary Wood Associate Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology X-ray crystallographic and biochemical studies of nucleotide sugar metabolism. Website

Woods, Robert

Robert Woods Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Immunological carbohydrate-protein interactions studied by computational simulation and experimental methods. Website

Xi, Yaguang

Yaguang Xi Professor and Department Head, Department of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor Targeted therapy and cancer chemoprevention; preclinical animal models; cancer immunotherapy; tumor microenvironment and exosomal microRNAs; biomarker of tumor metastasis. Website

Xie, Jin

Jin Xie Associate Professor Chemistry Nanoparticle-based imaging and drug delivery; radiation therapy and photodynamic therapy Website

Zastre, Jason

Jason Zastre Associate Professor Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Toxicology Transport, micronutrient, hypoxia, cancer. Website

Zhao, Shaying

Shaying Zhao Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics Cancer genomics; human junk DNA; genomic instability. Website

Zheng, Y. George

Y. George Zheng Professor Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences Drug Development, Chemical Biology, Cancer Disease Mechanism, Epigenetics and Genetics, Histone Modifications, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Enzymology, and Biophysics. Website