Larisa Nonn, PhD, is the University of Illinois Cancer Center Associate Director for Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination, Professor of Pathology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago and co-leader of the Cancer Center Prostate Cancer Working Group. She has been at UIC for almost 20 years, and her lab studies prostate cancer biology, prognosis and disparities. Her research incorporates state-of-the-art technologies, patient-derived models and clinical samples. African American men have twice the risk of dying from prostate cancer, and they also are diagnosed at a younger age than white men. Increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer is associated with vitamin D deficiency, and African American men tend to be deficient in vitamin D because melanin absorbs UV radiation, which reduces vitamin D synthesis on the skin from the sun. Mounting evidence from Nonn’s lab demonstrates that vitamin D deficiency alters the levels of androgens in the prostate, which may contribute to the prostate cancer disparity observed in African American men. Androgens are a known driver of aggressive prostate cancer, and findings from the Nonn lab support that vitamin D deficiency leads to elevated androgens in the prostate tissue of African American men. They also have identified megalin as an endocytic receptor expressed in the prostate and regulated by vitamin D as importing circulating testosterone.
Larisa Nonn, PhD
Professor
Pathology
Medicine
Research Program
Cancer Biology (CB)
Phone: 312-996-0194
Email: [email protected]
