Eleanor G. Rogan, PhD

Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives, UNMC College of Public Health
Professor, UNMC Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health

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Phone: 402-552-7240

Eleanor G Rogan, PhD, joined UNMC in 1973 and currently serves as a professor in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health in the College of Public Health. She also is an investigator in the Central States Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at UNMC.

Dr. Rogan previously served as interim associate dean for research in the College of Public Health, and is a courtesy professor in the UNMC Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases and the UNMC Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the College of Pharmacy.

Previously, she was a research associate with E. Cavalieri in the Eppley Institute and with J.H. Coggin Jr. in the University of Tennessee Department of Microbiology, where she also served as a postdoctoral fellow with K.J. Monty.

She was a lecturer in the Department of Biology at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, and predoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore through the U.S. Public Health Service.

Education

AB, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, 1963
PhD, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD, 1968
Post-Doc, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 1969-71

Research Interests

Dr. Rogan's research centers around elucidating mechanisms of activation of carcinogens, identifying carcinogen-DNA adducts, and correlating adducts with oncogenic mutations. From a previous study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and estrogen metabolism and DNA adducts, she has demonstrated that the predominant adducts are lost by depurination, leaving mutagenic apurinic sites in the DNA. This research involved identification and quantitation of PAH-DNA and estrogen-DNA adducts and correlation of the adducts with mutations in mouse or rat tumors. Her studies include endogenous catechol estrogen metabolites, and she found that the carcinogenic metabolites form DNA adducts in human DNA. She hypothesizes that this is the pathway of initiation for human breast, ovarian, thyroid, prostate and other cancers. Studies in test tubes, laboratory animal models, cell culture models and human subjects have demonstrated the validity of this hypothesis, which leads to investigation of early detection of cancer risk and prevention of cancer by selected natural compounds. In addition, she has found that the same mechanism forming estrogen-DNA adducts is present in Fuchs Eye Corneal Dystrophy, a disorder leading to blindness. She is also investigating the possible role of waterborne agrichemicals in the high incidence of pediatric cancers in Nebraska.

Selected Publications

Cavalieri, E.L., and Rogan, E.G. Etiology and prevention of prevalent types of cancer. J. Rare Dis Res Treat., pp. 22-29, 2017.
Cavalieri, E.L., Rogan, E.G. and Zahid, M. Critical depurinating DNA adducts: estrogen adducts in the etiology and prevention of cancer and dopamine adducts in the etiology and prevention of Parkinson’s disease. Int. J. Cancer, doi: 10.1002/ijc.0728, 2017.
Muran, P., Muran, S., Beseler, C.L., Cavalieri, E.L., Rogan, E.G. and Zahid, M. Breast health and reducing breast cancer risk, a functional medicine approach. J. Altern. Complement. Med., 21: 321-326 (2015).
Ouattara, B.S., Puvvula, J., Abadi, A., Munde, S, Kolok, A.S., Bartelt-Hunt, S., Bell, J.E., Wichman, C.S., Rogan E. Geospatial Distribution of Age-Adjusted Incidence of the Three Major Types of Pediatric Cancers and Waterborne Agrichemicals in Nebraska. 2021 GeoHealth, 6, e2021CH000419.
Kumar V., Despande N., Parekh M., Wong R., Ashraf S., Zahid M., Hui H., Miall A., Price M., Price F., Gonzalez J.J., Rogan E., Jurkunas U.V. Estrogen genotoxicity causes preferential development of Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy in females. 2024. Redox Biology, 69: 102986.
Taiba J, Beseler C, Zahid M, Bartelt-Hunt S, Kolok A, Rogan E. Risk-based mapping of pesticide usage and social vulnerability in the contiguous United States. 2025 BMC Public Health, 26: 225. doi: 10.1186/12889-025-25277-5.

Professional Affiliations

American Public Health Association
American Association for Cancer Research (member)