Steven R. Tannenbaum, PhD
Departments of Biological Engineering and Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Presentation Title
Cancer and Inflammation:  The Dark Side of Nitric Oxide (Summary of Presentation)

Dr Tannenbaum is an Underwood-Prescott Professor of Toxicology in the Department of Biological Engineering and a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at MIT.  He received his BS degree in 1958 and his PhD in 1962, both from MIT and he has been a member of the faculty since 1964. He is a co-founder of the Department of Biological Engineering, the first new academic Department in the MIT School of Engineering in over a generation, and was Co-Director from 1998 to July 2003. Prior to that, he was Director of the Division of Toxicology (1996 -1998). He was Director of Research of the Cambridge University-MIT Institute, an effort sponsored by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, UK, to develop entrepreneurism in British Universities from July 2003 to July 2004.  Dr Tannenbaum has won many honors and awards, notably election to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, USA; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and most recently a Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund Lecturer.

The Tannenbaum laboratory has done pioneering research in several areas, including the discovery of the endogenous formation of nitrogen oxides in humans and other mammals, the development of important biomarkers of human exposure to chemical carcinogens, and the advancement of chemical and spectroscopic methods of detection of chemical adducts to DNA and proteins.  His current areas of research are in mechanisms of biochemical activation of chemicals to electrophilic forms that bind to DNA and proteins; application of biomarkers to the molecular epidemiology of disease, the role of endogenous nitric oxide in cytotoxicity and DNA damage, and development of new tools for drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology.  Professor Tannenbaum is the author or coauthor of approximately 400 scientific papers, 11 patents, has edited seven books, has helped organize international conferences, and has been on the editorial board of three cancer research and one chemical toxicology journal.  At M.I.T., Professor Tannenbaum teaches graduate courses in systems pharmacology and toxicology and drug and carcinogen metabolism. He is also a Co-Director of the Center for Biomedical Innovation.