Duke University · PharmacologyThe Hormone Impact Lab
Donald P Mcdonnell · Durham, North Carolina
Research Focus
Dr. Donald McDonnell's lab at Duke University focuses on how hormones like estrogens and androgens influence cancer biology. They investigate the mechanisms by which these hormones affect tumor growth, immune responses, and treatment outcomes in various cancers. The lab aims to develop new therapeutic strategies that improve how we use hormone-targeting drugs to treat both reproductive and non-reproductive cancers.
estrogenandrogencancer biologytumor microenvironmentendocrine therapy
Research Aims
5AIM 01Define how estrogen affects immune cells in cancer
AIM 02Explore how estrogen receptors in the brain influence tumor growth
AIM 03Investigate how different androgen levels impact cellular responses
AIM 04Study the mechanistic pathways of androgen receptor activation
AIM 05Develop novel androgen receptor modulators for cancer treatment
Skills the Lab Values
cell cultureanimal modelsmolecular cloningimmunohistochemistryWestern blottingRNA sequencingchromatin immunoprecipitationbioinformaticstranslational researchdrug development
Output against the department
Publications574top 8% of dept.38th of 462
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations30ktop 9% of dept.40th of 462
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.