last updated: 26 January 2001

Ilio, Kenneth

Ken is currently a faculty at the Institute of Science Education and Science Communication at Columbia College Chicago, the largest arts and media school in the United States. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Urology at Northwestern University Medical School and a technical consultant at Northwestern Memorial Faculty Foundation Andrology Laboratory. His field of specialization is on male reproductive biology especially on prostate biology. He is a principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health-funded research grant on prostate stem cells and their role in normal and abnormal development.

Ken finished his DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) from the University of the Philippines, his MPhil (Master of Philosophy) from Massey University and his PhD degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and did postdoctoral research at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. Aside from his scientific pursuits, Ken is also the web developer of Tribung Pinoy (http://www.tribo.org) and Tanikalang Ginto (http://www.filipinolinks.com), two of the most popular Filipino sites on the Internet and other award winning sites. He is also a published writer with short stories and articles appearing in anthologies published in the US and the Philippines.

Research

ISOLATION AND CULTURE OF PROSTATIC STEM CELLS

Isolation and Culture of Stem Cells of the Prostate Epithelium

Principal Investigator: Kenneth Y. Ilio, PhD
Funding Agency: National Institutes of Health
Type: Research Grant, October 2000 - September 2002

The object of this exploratory project is to develop a feasible methodology of isolating candidate prostate epithelial stem cells from the adult rat ventral prostate and growing them in vitro. This objective is based on the hypothesis that the prostate epithelium is derived from a single cell-type progenitor (stem cell). The long term goal of this research is to establish both normal and transformed cell lines of specific lineages that are derived from the stem cells of the rat prostate epithelium. This study is being conducted at the Department of Urology, Northwestern University Medical School.

Apoptotic Activity of Doxazosin is Mediated Through an Autocrine Expression of TGF-beta

Co-Principal Investigator: Kenneth Y. Ilio, PhD
Funding Agency: DICE, Pfizer
Type: Research Grant, February 1999-January 2001

This pilot project was designed to examine the mechanism of action of doxazosin on prostate stroma. The PI of this grant is Dr. Chung Lee at Northwestern University Medical School, Department of Urology with Dr. Ilio serving as Co-PI.