Thomas E. Wiese, Ph.D.
Xavier Associate Director, Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium
Director, Investigator Development Core, Xavier RCMI
Director, RCMI Cell-Molecular Core
Professor of Biochemistry
Division of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences
Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy

Dr. Wiese teaches molecular biology, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and cancer biology in the Xavier PharmD curriculum. He also maintains an active research laboratory involving PharmD students. Dr. Wiese is the Xavier Associate Director of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC) that includes Tulane University, LSU Health Science Center and Ochsner Medical Center, and he serves in the Xavier NIH funded RCMI (Research Center in Minority Institutions) cancer research program as Director of Investigator Development and Director of the Cell and Molecular Biology Core facility. In his roles in the LCRC and RCMI, Dr. Wiese is focused on assisting Xavier faculty to develop externally funded research projects that include research experiences for Xavier students.

Dr. Wiese received a B.S. in Biology (minor in Chemistry) from the University of Michigan-Flint in 1984 and then worked as an analytical chemist in an industrial chemical company before entering graduate school at Wayne State University School of Medicine in the Biochemistry Department. As a graduate student, he developed a research project in the laboratory of Dr. Samuel Brooks that characterized the steroid ligand specificity of the estrogen receptor and completed his Ph.D. in 1995. After teaching one year in the Chemistry Department of The University of Detroit-Mercy, Dr. Wiese accepted a post-doctoral research fellowship in the toxicology program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he trained in the laboratories of Drs. William Kelce and L. Earl Gray at the US EPA NHEERL and developed projects addressing the molecular mechanisms of endocrine-disrupting environmental chemicals. In 1998, Dr Wiese accepted a State of Louisiana Joint Faculty Position in both the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy where he developed a research program addressing the cellular and molecular aspects of endocrine disruption in cancer promotion and progression. In 2003, Dr. Wiese consolidated and focused his career by moving fulltime to the Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy where he currently serves as a tenured faculty.

Education:

Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Toxicology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995-98

Ph.D., Biochemistry, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 1995

B.S., Biology, University of Michigan – Flint, 1984

Research Interests:

The primary theme of research in the Wiese lab is study of the molecular mechanisms involved in nuclear receptor-mediated endocrine disruption. Projects underway include characterizations of gene, receptor and tissue-specific effects of hormone active environmental chemicals, natural products, pharmaceuticals, personal care products and dietary supplements. The goal of these studies is to define the endocrine disruption of these substances as primary molecular level events that can contribute to hormone mediated mechanisms of cancer promotion and progression. These projects involve cellular, molecular and biochemical techniques as well as molecular modeling approaches to characterizing estrogen, androgen and progestin activity. Dr. Wiese has published research involving endocrine disruption, structure-activity relationships of hormone active chemicals and estrogen receptor mediated effects on gene induction and proliferation in breast cancer cells.