Noa Noy Joins Department of Pharmacology
Dr. Noy is a well-known expert in the field of nuclear receptors. She will join the Case faculty as Professor of Pharmacology in late 2006. Dr. Noy received her undergraduate and graduate training from Tel Aviv University in Israel. She continued her training as a post-doctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel as well as at the University of California, San Francisco and Cornell University Medical College in New York. She joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1986 as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and currently is Professor of Molecular Nutrition in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University.
Dr. Noy is author of numerous publications within the field of nuclear receptors and is the recipient of many awards and honors. She maintains a distinguished funding record having received awards from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the USDA, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Charlotte Geyer Foundation. Dr. Noy is also very active in graduate and postdoctoral education.
Research Interests
Various lipid-soluble nutrients and hormones, such as vitamin A, vitamin D, cholesterol, and long chain fatty acids, regulate cellular behavior by modulating the rates of transcription of multiple genes. The effects of these compounds on gene expression are mediated by proteins termed nuclear hormone receptors. These proteins bind to regulatory regions of particular target genes, and they modulate the transcription of these genes in response to the specific hormones that activate them. Consequently, nuclear receptors and their activating hormones have profound effects on cell growth, metabolism, and differentiation, and they are involved in numerous physiological processes. Nuclear receptors also play key roles in various pathological states, and ligands that activate them are in current use as therapeutic and preventive agents in diseases ranging from dermatological disorders to cancer. Work in Dr. Noy's laboratory aims to obtain molecular-level understanding of the mechanisms of action of nuclear hormone receptors and their accessory proteins, and to elucidate the consequences of the activities of these proteins for cell function in health and disease. Of special interest to Dr. Noy's laboratory are the roles of nuclear receptors in cancer development, in adipose tissue biology, and in diabetes.
Read more about Dr. Noy's research interests.