Scientist > Dr Clarissa Gerhäuser

Dr Clarissa Gerhäuser

// studied Pharmacy at the University of Würzburg and obtained a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) in Pharmaceutical Biology at the University of Munich in 1993

// She has worked as a postdoc and research assistant professor in the area of cancer chemoprevention with Prof. J.M. Pezzuto at The University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA from 1993 to 1996, funded through a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship awarded by the Alexander-von-Humboldt-Foundation

// In 1996, she joined the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and currently heads the group Cancer Chemoprevention and Epigenomics

// Her major research interest is the investigation of molecular mechanisms associated with breast and prostate cancer, with a strong focus on epigenetic mechanisms

// In 2003, she was awarded with the European Association of Cancer Research (EACR) Young Cancer Researcher Award Highly Commended and the Phoenix Pharmacy Scientific Research Price for ‘Pharmaceutical Biology’

// has authored more than 90 research articles, reviews and book chapters and holds four patents

// Also, she has co-edited a comprehensive reference book on ‘Chemoprevention of Cancer and DNA damage by dietary factors’ (Wiley Press, 2009)

Contact: laborundmore@succidia.de

Cancer prevention and nutrition

What role does epigenetics play? - von Dr Clarissa Gerhäuser

Detoxification, anti-inflammatory agents, radical scavengers, antioxi- dants, anti-hormonal effects, cell growth inhibition, programmed cell death – all are terms that have been connected with the prevention of cancer by drugs or nutritional factors over the last thirty years. For the last ten years or so, the focus has been turning to a new field: epigenetics.