Christina Tzagarakis-Foster

Professor Tzagarakis-Foster's research has focused on Nuclear Hormone Receptors, a large family of eukaryotic transcription factors that play key roles in a diverse array of physiological and developmental processes.  During her graduate studies, she studied an oncogenic form of Thyroid Hormone receptor and its role in transcriptional regulation.  As a postdoctoral fellow, Prof. Tzagarakis-Foster studied Estrogen Receptors and their role in breast cancer.  At USF, she studies the orphan receptor, DAX-1, which is linked to the human diseases X-linked Adrenal Hypoplasia Congenita (AHC) and Dosage Sensitive Sex Reversal (DSS). Specifically, her research explores the role of DAX-1 in human development as well its involvement gene expression in human breast cancer.

• Cancer biology
• Endocrinology
• Cell and molecular biology

• Transcription factor DAX-1; its role in human development as well its involvement in the initiation of breast cancer

• Associate Dean for the Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences

• UC Davis, PhD in Microbiology, 1999
• University of San Francisco, BS in Biology, 1990

• Adjunct Professor in Biology, Dominican University of California
• Adjunct Professor in Microbiology, San Francisco State University
• Post-doctoral Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology, UC San Francisco