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.
