Jeffrey Peters

Dr. Jeffrey Peters is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis and Deputy Director of the Penn State Cancer Institute. He holds affiliations with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences Program, and the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences department. His research focuses on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in toxicology, carcinogenesis, and metabolic regulation.

Education: PhD from UC Davis, postdoctoral fellowships at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and UC Davis Institute of Toxicology. Editor-in-Chief of Toxicological Sciences and former Chair of the NIH’s Cancer Drug Development and Therapeutics panel.

Research interests include PPAR signaling in epithelial cancers, dietary lipid modulation, and epigenetic interactions. Notable contributions include elucidating PPARβ/δ’s role in colon and breast cancer suppression via ERK/AKT pathway regulation. His lab uses mouse models, metabolomics, and genomic approaches to study cancer chemoprevention and metabolic diseases.

Recent work highlights species differences in PPARα-mediated toxicity and the role of PPARβ/δ in modulating liver and skin carcinogenesis. Awards include the George H. Scott Memorial Award and the Huck Award for Life Sciences Research.

• Key Contributions: PPARβ/δ’s tumor-suppressive mechanisms, PPAR-ligand development for chemoprevention
• Grants: NIH-funded studies on PPAR signaling and cancer
• Labs/Teams: Peters Research Group at Penn State, focusing on PPAR biology and toxicology