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Stephen R. Hammes, M.D., Ph.D.

Contact Information

Phone Numbers

Administrative: (585) 275-2901

Fax: (585) 273-1288

URMFGA member of the University of Rochester Medical Faculty Group

groupAn Accountable Health Partner

assignmentAccepting New Patients

Research Labs

Faculty Appointments

Patient Care Settings

Endocrinology, Internal Medicine

Biography

Professional Background

Dr. Hammes received his B.A. in chemistry from Cornell University in 1985, where he worked with Dr. Barbara Baird studying the IgE receptor. Dr. Hammes then entered the MD/PhD program at Duke. For his PhD, Dr. Hammes studied retroviral gene regulation with Dr. Warner Greene. He then traveled to San Francisco, where he completed an internship and residency in General Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Endocrinology. For his postdoctoral research, Dr. Hammes again chose an alternative direction, working with a cardiologist rather than an endocrinologist. He trained with Dr. Shaun Coughlin, where he studied G protein-coupled receptors.

In 1999, Dr. Hammes left UCSF to become faculty at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he started an entirely new research program, choosing to study transcription-independent, or nongenomic, steroid signaling. Specifically, Dr. Hammes studied steroid-triggered maturation (meiotic progression) of oocytes, one of the few physiologically relevant steroid-triggered processes that is generally accepted to be nongenomic. Dr. Hammes has recently expanded his work to study ovarian development and function, with a focus on diseases of androgen excess such as polycystic ovarian syndrome. He also studies hormone-sensitive cancers such as prostate cancer and the rare disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis.

Finally, in 2009 Dr. Hammes moved back to Upstate New York, where he is the Louis S. Wolk Professor of Biomedical Research and the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Research

The Hammes laboratory studies steroid signaling and steroid production, with a focus on how steroids regulate fertility as well as how steroid promote hormone-sensitive cancer such as breast and prostate cancer.

With regard to steroid signaling, the Hammes laboratory pioneered research related to rapid, extranuclear, or "nongenomic," steroid effects, demonstrating that these rapid responses that initiate at or near the membrane of cells are critical for the subsequent steroid-mediated nuclear effects on transcription. The Hammes laboratory demonstrated that extranuclear androgen signaling via classical androgen receptors located outside of the nucleus initiate rapid activation of G protein and kinase signals that modulate normal fertility in males and females, as well as prostate cancer progression in response to androgens.

The Hammes laboratory was also one of the first to use genetic mouse models to demonstrate that androgen signaling in granulosa cells of the ovary (both nuclear and extranuclear effects) is critical for normal follicle development and subsequent ovulation. Too much androgen signaling, as seen in the disease polycystic ovary syndrome, leads to excessive and unregulated follicle growth.

The Hammes laboratory has also been studying androgen effects on prostate cancer, demonstrating that these same signaling extranuclear and nuclear pathways work together to regulate prostate cancer growth. The laboratory has also recently taken an interest in inflammation and its effects on prostate cancer progression.

Finally, the Hammes laboratory studies a rare lung disease found almost exclusively in women called lymphangioleiomyomatosis, or LAM. The laboratory has developed a mouse model for this disease, and is currently examining the roles of estrogen as well as inflammation in progression of this devastating disorder.

Credentials

Education

1992
MD | Duke University School of Medicine

Post-doctoral Training & Residency

07/01/1995 - 06/30/1999
Fellowship in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at University of CA at San Francisco School of Medicine

07/01/1994 - 06/30/1995
Residency in Internal Medicine at University of CA at San Francisco School of Medicine

01/01/1993 - 06/30/1993
Fellowship at Duke University Eye Center

07/01/1993 - 06/30/1994
Internship in Internal Medicine at University of CA at San Francisco School of Medicine

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Publications

Journal Articles

4/12/2023
Minor BMN, LeMoine D, Seger C, Gibbons E, Koudouovoh J, Taya M, Kurtz D, Xu Y, Hammes SR. "Estradiol Augments Tumor-Induced Neutrophil Production to Promote Tumor Cell Actions in Lymphangioleiomyomatosis Models." Endocrinology.. 2023 Apr 12; Epub 2023 Apr 12.

10/11/2022
Erdogan ZM, Hammes SR. "Expanding Our Scope and Our Identity." Journal of the Endocrine Society.. 2022 Oct 11; 6(11):bvac149. Epub 2022 Oct 19.

11/19/2021
Xiao Z, Hammes SR. "AXL cooperates with EGFR to mediate neutrophil elastase-induced migration of prostate cancer cells." iScience.. 2021 Nov 19; 24(11):103270. Epub 2021 Oct 14.

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