Elizabeth A. Leibold

Elizabeth A. Leibold, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Primary - Internal Medicine

Divisions: Hematology & Hematologic Malignancies

Elizabeth A. Leibold, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Division of Hematology and Hematologic Malignancies, Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She holds an adjunct appointment as a Professor of Oncological Sciences at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and is a member of the Nuclear Control of Cell Growth and Differentiation program. Dr. Leibold is an active and productive member of the scientific community, serving as a reviewer for multiple scholarly journals including Blood, Science, Cell, Genetics, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta-BBA, and the EMBO Journal.

Iron is essential for growth and survival of eukaryotes. Control of cellular iron content is crucial: excess iron catalyzes the generation of toxic reactive oxygen species that damage cellular macromolecules while cellular iron deficiency causes cell cycle arrest and cell death. Iron is required for the growth and metastasis of cancer cells, and as a consequence, cancer cells alter iron metabolism to satisfy their increased need for iron. Understanding the molecular changes in iron metabolism that differentiate normal and cancer cells can be used to develop strategies to limit iron availability.

Dr. Leibold received her Bachelor of Science in Biology at State University of New York at Potsdam, and her Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Applied Biological Sciences. She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Applied Biological Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has supervised or mentored nearly 30 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students, and has served on over 40 graduate student committees. In addition, Dr. Leibold has published over 40 journal articles, review articles and book chapters since 1983, and has been an invited/Visiting Professor at over 40 national and international conferences and universities.

Education History

Undergraduate Hunter College
Undergraduate State University of New York at Potsdam
 BS
Doctoral Training Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 PhD
Postdoctoral Fellowship Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Postdoctoral Fellow

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Anderson CP, Shen M, Eisenstein RS, Leibold E (2012). Mammalian iron metabolism and its control by iron regulatory proteins. Biochimica et biophysica acta, 1823(9), 1468-83.
  2. Zumbrennen KB, Wallander ML, Romney SJ, Leibold E (2009). Cysteine oxidation regulates the RNA-binding activity of iron regulatory protein 2. Molecular and cellular biology, 29(8), 2219-29.
  3. Vashisht AA, Zumbrennen KB, Huang X, Powers DN, Durazo A, Sun D, Bhaskaran N, Persson A, Uhlen M, Sangfelt O, Spruck C, Leibold EA, Wohlschlegel J (2009). Control of iron homeostasis by an iron-regulated ubiquitin ligase. Science (New York, N.Y.), 326(5953), 718-21.
  4. Wang H, Shi H, Rajan M, Canarie ER, Hong S, Simoneschi D, Pagano M, Bush MF, Stoll S, Leibold EA, Zheng (2020). FBXL5 Regulates IRP2 Stability in Iron Homeostasis via an Oxygen-Responsive [2Fe2S] Cluster. Molecular cell, 78(1), 31-41.e5.
  5. Romney SJ, Newman BS, Thacker C, Leibold E (2011). HIF-1 regulates iron homeostasis in Caenorhabditis elegans by activation and inhibition of genes involved in iron uptake and storage. PLoS genetics, 7(12), e1002394.
  6. Zumbrennen-Bullough KB, Becker L, Garrett L, Hölter SM, Calzada-Wack J, Mossbrugger I, Quintanilla-Fend L, Racz I, Rathkolb B, Klopstock T, Wurst W, Zimmer A, Wolf E, Fuchs H, Gailus-Durner V, de Angelis MH, Romney SJ, Leibold E (2014). Abnormal brain iron metabolism in Irp2 deficient mice is associated with mild neurological and behavioral impairments. PloS one, 9(6), e98072.
  7. Santos MCFD, Anderson CP, Neschen S, Zumbrennen-Bullough KB, Romney SJ, Kahle-Stephan M, Rathkolb B, Gailus-Durner V, Fuchs H, Wolf E, Rozman J, de Angelis MH, Cai WM, Rajan M, Hu J, Dedon PC, Leibold E (2020). Irp2 regulates insulin production through iron-mediated Cdkal1-catalyzed tRNA modification. Nature communications, 11(1), 296.
  8. Anderson CP, Leibold E (2014). Mechanisms of iron metabolism in Caenorhabditis elegans. Frontiers in pharmacology, 5, 113.
  9. Rajan M, Anderson CP, Rindler PM, Romney SJ, Ferreira Dos Santos MC, Gertz J, Leibold E (2019). NHR-14 loss of function couples intestinal iron uptake with innate immunity in C. elegans through PQM-1 signaling. eLife, 8,
  10. Ilardo M, Dos Santos MCF, Grote Beverborg N, Rajan M, Said MA, Verweij N, Van Der Harst P, Van Der Meer P, Leibold E (2022). An Erythropoietin-Independent Mechanism of Erythrocytic Precursor Proliferation Underlies Hypoxia Tolerance in Sea Nomads. Frontiers in physiology, 12, 760851.
  11. Yan Z, Han Z, Wang Y, Beus M, Zhang Y, Picado A, Wells CI, Wu J, Weidenhammer LB, Pires KM, Leibold EA, Liu L, Gooden DM, Spasojevic I, Soderblom EJ, Kang Y, Boise LH, Willson TM, Nikiforov M (2026). Targeting STK17B kinase activates ferroptosis and suppresses drug resistance in multiple myeloma. Blood, 147(1), 48-60.
  12. Green YS, Ferreira Dos Santos MC, Fuja DG, Reichert EC, Campos AR, Cowman SJ, Acuña Pilarte K, Kohan J, Tripp SR, Leibold EA, Sirohi D, Agarwal N, Liu X, Koh M (2022). ISCA2 inhibition decreases HIF and induces ferroptosis in clear cell renal carcinoma. Oncogene, 41(42), 4709-4723.