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Eileen White, Ph.D.

Associate Director for Basic Science, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University

195 Little Albany Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2681
V: 732-235-5329
F: 732-235-5795
whiteei@umdnj.edu
eileenpwhite@gmail.com

Assistant: Tami Sharkey
sharketk@umdnj.edu

Links

Education

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (B.S., Biology, 1977)
  • State University of NY, Stony Brook (Ph.D., Biology, 1983)
  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Biology, Dr. Bruce Stillman)

Present Positions

  • Associate Director for Basic Science, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (2005-present)
  • Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University (1990-present)
  • Program Leader, Cancer Institute of New Jersey (1995-present)
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ (1998-present)

Advisory Boards

  • Damon Runyon Scientific Advisory Board (1994, 2008-Present)
  • Virology Study Section (1994-1998)
  • Scientific Advisory Board, Onyx Pharmaceuticals (1995-1998)
  • Internal Advisory Board, Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Institute, Cancer Institute of New Jersey (1999-Present)
  • Scientific Advisory Board, GeminX Biotechnologies (2002-2003)
  • Board of Scientific Counselors, National Cancer Institute (2000-2005)
  • Scientific Review Board, Starr Cancer Consortium (2007-Present)
  • Board of Directors, American Association for Cancer Research (2007-2010)
  • CTEP DNA Damage and Programmed Cell Death Task Force (2008-present)
  • External Advisory Board, Case Western Reserve Comprehensive Cancer Center (2009-present)
  • Editorial Review Panel, NIH Challenge Grants (2009)
  • Scientific Review Board, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (2009-Present)

Meeting Organization

  • Co-organizer, Cold Spring Harbor meeting: Programmed Cell Death (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001)
  • Co-organizer, AACR Conference, Cell Death in Oncogenesis (2005)
  • Co-chair, Education Committee, AACR 2007 Annual Meeting
  • Chairperson, Stan Korsmeyer, Apoptotic and Non-Apoptotic Cell Death in Cancer Symposium
  • Program Chair, AACR 2008 Annual Meeting
  • Co-organizer, Keystone Meeting, Cell Death Pathways: Apoptosis, Autophagy, and Necrosis (2010)
  • Co-organizer, Keystone Meeting: Metabolism and Cancer Progression (2010)
  • Co-chairperson and Co-organizer, AACR Special Conference: Cell Death Mechanisms and Cancer Therapy (2010)

Editorial Boards

  • Oncogene (Receiving Editor, 2009-2011)
  • Journal of Cell Biology (2008-Present)
  • Genes & Development (2007-Present)
  • Molecular Cancer Research (1996-Present)
  • Autophagy (Associate Editor, 2007-Present)
  • Cancer Prevention Research (Senior Editor, 2007-Present)
  • Cell Death and Disease (2009-Present)

Honors

  • Red Smith Award from the Damon Runyon Foundation (1983)
  • Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellowship (1983-1986)
  • Board of Trustees' Research Fellowship (1994)
  • Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1998-2005)
  • MERIT Award (R37), National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute
  • Selection Committee, Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research (2006)
  • Mentoring Award, New Jersey Association for Biomedical Research (2006)
  • Chair, Stanley J. Korsmeyer Symposium, AACR Centennial Meeting (2007)
  • Chairperson, AACR Lifetime Achievement Award Selection Committee (2010)
  • Achievement Award, International Cell Death Society (2010)

Distinguished Lectures

  • NIH Director’s Lecture (1998)
  • Lois Miller Memorial Symposium Speaker (2000)
  • Jim Watson 35 years/75th Birthday Celebration Speaker (2003)
  • Distinguished Lecture, Cancer Institute of New Jersey Comprehensive Cancer Center (2005)
  • Dana Farber/ICDS/AACR, Stanley J. Korsmeyer Memorial Symposium Speaker (2007)
  • Distinguished Lecture, University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (2007)
  • Distinguished Lecture, Beatson Institute for Cancer Research (2007)
  • Keynote Speaker, Cold Spring Harbor Cell Death Meeting (2007)
  • Distinguished Lecture, UMDNJ, NJMS-UH Cancer Center (2007)
  • Distinguished Lecture, Babraham Institute (2007)
  • Olof Pearson Lecture, Case Western Reserve Comprehensive Cancer Center (2008)
  • Honorary Lecture, European Cell Death Organization, Pasteur Institute (2009)
  • Achievement Award Lecture, International Cell Death Society (2010)

Scientific Research Summary

Dr. Eileen White received her Bachelor of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute followed by a Ph.D. in Biology from SUNY Stony Brook. She went on as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Bruce Stillman and then to a Staff Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. There she discovered that one of the oncogenes of the DNA tumor virus adenovirus encoded an inhibitor of programmed cell death or apoptosis that was a viral homologue of Bcl-2. She went on to establish that oncogene activation that deregulates cell growth also activates apoptosis, and that inhibition of apoptosis is an important cancer-promoting function. These findings revealed roles for the p53 tumor suppressor in activating apoptosis and suppressing cancer and the Bcl-2-related anti-apoptotic proteins in blocking apoptosis and promoting cancer.

Dr. White continued her work defining the role and mechanisms of apoptosis regulation in cancer at Rutgers University where she is currently the Associate Director for Basic Science and Program Leader of the Cell Death and Survival Signaling Program at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and is Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Rutgers University, and Adjunct Professor of Surgery at RWJMS-UMDNJ.

Recent Select Publications

  1. Bray, K., Chen, H.-Y., Karp, C. M., May, M., Ganesan, S., Karantza-Wadsworth, V., DiPaola, R. S., and White, E. (2009). Bcl-2 modulation to activate apoptosis in prostate cancer. Mol. Cancer Res. 9:1497-1496. PMID: 19737977.
  2. White, E., and DiPaola, R. S. (2009). The double-edged sword of autophagy modulation in cancer. Clinical Cancer Res. 15:5308-5316. PMID: 19706824.
  3. Mathew, R., Karp, M. C., Beaudoin, B., Vuong, N., Chen, G., Chen, H.-Y., Bray, K., Reddy, A., Bhanot, G., Gelinas, C., DiPaola, R. S., Karantza-Wadsworth, V., and White, E. (2009). Autophagy suppresses tumorigenesis through elimination of p62. Cell 137:1062-1075. PMID: 19524509
    Featured by: Moscat, J. and Diaz-Meco, M. T. (2009). p62 at the crossroads of autophagy, apoptosis, and cancer. Cell 137:1001-1004. PMID: 19524504.
  4. White, E. and Lowe, S. W. (2009). Eating to exit: autophagy enabled senescence revealed. Genes & Dev. 23:784-787. PMID: 19339684.
  5. Mathew, R., Karantza-Wadsworth, V., and White. E. (2009). Assessing metabolic stress and autophagy status in epithelial tumors. Methods Enzymol. 453:53-81. PMID: 19216902.
  6. White, E. (2008). Role of metabolic stress responses of apoptosis and autophagy in tumor suppression. Oncogenes Meet Metabolism. Ernst Schering Foundation, C. Klein, D. Mumberg, and T. Steger-Hartmann, eds., Springer pp. 23-34. PMID: 18811051.
  7. Mathew, R., Degenhardt, K., Haramati, L., Karp, C. M., and White, E. (2008). Immortalized mouse epithelial cell models to study the role of apoptosis in cancer. Methods Enzymol. 446:77-106. PMID: 18603117.
  8. Karantza-Wadsworth and White (2008). A mouse mammary epithelial cell model to identify molecular mechanisms regulating breast cancer progression. Methods Enzymol. 446:61-76. PMID: 18603116.
  9. Karp, C. M., Tan, T.-T., Mathew, R., Nelson, D., Mukherjee, C., Degenhardt, K., Karantza-Wadsworth, V., and White, E. (2008). Role of the polarity determinant crumbs in suppressing mammalian epithelial tumor progression. Cancer Res. 68:4105-4115. PMID: 18519669.
  10. Jin, S. and White, E. (2008). Tumor suppression by autophagy through the management of metabolic stress. Autophagy 4:563-566. PMID: 18326941.
  11. Karantza-Wadsworth, V., and White, E. (2008). Programmed Cell Death. Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology. V. T. DeVita, T. S. Lawrence, and S. A. Rosenberg, eds. Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins, Chapter 7, 1:93-101.
  12. White, E. (2008). Autophagic cell death unraveled: Pharmacologic inhibition of apoptosis and autophagy enables necrosis. Autophagy 4:399-401. PMID: 18367872.
  13. Prives, C. and White E. (2008). Does control of mutant p53 by Mdm2 complicate cancer therapy? Genes & Dev. 22:1259-1264. PMID: 18483214.
  14. Simmons, M. J., Fan, G., Zong, W.-X., Degenhardt, K., White, E., and Gelinas, C. (2008). Bfl-1 /A1 functions, similar to Mcl-1, as a selective tBid and Bak antagonist. Oncogene 27:1421-1428. PMID: 17724464.
  15. Karantza-Wadsworth, V. and White, E. (2007). Role of autophagy in breast cancer. Autophagy 3:610-613. PMID: 17786023.
  16. Mathew, R. and White, E. (2007). Why sick cells produce tumors: The protective role of autophagy. Autophagy 3:502-505. PMID: 17611387.
  17. Ewings, K. E., Hadfield-Moorhouse, K., Wiggins, C. M., Wickenden, J. A., Balmanno, K., Gilley, R., Degenhardt, K., White, E., and Cook, S. J. (2007). ERK1/2-dependent phosphorylation of Bim EL promotes its rapid dissociation from MCL-I and BCL-XL. EMBO J. 26:2856-2867. PMID: 17525735.
  18. Mathew, R., Karantza-Wadsworth, V., and White, E. (2007). Role of autophagy in cancer. Nature Rev. Cancer 7:961-967. PMID: 17972889.
  19. White, E. (2007). Entosis: It’s a cell-eat-cell world. Cell. 131:840-842. PMID: 18045529.
  20. Karantza-Wadsworth, V., Patel, S., Kravchuk, O., Chen, G., Mathew, R., Jin, S., and White, E. (2007). Autophagy mitigates metabolic stress and genome damage in mammary tumorigenesis. Genes & Dev. 21:1621-1635. PMID: 17606641.
  21. Mathew, R., Kongara, S., Beaudoin, B., Karp, C. M., Bray, K., Degenhardt, K., Chen, G., Jin, S., and White, E. (2007). Autophagy suppresses tumor progression by limiting chromosomal instability. Genes & Dev. 21:1367-1381. PMID: 17510285 Featured by: McCarthy, N. (2007). Surviving the tumor suppressor. Nature Rev. Cancer 7:490-491.
  22. Shimazu, T., Degenhardt, K., Nur-E-Kamal, A., Zhang, J., Yoshida, T., Zhang, Y., Mathew, R., White, E., and Inouye, M. (2007). NBK/BIK antagonizes MCL-1 and BCL-XL, and activates BAK-mediated apoptosis in response to protein synthesis inhibition. Genes & Dev. 21:929-941. PMID: 17403773.
  23. Jin, S., DiPaola, R. S., Mathew, R., and White, E. (2007). Metabolic catastrophe as a means to cancer cell death. J. Cell Sci. 120:379-383. PMID: 17251378.
  24. Jin, S. and White, E. (2007). Role of autophagy in cancer: Management of metabolic stress. Autophagy 3: 28-31. PMID: 16969128.
  25. Degenhardt, K. and White, E. (2006). A mouse model system to genetically dissect the molecular mechanisms regulating tumorigenesis. Clin. Cancer Res. 12:5298-5304. PMID: 17000662.
  26. Mathew, R. and White, E. (2006). FLIPping the balance between apoptosis and proliferation in thyroid cancer. Clin. Cancer Res. 12:3648-3651. PMID: 16778091.
  27. White, E. (2006). Mechanisms of apoptosis regulation by viral oncogenes in infection and tumorigenesis. Cell Death Diff. 13:1371-1377. PMID: 16676007.
  28. Degenhardt, K., Mathew, R., Beaudoin, B., Bray, K., Anderson, D., Chen, G. Chen, H.-Y., Mukherjee, Gelinas, C., Fan, Y., Nelson, D. A., Jin, S., and White E. (2006). Autophagy promotes tumor cell survival and restricts necrosis, inflammation, and tumorigenesis. Cancer Cell 10:51-64. PMID: 16843265.
  29. Sundararajan, R., Chen, G., Mukherjee, C., and White, E. (2005). Caspase-dependent processing activates the pro-apoptotic activity of deleted in breast cancer-1 during tumor necrosis factor-alpha-mediated death signaling. Oncogene 24:4908-4920. PMID: 15824730.
  30. Gelinas, C. and White, E. (2005). BH3-only proteins in control: Specificity regulates MCL-1 and BAK-mediated apoptosis. Genes & Dev. 19:1263-1268. PMID: 15937216.
  31. Tan, T.-T., Degenhardt, K., Nelson, D. A., Beaudoin, B., Nieves-Neira, W., Bouillet, P., Villunger, A., Adams, J. M., and White E. (2005). Key roles of BIM-driven apoptosis in epithelial tumors and rational chemotherapy. Cancer Cell 7:227-238. PMID: 15766661.
  32. Nelson, D. A., Tan T.-T., Rabson, A. B., Anderson, D., Degenhardt, K., and White, E. (2004). Hypoxia and defective apoptosis drive genomic instability and tumorigenesis. Genes & Dev. 18:2095-2107. PMID: 15314031.
  33. Nelson, D. A. and White, E. (2004). Exploiting different ways to die. Genes & Dev. 18:1223-1226. PMID: 15175258

Current Research Funding

  • NIH R37CA53370 MERIT Award
  • NIH R01CA130893
  • NIH RC1CA147961 Challenge Grant
  • NIH R01CA130893-S1
  • NJCCR 09-1083-CCR-EO Research Development Award
  • DOD W81XWH-09-01-0394
  • Wyeth Pharmaceuticals