Lance A. Liotta

Titles and Organizations

University Affiliate Faculty, Bioengineering
Professor, College of Science, Bioengineering
Co-Director, Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, Bioengineering

Personal Websites

Biography

Dr. Liotta received the MD (Board Certified) and PhD (Bioengineering) from Case Western Reserve University. He fulfilled his residency at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he initiated a research program that, to date, has yielded more than 700 publications (Highly Cited Investigator) and more than 100 issued or allowed patents. For his PhD in Biomedical Engineering, he developed the first mathematical model of the cancer metastatic process and studied the early release of circulating tumor cells and tumor cell clumps. At the NIH he went on to investigate the process of tumor invasion and metastasis at the molecular level (MMP2, and TIMP2). He was the first to describe tumor cell invasion of the basement membrane (3-step hypothesis) and the role of tumor cell pseudopodia in tumor cell invasion.

Dr. Liotta has invented and patented, along with his laboratory co-inventors, high-impact technologies in the fields of diagnostics: microdissection (Laser Capture Microdissection) and proteomics (Reverse Phase Protein Microarrays, Biomarker Harvesting Nanoparticles, Preservation chemistry tissue, and Protein Painting to discover drug targets), that have been used to make broad discoveries. The Laser Capture Microdissection prototype is in the Smithsonian Collection.

Degrees

  • PhD, Bioengineering, Case Western Reserve University