Godwin Okoi Ifere, PhD Print E-mail

Godwin_Okoi_IfereCancer Prevention and Control Trainee

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 205.975.3595
Fax: 205. 934.7050
Department: Nutrition Sciences
Primary Mentor: Tim R. Nagy, Ph.D.
Secondary Mentor: Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, Ph.D., RD.

Coming from Nigeria, Dr. Ifere received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria in 1982. He completed a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in the College of Medical Sciences of the University of Calabar, Nigeria in 1997, and was appointed a lecturer in Biochemistry by the University of Calabar. As a graduate student at the University Calabar, Dr. Ifere was awarded the IUBMB, Wood-Whelan Fellowship. This fellowship enabled him spend a research year in Canada in the Laboratories of Drs. Morley Donald Hollenberg and. H. Joseph Goren, at the Endocrine Research Group, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Calgary. In Canada, he investigated the complications of diabetes, leading to his Ph.D. Dissertation on, the effect of nonenzymatic glycation on lymphocyte glucose transport in high ambient glucose concentration. Later at Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, he decided to change his research focus to prostate cancer and as a result, he is acquiring the necessary training for Prostate Cancer Research as a CPCTP trainee. He received the AACR Astra Zeneca award for the Frontier in Cancer Research in 2006, and also the AACR Science of Cancer Health Disparity award in 2007.

Dissertation Title: The effect of nonenzymatic glycation on lymphocyte glucose transport in high ambient glucose concentration.

Selected Conferences attended

  • 98th AACR Annual Meeting. Los Angeles, CA (2007):
    Poster: Mechanism of sterol regulation of prostate neoplasm.
  • 1st AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities. (Atlanta, GA 2007).
    Poster: Molecular mechanism of sterol-induced signaling and disparity of prostate cancer incidence [Received the AACR Scholar-in-Training Award] 

Selected Publications:

  • Ifere, G.O., Abebe, F. and Ananaba, G.A. (2012). Emergent trends in the reported incidence of prostate cancer in Nigeria. Clin. Epidemiol.3: 1-14.
  • Ifere, G.O., Barr, E., Equan, A., Gordon, K., Nagappan, P. and Ananaba, G.A. (2010). Cholesterol and phytosterols differentially regulate the expression of caveolin1 and a downstream prostate cell growth suppressor gene. Cancer Epidemiol. 34: 461- 467.
  • Ifere, GO. and Ananaba, GA. (2009). Prostate cancer gene expression marker 1(PCGEM1): a patented prostate-specific non-coding gene and regulator of prostate cancer progression.  Recent Patents DNA Gene Seq. 3: 151-163.
  • Ifere, G.O., Barr, E., Equan, A., Gordon, K., Singh, U.P., Chaudhary, J., Igietseme, J.U. and Ananaba, G.A. (2009). Differential effects of cholesterol and phytosterols on cell proliferation, apoptosis and expression of a prostate specific gene in prostate cancer cell lines. Cancer Detect. Prev. 32: 319-328


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