Awards

National Academies - 1985

American Association for the Advancement of Science

About Nira Ben-Jonathan

Nira Ben-Jonathan received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tel Aviv University in 1967, a master’s degree in physiology and a doctoral degree in physiology from the University of Illinois in 1969 and 1972, respectively. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas and a faculty member in the department of physiology at the Indiana University Medical School from 1975-1983. She joined the University of Cincinnati as a professor of cancer and cell biology in 1992. The Ben-Jonathan Laboratory examines both genomic and non-genomic effects of estrogens and xenoestrogens on gene expression and cell proliferation in pituitary and breast cancer cells. It investigates the role of prolactin, produced in human breast tissue, in the promotion of breast cancer via its actions as a mitogen and an anti-apoptotic agent. They use animal models, cell lines and human tissues to determine the regulation of prolactin gene expression in adipose tissue and analyze its metabolic/endocrine functions as pertains to the control of lipolysis and adipokine production and release.