Areas of Major Interest

    The alcohol consumption-body fat-breast cancer interaction, as well as wound healing and breast cancer, continue to be major areas of interest to Dr. Nuñez. His laboratory's objective is to use these two interests as tools to better understand how we can treat and prevent breast cancer.

Education and Previous Positions

    Dr. Nuñez earned a BA in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Master Degree in Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University, with a focus in health policy and management. As part of his MPH, Dr. Nuñez collaborated with the Office of Minority Health and co-authored a Chartbook on Latino children and health care access. He holds a doctoral degree in Pharmacology & Toxicology from Washington State University.
    His doctorate work focused on alcohol, cancer progression and body wasting. He completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). His work at the NIDDK focused on studying the role the Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptor (IGF-1R) in cell-cell adhesion and motility. Most recently, he completed postdoctoral training as a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Rockville, Maryland. His work at the NCI focused on topics such as the 1) prevention of obesity and breast cancer; 2) obesity, wound healing and angiogenesis; 3) obesity, Insulin-like Growth Factor-1, and breast cancer and 4) the effects of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors on bone metabolism. Dr. Nuñez' laboratory at UT will focus on examining the effects of obesity on wound healing as well as the effects of alcohol consumption on breast cancer, with the goal of better understanding how obesity and alcohol consumption predispose a woman to breast cancer.

Representative Publications

Nomelí P. Nuñez and Gary G. Meadows. PPAR- ligands and amino acid deprivation promote apoptosis of melanoma, prostate, and breast cells. (In press in Cancer Letters).

Ruth Enid Zambrana, Olivia Carter-Pokras, Nomelí P. Nuñez. Working with Latino Families and Children: Family Support Guidelines with Databook. Academy of Pediatrics and Family Support America.

Nomelí P. Nuñez, Danijela Jelovac, David Berrigan, Susan N. Perkins, Stephen D. Hursting, J. Carl Barrett, Angela Brodie. Effects of the Antiestrogen Tamoxifen and the Aromatase Inhibitor Letrozole, on tumor growth, serum hormones, uterine weight, body composition and bone characteristics in a pre-clinical model for breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 10:5375-80, 2004.

Pennisi P.A., Barr V, Nuñez N.P.., Stannard B., Le Roith D. Reduced expression of Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptors in MCF-7 breast cancer cells leads to a more metastatic phenotype. Cancer Research 62: 6529-6537, 2002.

Nuñez N.P., Carter P.A., Meadows G.G. Alcohol consumption promotes body weight loss in melanoma-bearing mice. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 26:617-626, 2002.

Spitzer J.H., Nuñez N.P., Meadows S.A., Gallucci R.M., Blank S.E., Meadows G.G. The modulation of B16BL6 melanoma metastasis is not directly mediated by cytolytic activity of natural killer cells in alcohol-consuming mice. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 24:837-44, 2000.

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