The VICC.ORG Directory of Doctors, Healthcare Providers & Researchers
Cathleen C. Pettepher, Ph.D.
Professor
Contact Information:
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
776 Preston Building
Nashvill, TN 37232-6840
615-343-3427
Fax: 615-936-2911
Research Description:
Research: From 1993 until 2005, I served in the role as Managing Director of the Transgenic Mouse/ES Cell Shared Resource here at Vanderbilt University that was responsible for the generation of germline altered mice for Cancer, Diabetes or Neuroscience related studies. I focused primarily on the techniques and procedures involved in the alteration of the mouse genome and I worked closely with many investigators to design constructs and screening strategies for targeting their specific gene of interest. I also oversaw the daily operations of the facility, which included the scheduling of transgenic microinjections, cryopreservation of embryos and sperm and various assisted reproduction experiments.
Medical Education: Since 1993, I have also been intricately involved with the education of medical students. I served as Director of the Medical Cell and Tissue Biology Course from 2000-2007 and I have was a part of a dedicated team of faculty that taught Gross Anatomy and Embryology to medical students in the fall semester of the first year. When Vanderbilt transitioned in the fall of 2007 to a more integrated basic and clinical science curriculum, I became a Co-Director in 2 of the 3 basic science blocks in the first year: Molecuar Foundations of Medicine (MFM) and Structure, Function and Development (SFD). This new integrated approach to teaching the basic sciences serves to familiarized students with the chemical compounds, reactions, and processes that constitute life, human health, and disease at the molecular level; provides students with an appreciation of cellular organization and how that organization impacts molecular processes; and allows them to develop an awareness and understanding of the structure, organization, and function of the human body at specific subcellular, cellular, tissue, systemic, and regional levels, as well as at the level of the whole, living human being/patient, and the interdependence of normal structure and function at all levels.
My scholarly activity is geared toward creating innovative programs that would foster educational excellence and scholarship, and to continuously work to expand available methodologies and technologies for fostering superior teaching facilitating of active learning in the field of anatomical sciences.
I serve as the First Year Director of the Student Assistance Program and as an education mentor for the Scientist-Educator Post-doctoral Fellowship program.
Publications:
- Pilarski, PP, Alan Johnstone, D, Pettepher, CC, Osheroff, N From music to macromolecules: using rich media/podcast lecture recordings to enhance the preclinical educational experience. Med Teach, 30(6), 630-2, 2008.
- Postic, C, Niswender, KD, Decaux, JF, Parsa, R, Shelton, KD, Gouhot, B, Pettepher, CC, Granner, DK, Girard, J, Magnuson, MA Cloning and characterization of the mouse glucokinase gene locus and identification of distal liver-specific DNase I hypersensitive sites. Genomics, 29(3), 740-50, 1995.
- Jetton, TL, Liang, Y, Pettepher, CC, Zimmerman, EC, Cox, FG, Horvath, K, Matschinsky, FM, Magnuson, MA Analysis of upstream glucokinase promoter activity in transgenic mice and identification of glucokinase in rare neuroendocrine cells in the brain and gut. J Biol Chem, 269(5), 3641-54, 1994.
