Dr. Degenhardt attended Kutztown University and earned a BS. in Biology. Following several years as a research technician he attended Stony Brook University/ Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. His dissertation is titled “Regulation of ras function by the guanine nucleotide exchange factor son-of-sevenless (Sos).” With his Ph.D., he joined Rutgers University as a Post-Doctoral fellow and was promoted to Assistant Research Professor. Following a short time as an Assistant Professor at St. John's University, he joined TouroCOM as an Associate Professor and Course Director of Physiology. 

Education/Training

Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Stony Brook University

Professional Affiliations

New York Academy of Sciences

Courses Taught

Physiology 

Areas of Research

Cancer Biology- The roles of apoptosis and autophagy in tumor formation

Active cancer researcher on the fifth floor of TouroCOM Harlem

Grants/Funding
Determine altered gene expression patterns in response to metabolic stress-induced autophagy (2012). Touro Office of Sponsored Programs, Year 2 Faculty Research Grant Competition, Award: $4000

Invited Presentations

Doctoral Seminar: Department of Biology St. John's University (2010) Presented research entitled "The Role of Cell Death in Tumor Formation"

Hematology/Oncology Student Organization (2012)Presented research entitled “The role of cell death in tumor formation”

Research Department Fireside Chat (2012)Presented research entitled "Autophagy promotes tumor cell survival and restricts necrosis, inflammation, and tumorigenesis

Selected Publications

Degenhardt, K., and White, E. (2006).A mouse model system to genetically dissect the molecular mechanisms regulating tumorigenesis. Clin Cancer Res 12, 5298-5304.

Degenhardt, K., Mathew, R., Beaudoin, B., Bray, K., Anderson, D., Chen, G., Mukherjee, C., Shi, Y., Gelinas, C., Fan, Y., et al. (2006). Autophagy promotes tumor cell survival and restricts necrosis, inflammation, and tumorigenesis. Cancer Cell 10, 51-64

Degenhardt, K., Sundararajan, R., Lindsten, T., Thompson, C., and White, E. (2002b). Bax and Bak independently promote cytochrome C release from mitochondria. J Biol Chem 277, 14127-14134.

Degenhardt, K., Chen, G., Lindsten, T., and White, E. (2002a). BAX and BAK mediate p53-independent suppression of tumorigenesis. Cancer Cell 2, 193-203

Kumar P, Zhang DM, Degenhardt K, Chen ZS. (2012) Autophagy and transporter-based multi-drug resistance.
Cells. 3, 558-75.