Dr. Cardiff is a medical pathologist and former Chairman of Medical Pathology with expertise in mouse pathology and cancer. His research involves investigating mechanisms of metastatic breast cancer and prostatic cancer, using transgenic mice. Genetically defined high and low metastatic transplantation tumor lines are the basis for a comparative study of the microcirculation, documenting that microvascular density and tortuosity were the only variables related to the rate of pulmonary metastasis. Current projects are designed to establish the physiologic details of the abnormal vascularity and to determine the key molecular event(s) in the signal transduction pathways that determine metastatic phenotype. His group has also developed one of only two transgenic mouse model systems resulting in prostatic cancer using the C3(1) promoter and Polyoma Virus Middle T as the transgene. Other transgenes appear to lead to hyperplasia that is mediated through the development of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia rather than expression of the transgene in the mouse prostatic epithelium. The current program includes the development of newer promoter systems with Cre/Lox systems. The goal is to determine which genes will lead to prostatic cancer. Please contact Dr. Cardiff at rdcardiff@ucdavis.edu for further information.