Ronald L. Chandler, Ph.D. Assistant Professor – Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Ronald Chandler to the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. Ron will be located in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine research space within Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He will join our team effective August 16, 2015.
Dr. Chandler received his B.S. in Biology at Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
He was awarded a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society to pursue basic research at University of North Carolina. His research focuses on the role of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes in transcriptional processes using subunit-specific genetic loss-of-function and biochemical approaches. He was also awarded an Ann Schreiber Mentored Investigator Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund to support his new research endeavors in the area of chromatin structure, epigenetics and gynecologic cancer.
Dr. Chandler’s current research focus is ARID1A, and a newly discovered finding linking ARID1A and PI3K signaling pathway mutations to ovarian tumorigenesis and pro-tumorigenic cytokine signaling. He is looking forward to further pursuing these compelling and innovative avenues of research to fully comprehend the human cancer phenotype, and determine how mutations in key chromatin modifiers, like ARID1A, promote tumor formation−as the growing list of gynecologic tumor mutations in chromatin remodeling enzymes. Ron will collaborate with Dr. Peter Jones and members of the Van Andel Research Institute Cancer Epigenetics Program.