Paul F. Terranova, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education
Professor, Molecular & Integrative Physiology and
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Director, Center for Reproductive Sciences
University of Kansas Medical Center, School of Medicine

Dr. Terranova received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biology from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and his doctorate in Physiology from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He completed postdoctoral work in Reproductive Physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In 1977, he was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology. He was promoted to professor in 1985.

The focus of his research, which has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1979, is regulation of normal and abnormal ovarian function and cancers of the ovary. One of Dr. Terranova’s studies focuses on factors regulating follicular development and ovulation. Currently, he is determining the molecular mechanism by which tumor necrosis factor inhibits gonadotropin stimulated ovarian granulosa cell aromatase activity and estradiol secretion. In addition, he has discovered an enzyme in the ovary, Src kinase, which he thinks may be involved in regulating the responsiveness of the ovary to hormones, such as those taken to stimulate ovulation in women having difficulty conceiving. In another study, he is looking at what role environmental contaminants such as dioxin play in causing or contributing to infertility and cancer of the reproductive system. Lastly, he has developed a mouse model of ovarian cancer and is determining which growth regulators are involved in the spontaneous transformation of the ovarian surface epithelial cells into a malignant phenotype.

He has served on numerous NIH study sections and editorial boards. He has served as chair of the Ovarian Physiology and Pathophysiology Focus Group for the Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and currently serves on a National Academies Committee to determine the health effects of dioxin.