Journal of Cell Signaling
Open Access

J Regino Perez-Polo

Biography

Dr. Perez-Polo is a native of Havana, Cuba, who came to the United States in 1960. He earned a B.S. and Masters from Cornell University in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Eric Shooter in Neurochemistry and further training in Molecular Biology with Dr. Paul Berg, both at Stanford. In 1973, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin as a tenure-track Assistant Professor before coming to UTMB. In 1977 as a faculty member in the Department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics that became the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, where he rose through the ranks to Full Professor with tenure in 1984. Dr. Perez-Polo served as Vice-Chair of the Department in 1988 and was appointed Chair and interim and Director of the Sealy Center for Molecular Science in 2003. In 2005, he was appointed I. H. Kempner Professor and Chair of the HBCG Department. Dr. Perez-Polo has published over 275 peer-reviewed articles and holds several patents.

Research Interest

Mechanisms of neuronal cell death
Role of intracellular trafficking in stress response mechanisms
Study of Bcl-protein family of genes, COX-2, iNOS, and the IL-1 cytokine
Role of the NF-kB transcription factor
Confocal immunocytochemistry to assess organelle function