Gerd Pfeifer's Biography

Gerd Pfeifer, Professor, City of Hope Medical Center

Dr. Gerd Pfeifer is the Lester M. and Irene C. Finkelstein Chair in Biology at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, California. Dr. Pfeifer has been active in the areas of epigenetics and genetic toxicology and has authored over 280 publications. Among his scientific achievements are the demonstration of a molecular mechanism of how tobacco smoking causes lung cancer and the discovery of the RASSF1 tumor suppressor gene. His lab has developed the MIRA assay, a technique for genome-scale DNA methylation profiling. Currently, the characterization of the novel modified DNA base 5-hydroxymethylcytosine is a major priority in the lab.