Caroline Alexander

Caroline Alexander is a Professor of Oncology in the Department of Oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Medicine and Public Health, affiliated with the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and the UW Carbone Cancer Center in Developmental Therapeutics. She earned a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1982, a PhD in Cell Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Kent, England, in 1985, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London and the University of California, San Francisco. Since around 2000, she has served as a group leader at the McArdle Laboratory, where her research explores metabolic physiology that governs tumor susceptibility. Her work demonstrates that mice with permeable skins exhibiting high trans-epidermal water loss dissipate heat rapidly, resist obesity on high-fat diets, and show resistance to tumor development induced by carcinogens or oncogenes. Functional skin properties are regulated by environment, diet, and genetics, suggesting opportunities to modify skin for health benefits. Alexander is an expert in transgenic mouse studies and has made seminal discoveries on mammary stem cell regulation, including roles of specific Wnt signaling receptors and ligands in mammary development and somatic stem cell function. Current projects include lipidomic analysis of skin lamellae to identify lipids controlling heat transfer, skin properties influencing thermogenic processes for body temperature maintenance, and experimental modifications of skin-environment interfaces in mice to assess health impacts. She chairs the Cancer Biology focus group in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program and participates in Cellular and Molecular Metabolism and Physiology focus groups.

Alexander's key publications include 'Stromelysin-1 regulates adipogenesis during mammary gland involution' (Journal of Cell Biology, 2001), 'Antiestrogen Therapy Increases Plasticity and Cancer Stemness of Prolactin-Induced ERα+ Mammary Carcinomas' (Cancer Research, 2018), 'The Wnt Signaling Landscape of Mammary Stem Cells and Breast Tumors' (Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, 2018), 'Evaporative cooling provides a major metabolic energy sink' (Molecular Metabolism, 2019), 'Wnt signaling and mammary stem cells' (Vitamins and Hormones, 2021), and 'Dietary lipids are largely deposited in skin and rapidly affect insulating properties' (Nature Communications, 2025). She serves on ad-hoc National Institutes of Health study sections for F99/K00, K99/R00, and K22 awards and is on the Associate Editorial Board of the American Journal of Cancer Research. Her contributions advance understanding of skin as a metabolic organ and its implications for tumor prevention and metabolic health.

Professional Email: cmalexander@wisc.edu