Guillermina 'Gigi' Lozano is an American geneticist. She is a Professor and Hubert L. Olive Stringer Distinguished Chair in Oncology in Honor of Sue Gribble Stringer at the

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center and autonomous university of the University of Texas System in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the w ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Lozano is recognised for her studies of the

p53 p53, also known as tumor protein p53, cellular tumor antigen p53 (UniProt name), or transformation-related protein 53 (TRP53) is a regulatory transcription factor protein that is often mutated in human cancers. The p53 proteins (originally thou ...

tumour suppressor pathway, characterising the protein as a regulator of gene expression (

transcription factor In molecular biology, a transcription factor (TF) (or sequence-specific DNA-binding factor) is a protein that controls the rate of transcription (genetics), transcription of genetics, genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA, by binding t ...

) and that is disturbed in many cancers. She was the first to recognize that the p53 gene encoded a transcriptional activator of other genes Her lab has made significant contributions by developing and analyzing mouse models to study the activities of mutant p53, revealing how these mutations drive tumor development and progression. She also found out how the Mdm2 and Mdm4 proteins work in the body, especially in stopping cancer and controlling p53. This research suggested that blocking Mdm2/4 could be a new way to treat cancer.

Early life and education

Lozano was born in

East Chicago, Indiana East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 26,370 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Centered around heavy industry, the city is home to the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, an artificial freshwa ...

, the daughter of Mexican immigrants. She attended a private Catholic high school, Bishop Noll, up until her senior year, when her family moved to McAllen, Texas. Lozano completed a Bachelor of Science in biology and mathematics, graduating

Magna Cum Laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

, at Pan American University (now

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public research university with its main campus in Edinburg, Texas, and multiple other campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. It is the southernmost member of the Uni ...

) in 1979. She earned a doctor of philosophy in biochemistry from

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

and

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was a state-run health sciences institution with six locations in New Jersey. It was founded as the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry in 1954, and by the 1980s was both a ...

in 1986. Lozano's dissertation was titled ''Isolation, characterization and analysis of the gene encoding the Alpha 2 type IX collagen polypeptide''. She completed postgraduate training in molecular biology at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

from 1985 to 1987.

Career and research

Lozano is Professor and Chair of the Department of Genetics at

. She is also a professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Lozano is recognised for her studies of the p53 tumour suppressor pathway, from characterising p53 as a transcriptional activator to revealing the importance of two inhibitors of p53, Mdm2 and

Mdm4 Protein Mdm4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MDM4'' gene. Function The human MDM4 gene, which plays a role in apoptosis, encodes a 490-amino acid protein containing a RING finger domain and a putative nuclear localization sign ...

. Her lab has generated dozens of mouse models of ''p53'' to explore effects of mutations in this tumor-suppressing protein on tumorogeneis.

Awards and honours

Lozano is a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

, Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas. Awards: * 2022 - Margaret Pittman Lecture Award, National Institutes of Health (NIH) * 2022 - The Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) * 2021 - Elected to Fellows of the

American Association for Cancer Research The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional association related to cancer research. Based in Philadelphia, the AACR focuses on all aspects of cancer research, including Basic research, basic, ...

(AACR) * 2020 - Elected as a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* 2018 - E.E Just Lecture Award, The American Society for Cell Biology. * 2017 - Elected as a member of the

* 2014 - Elected as a member of the

* 2013 - AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship. The award is presented by the

to an outstanding scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of cancer and who has, through leader or by example, furthered the advancement of women in science. * 2011 - AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cook Wright Memorial Lectureship, an award that recognises an outstanding scientist who has, through leadership or by example, furthered the advancement of minority investigators in cancer research."AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Memorial Lectureship Recipients"
, ''American Association for Cancer Research''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lozano, Guillermina Living people 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists American geneticists American women geneticists University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center faculty University of Texas–Pan American alumni Rutgers University alumni University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American biologists Hispanic and Latino American scientists Hispanic and Latino American women scientists