He studies the development of novel agents for the treatment of hormone-responsive and non-responsive breast and prostate cancers and the design of estrogens and antiestrogens that have a favorable balance of beneficial versus detrimental effects.
In 1958, his family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where his father became Head of the Department of Art History at Johns Hopkins University[2] and his mother joined the faculty at Peabody Conservatory[3] and Goucher College.
Katzenellenbogen attended Gilman School[5] and held various summer jobs: in 1960, he worked at the Research Institute for Advanced Studies in the photosynthesis lab of Dr. Bessel Kok,[6] and, in 1961, he was a General Electric Student Research Fellow at Union College in Schenectady, New York.
[15] He also pioneered the development of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agents for estrogen, androgen, and progesterone receptors.
His more recent work is focused on developing novel antiestrogens effective against endocrine therapy-resistant forms of breast cancer[23][24] and dissecting the mechanisms and signaling pathways that underlie the selective actions of estrogens in different target tissues.