Media contact: Micah Hardge, micahxh@uab.edu
Trygve Tollefsbol, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Areas of expertise:
- Epigenetics
- Cancer Origin
- Diet and Cancer Prevention
- Gene Regulation
- Underlying Mechanisms of Cancer and Aging
- Novel Therapeutic Approaches to Cancer
Tollefsbol is an expert in cancer and aging epigenetics, the underlying mechanisms of cancer and aging and novel therapeutic approaches to cancer. His expertise involves translational research on breast and ovarian cancer as well as other cancers. He believes the single most important risk factor for developing cancer is age; therefore, both cancer and aging have been a focus of his research.
Epigenetic processes are heritable changes that do not involve mutations, but rather, modifications of DNA or its associated proteins and Tollefsbol is interested in these processes as controllers of gene expression in cancer and aging in general. They are looking at novel approaches of modifying epigenetic gene expression in cancers and aging and the translational potential of epigenetic-modulating nutritional compounds in inhibiting cancer and impacting aging. The laboratory is using or has plans to use many cutting-edge technological developments in cancer and aging genetics and translational research such as chromatin immunoprecipitation-genomic bisulfite sequencing, ChIP-seq, and MeDIP-seq.
Video interviews:
Media appearances:
- Breast cancer diet: broccoli and green tea could make deadly tumors treatable, Newsweek
- This diet may actually help treat breast cancer, study says, Reader's Digest