Kevin Pruitt, PhD

     
     Kevin Pruitt, Ph.D.
     Associate Professor
     E-mail:   kevin.pruitt@ttuhsc.edu
     Phone: 806-743-2523

Education:

Postdoctoral Fellowship: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2006)
PhD: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001)
BS: University of Texas at Austin (1996) 

Biography:

Kevin Pruitt, Ph.D., is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology at TTUHSC. After receiving a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and conducting post-baccalaureate research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he completed Ph.D. studies in pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under the direction of Channing Der, Ph.D. Dr. Pruitt’s interest in epigenetics began during a short stint of postdoctoral training with Yi Zhang, Ph.D., formerly HHMI, at UNC. Dr. Pruitt continued postdoctoral training under the direction of Stephen Baylin, M.D., at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. There, Dr. Pruitt’s postdoctoral studies focused on cancer epigenetics.

Dr. Pruitt has received numerous research awards, including the Hoechst-Celanese Corporation Research Scholarship Award, Graduate School Excellence Award, UNCF-Merck and National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowships and American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellowship. His first faculty appointment was in the Department of Department of Physiology at LSUHSC, where his lab made seminal observations that established the first connection between Dishevelled (DVL) proteins and the sirtuin deacetylases. At LSUHSC, Dr. Pruitt received the Carroll Feist Endowed Chair in Cancer Epigenetics. In 2014, he received the Rising Star Award from CPRIT and the Pruitt lab relocated to TTUHSC. Recently, the Pruitt lab identified a critical regulatory switch that regulates Dishevelled nuclear entry and uncovered novel nuclear roles for DVL proteins. Dr. Pruitt served as a standing member of the NIH Cancer Genetics study section for 6 years and is currently a member of the programmatic panel of the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program. In 2017 he was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Childers-Fralick Chair in Basic Cancer Research and in 2018 he was conferred the title of University Distinguished Faculty. In 2022 he received “Outstanding Research and Student Mentor” award and in 2023, he received “Outstanding Faculty of the Year” award. Currently, Pruitt lab research focuses on epigenetics, aromatase regulation and how Wnt signaling influences immune cell trafficking to the tumor microenvironment. 

Research Interests:
 

Current and Former Students & Postdocs

Doctoral Alumni:

• Kimberly Holloway, Ph.D. 2011
  Associate Director of Translational Oncology
  Iterion Therapeutics
• Madhurima Saxena, Ph.D. 2014
  Translational Medicine Scientist
  Pfizer
• Somnath Pandey, Ph.D. 2016
  Postdoctoral Fellow
  University of Miami
• Monica Sharma, Ph.D. 2021
  Postdoctoral Fellow
  Genentech

Doctoral Students:

• Dalia Martinez-Marin, 2021-Present
  Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology
  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock
• Geetha Boligala, 2022-Present
  Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology
  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock
• Flavia Sardela de Miranda, 2022-Present
  Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology
  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock

Post-Doctoral Training:

• Jamie Newman, Ph.D. 2011-2012
  Associate Professor
  College of Applied and Natural Sciences
  Louisiana Tech University
• Glenn Simmons, Jr., Ph.D. 2012-2014
  Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology
  Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine
• Pulak Manna, Ph.D. 2014-2019
  Research Associate Professor
  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock
• Isabel Castro-Piedras, Ph.D. 2017-2021
  Senior Research Associate
  Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience
  Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock
• Fahmida Rasha, Ph.D. 2019-2021
  Associate Clinical Trial Manager, Medpace
• Rachel Babcock, Ph.D. 2022-Present
  Postdoctoral Fellow