Cell & Developmental Biology
Open Access

Paul J. Higgins

Biography

Paul J. Higgins received his Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from New York University in 1976. He joined the faculty of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Cornell University School of Medicine in 1977, where he was a member of the program on cell biology/genetics and the program on molecular biology/virology. Dr. Higgins is currently a Professor and Director of the Center for Cell Biology and Cancer Research at the Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. He was the founding Vice President of the Albany Research Institute and currently serves on the Board of Directors. He has been the Chairman of National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense Review Panels, and received several prestigious awards including the Moyer Award and, most recently, the 2008 Excellence Award in Molecular Medicine. Dr. Higgins has been a member of several journal editorial boards, edited books on cancer biology, and published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Research Interest

Our research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation of the critical inflammation and fibrosis-promoting factor PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor-1; SERPINE1). PAI-1 is a major effector of human fibrotic disease where it promotes the development of, and maintains, the inflammatory and angiogenic responses. Our group was the first to establish cell cycle transcriptional controls on the human PAI-1 gene, and the promoter sequences involved, and related these findings to mapping individual growth factor-responsive promoter elements. We also made major advances in defining the signaling cascade that impact PAI-1 transcription in human epithelial cells and discovered a new pathway of cross-talk between two classes of growth factor receptors (EGFR and TGF-ïÂ