Elisabeth D. Martinez PhD

Dr. Elisabeth Martinez received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University where she studied the role of nuclear receptors in transcriptional regulation and wenton to do a postdoctoral fellolwship at the National Cancer Institute at NIH. There she worked on steroid receptors, epigenetics and drug discovery. She joined the faculty at UT Southwestern’s Department of Pharmacology where she currently is a tenured Associate Professor. Her scientific program at UT Southwestern is built upon a combined approach of defining the function of epigenetic enzymes and developing chemical tools to modulate their function. This dual strategy gives her lab the great advantage of simultaneously advancing basic knowledge and generating chemical probes with therapeutic potential. Their main interest is to molecularly define and pharmacologically target the pathological epigenetic and transcriptional events that characterize cancers and other human diseases, while uncovering new biology.

For some years, their research has focused on Jumonji histone demethylase enzymes. Within the context of cancer, her group has discovered novel roles for Jumonji enzymes in transcriptional adaptation and reprogramming, in the development of chemotherapy resistance, in DNA repair pathways and in the response to radiation therapy in multiple tumor types. These findings have important implications for disease treatment, opening up new options for overcoming and preventing therapeutic resistance. The small molecule inhibitors they develop have in vivo efficacy without toxicity and have been excellent tools for gaining mechanistic insights into the Jumonji-driven molecular events driving cancer. In addition to chemical biology and drug discovery, her lab uses genetic, molecular and genomic approaches to understand the underlying biology and catalytic activity of these enzymes.