Bioenergetics: Open Access

Michael Phillip Lisanti
Editor-in-Chief
Professor, Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
Thomas Jefferson University, USA

Biography

Dr. Lisanti has been an active research scientist for over 18 years. He obtained his MD-PhD degrees at Cornell University Medical School. From 1992-97, he was a Fellow at the Whitehead Institute at MIT, affiliated with Dr. Harvey Lodish’s laboratory. His work at Whitehead/MIT was the first to establish the role of caveolae and caveolins in signal transduction. Later, as a Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, his laboratory was the first to develop caveolin-knock-out mice (for the Cav-1, Cav-2, and Cav-3 gene). Caveolin is a structural protein component of caveolae, invaginations of the plasma membrane found in most cell types. Caveolin acts as a scaffolding protein to concentrate, organize, and functionally regulate signaling molecules within caveolar membranes. The caveolin gene family consists of three members: caveolin-1,-2, and -3.
\r\nFinally, Dr. Lisanti is the Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. After a national search, he was recently named as the new Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Pathology (starting July 2008; ranked #1 in Pathology; http://www.asip.org/lisanti.html; Impact factor = 5.917). Dr. Lisanti has published over 335 papers and assorted book chapters and his laboratory is supported through multiple grants. Dr. Lisanti’s laboratory has approximately 27 members, predominantly senior Post Doctoral Fellows and Research Associates, and the projects are mainly related to understand the molecular basis of cancer biology.
\r\nDr. Lisanti’s laboratory is currently ranked in the Top 100 most-cited labs world-wide. See the following: Top 100 Most-Cited Researchers in Biochemistry & Biology (THOMSON ISI) Based on Impact Factors- during a 10.5 year period (1/1/96-6/30/06) Ranked # 13 World-wide.

Research Interest

At the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University, Dr. Lisanti’s laboratory is focused on the role of Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) in the pathogenesis of human breast cancer, with a strong emphasis on Cav-1 in signaling, cancer, and stem cell biology. Currently, Dr. Lisanti is a Professor of Cancer Biology and Leader of the Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics of Cancer. He is also a Member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Kimmel Cancer Center.