Professor Emeritus, Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Professor of Public Health (EHS)
Community, Environment & Policy Department
Biography
Associate Dept. Head, Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Investigator, Center for Toxicology
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Professor, Public Health
Dr. Lantz is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, and Professor, Division of Community, Environment and Policy at the University of Arizona. He is currently the Associate Department Head and has served in interim positions as the Department Head of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and as Associate Vice President for Research of the University of Arizona. He is also currently Deputy Director of the Southwest Environmental Health Science Center (SWEHSC), an NIEHS Core Center of Excellence at the University of Arizona and Deputy Director of the University of Arizona Superfund Research Program.
Dr. Lantz received his B.S. in Physics from Juniata College in 1970 and his doctorate in Physiology and Biophysics from West Virginia University in 1975. After postdoctoral research fellowships at Rockefeller University and Emory University, Dr. Lantz took a position as Assistant Professor of Anatomy at West Virginia University in 1981. In 1987, Dr. Lantz moved to the University of Arizona where he holds his current academic position.
Dr. Lantz has served as the Director of the Cellular Imaging Core of the SWEHSC since the Center was originally funded in 1994. Part of Dr. Lantz’s duties as Deputy Director of SWEHSC is to oversee the Core Facilities funded by the Center. These include genomics, proteomics, imaging, and in the past, synthetic chemistry. Dr. Lantz has also served as the Chair of the Biotechnology Imaging Users Committee at the University of Arizona has chaired and co-authored a White Paper outlining the needs and vision for state-of-the-art light microscopic imaging on campus. Dr. Lantz, therefore, has demonstrated and extensive administrative experience especially related to oversight and management of Core Facilities.
Course:
Art of Scientific Comm.
CMM 603 (Spring 2019)
Research Synopsis
Dr. Lantz’s research has utilized these core facilities along with an inhalation core facility developed by Dr. Lantz and his colleagues at the University of Arizona. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Lantz has concentrated his research in the area of pulmonary toxicology. During that time he has nearly 30 publications where inhalation of toxicants has been the route of exposure for gases, liquids and particulates. Toxicants have included inhalation exposures to complex smoke from fires, cigarette smoke, jet fuel, bacterial products and arsenic. In a number of these publications he has tested intervention strategies with the aim of reducing lung injury. Some of his most recent research has focused on the effects of inhalation of arsenic containing dusts on lung inflammation and the role of Nrf2 activation in protection from this exposure.
More recently, Dr. Lantz has extended his studies into an analysis of arsenic-induced alterations in pulmonary function and biomarker expression in children ages 6-12. Dr. Lantz’s research has been funded from the National Institutes of Health (NIEHS, NCI) and from the USEPA. Dr. Lantz is the author of over 90 peer reviewed manuscripts. Dr. Lantz received the Career Achievement Award from the Inhalation and Respiratory Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology in 2011 in recognition of his work in inhalation and respiratory toxicology.
