Adrian Lee Laboratory

LAB MEMBERS

Robert Dearth, Ph.D. (rdearth@breastcenter.tmc.edu)

Postdoctoral Fellow (M.S., Ph.D., Texas A&M University)
Dr. Robert K. Dearth obtained a degree in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. He continued his education at A&M, obtaining both a M.S. and PhD in veterinary medicine, focusing on the neuroendocrine regulation of female puberty. During his graduate studies, he showed that leptin is capable of acting centrally to stimulate LH release during late juvenile development. Additionally, his doctoral studies lead to a better understanding of the detrimental effects low level Pb exposure has on neuroendocrine regulation in the young developing female. Dr. Dearth also contributed to numerous other studies characterizing the role of IGF-1 as an initiator of female puberty. It was his interest in endocrine regulation of breast cancer that brought him to the Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine where he is working as a postdoctoral fellow for Dr. Adrian Lee. He is currently investigating the role the GH/IGF-I neuroendocrine axis plays in breast cancer progression and prevention.

Bonita Tak-yee Chan, Ph. D. (tbchan@bcm.tmc.edu)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Bonita Chan graduated from University of Toronto with B. Sc. in nutritional sciences and attained her PhD in biochemistry from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Recently, she joined Dr. Adrian Lee's lab and her projects include IRS signaling in acini formation, application of nanotubes on targeting breast cancer cells and effect of growth hormone receptor antagonist on breast cancer xenograft growth.

Petra Den Hollander, Ph.D. (pholland@bcm.tmc.edu)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Petra studied for her Bachelor and Master degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For this degree she spent an eight months rotation at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she studied the importance of the 11q13 amplification in head and neck cancers. In August of 2002 Petra entered the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where she studied the role of Dynein Light Chain 1 in hormone action in breast cancer. Because of Petra’s interest to pursue a more targeted and translational direction in her scientific career, she joined Dr. Adrian Lee’s lab in June 2007 as a postdoctoral associate. Currently she is defining genomic breakpoints affecting breast cancer progression and the importance for the prognosis of breast cancer patients, in collaboration with the Human Genome Sequencing Center at BCM.

Beate Litzenburger (litzenbu@bcm.tmc.edu)
Graduate Student

Beate Litzenburger graduated from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany in 2006 with her Master of Science. She joined Dr. Lee’s lab during her Master Thesis where she showed that a small molecule inhibitor reverses IGF-IR-mediated transformation of immortalized mammary epithelial cells. She currently continues her education as a PhD graduate student at Baylor College of Medicine in cooperation with the Technical University of Aachen in Germany. During her doctoral studies she is going to investigate the interaction between the IGF-IR pathway and the HER signaling network in breast cancer progression.

Angelo Casa (casa@bcm.edu)

Graduate Student

Angelo graduated from Stony Brook University in 2005 with his B.S. in biochemistry and is currently a graduate student in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at BCM. Angelo's projects include understanding mechanisms of cross-talk between insulin-like growth factor signaling and estrogen receptor signaling in breast cancer and studying the mechanism of Fulvestrant-mediated degradation of ER-alpha.

Adam Potter (potter@bcm.edu)

Graduate Student

Adam Potter graduated from Western Michigan University in 2002 with his B.A. and completed a post-baccalaureate program in Biochemistry at Wayne State University in 2005. He is currently a graduate student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology department at BCM and a recipient of the Bertz-Harlan Endowed Scholarship. He was recently awarded an NIH T32 Endocrinology training grant. He will be working on the role of IRS-1 PH/PTB domains in MCF 10A lumen formation and its role in the development of breast cancer.

Yu-Fen Wang (yufenw@bcm.edu)

Graduate Student

Yu-Fen graduated from National Taiwan Normal University in 2004 with her BS in Life Science. She is a graduate student in Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine program at Baylor. Her projects are to define the biological roles of IR/IGF-IR hybrid receptor in breast cancer and identify the biomarkers of IGF system in breast cancer.

Isere Kuiatse , Ph.D.
Research Assistant
Email: ikuiatse@breastcenter.tmc.edu
Phone: (713) 798-1615

Ora Britton (orab@breastcenter.tmc.edu)
Lab Animal Research Technician
Ora has extensive experience working with various animals, including mice, rats, and primates. She joined the Lee lab in 2003 and is responsible for maintaining all of the mouse lines. In addition to her skills in husbandry, Ora performs numerous surgeries and participates in studies on both mammary gland development and tumor progression.