Dennis B. Lubahn, Ph.D.

Research

My long-term research interests involve the understanding of the mechanism of action of the sex steroids and their receptors, in particular the estrogen receptors. My lab’s research goals use the estrogen receptor-alpha (ER?) and estrogen receptor-beta (ER?)-minus mice to look for new estrogen response pathways (i.e. novel estrogen receptors) and to find novel functional roles for the classic estrogen receptor. This is a hot research area for me because of the increased interest in environmental estrogens and our observations that some of these environmental estrogens are inducing responses in the ER? -minus mice. These estrogen-induced responses in an ER?-minus mouse are indicative of the existence of a potential new estrogen receptor, “ER-gamma”. Other major interests in my laboratory are: 1) The trinucleotide repeat genetic diseases, primarily because many trinucleotide repeats with unknown function are found in several of the steroid receptor genes; and, 2) The imprinting signals of endocrine disrupters, such as the environmental estrogens, especially those potentially acting via DNA-methylation signaling pathways.