Fernando Benavides, DVM, PhD, DACLAM
Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Division of Division of Discovery Science
About Dr. Benavides
Dr. Benavides is a mouse geneticist (PhD) and laboratory animal veterinarian (DVM, ACLAM) with extensive experience in describing new mouse models derived from both spontaneous mutations and targeted genetic modifications. Dr. Benavides has a strong background in positional cloning of spontaneous mutations and has described several new mouse models. His expertise also includes devising complex breeding schemes, genotyping, and phenotyping mouse models. As the director of the Laboratory Animal Genetics Services at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Benavides carries out genetic monitoring of inbred strains (and authentication of mouse cell lines) and numerous speed congenic projects aimed to move genes of interest from undefined (mixed) genetic backgrounds to the inbred strain of choice (using genetic markers such as microsatellites and SNPs). Dr. Benavides offers rodent genetic consultation both institution-wide and internationally.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Division of Basic Science Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Smithville
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Adjunct Associate Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Associate Faculty Member, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), Houston, TX
Research Interests
Dr. Benavides’ research objectives are to define new mouse models through forward genetics. As part of his positional cloning and phenotyping projects, he is studying spontaneous mouse mutations with skin phenotypes, aiming to identify genes important for skin and hair follicle biology. Dr. Benavides’ ultimate goal is to develop new animal models, particularly but not limited to mouse models of cancer. As the Director of the Laboratory Animal Genetics Services of the Research Animal Support Facility-Smithville, Dr. Benavides’ interests are to improve the techniques used to carry out speed congenics projects and background characterizations for genetically engineered mouse models at MD Anderson and outside the institution.
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 1998 | University of Buenos Aires, School of Veterinary Medicine, Buenos Aires, ARG, PHD, Genetics |
| 1986 | University of Buenos Aires, School of Veterinary Medicine, Buenos Aires, ARG, DVM, Veterinary Medicine |
Board Certifications
| 2003 | American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) |
Experience & Service
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Director of Laboratory Animals Genetic Services, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Smithville, TX, 2006 - Present
Veterinarian/Geneticist RASF-S, Department of Epigenetics and Molecular Carcinogenesis, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Smithville, TX, 2003 - 2021
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Rao G, Ling X, Doucette T, Kong L, Wei J, Fuller GN, Nwajei F, Zhou S, Caruso H, Benavides F, Vile RG, Heimberger AB. Innate Immunological Compensatory Control of Efficacy of the anti-PD-1 Ab against murine glioma in the absence of CD8 cytotoxic T Cells. Clinical Cancer Research. e-Pub 2020.
- Farkas C, Fuentes-Villalobos F, Rebolledo-Jaramillo B, Benavides F, Castro AF, Pincheira R. Streamlined computational pipeline for genetic background characterization of genetically engineered mice based on next generation sequencing data. BMC Genomics 20(1):131, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30755158.
- Napoli E, Song G, Liu S, Espejo A, Perez CJ, Benavides F, Giulivi C. Zdhhc13-dependent Drp1 S-palmitoylation impacts brain bioenergetics, anxiety, coordination and motor skills. Sci Rep 7(1):12796, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 29038583.
- Domínguez ER, Orona J, Lin K, Pérez CJ, Benavides F, Kusewitt DF, Johnson DG. The p53 R72P polymorphism does not affect the physiological response to ionizing radiation in a mouse model. Cell Cycle 16(12):1153-1163, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28594296.
- Garg R, Blando JM, Perez CJ, Abba MC, Benavides F, Kazanietz MG. Protein kinase c epsilon cooperates with PTEN loss for prostate tumorigenesis through the CXCL13-CXCR5 pathway. Cell Rep 19(2):375-388, 2017. PMID: 28402859.
- Platt CD, Chou J, Houlihan P, Badran YR, Kumar L, Bainter W, Poliani PL, Perez CJ, Dent SY, Clapham DE, Benavides F, Geha RS. Leucine-rich repeat containing 8A (LRRC8A)-dependent volume-regulated anion channel activity is dispensable for T-cell development and function. J Allergy Clin Immunol. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28192143.
- Behe P, Foote JR, Levine AP, Platt CD, Chou J, Benavides F, Geha RS, Segal AW. The LRRC8A Mediated "Swell Activated" Chloride Conductance Is Dispensable for Vacuolar Homeostasis in Neutrophils. Front Pharmacol 8:262, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28553230.
- Portis M, Floyd A, Perez CJ, Huskey PS, Schutz D, Bigbee C, Weiss DA, Coghlan LG, Benavides F. Persistence of Myobia musculi DNA after moxidectin treatment: implications for PCR monitoring of mite infestations in mice. Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science 42(5):1-6, 2016.
- Perez CJ, Mecklenburg L, Jaubert J, Martinez-Santamaria L, Iritani BM, Espejo A, Napoli E, Song G, Del Río M, DiGiovanni J, Giulivi C, Bedford MT, Dent SYR, Wood RD, Kusewitt DF, Guénet JL, Conti CJ, Benavides F. Increased Susceptibility to Skin Carcinogenesis Associated with a Spontaneous Mouse Mutation in the Palmitoyl Transferase Zdhhc13 gene. J Invest Dermatol 135(12):3133-43, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26288350.
- Perez CJ, Dumas A, Vallières L, Guénet JL, Benavides F. Several Classical Mouse Inbred Strains, Including DBA/2, NOD/Lt, FVB/N, and SJL/J, Carry a Putative Loss-of-Function Allele of Gpr84. J Hered 104(4):565-71, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23616478.
- Garg R, Blando J, Perez CJ, Wang H, Benavides FJ, Kazanietz MG. Activation of Nuclear Factor-kappa B in prostate cancer is mediated by Protein Kinase C epsilon. J Biol Chem 287(44):37570-82, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22955280.
- Perez C, Parker-Thornburg J, Mikulec C, Kusewitt DF, Fischer SM, Digiovanni J, Conti CJ, Benavides F. SKHIN/Sprd, a new genetically defined inbred hairless mouse strain for UV-induced skin carcinogenesis studies. Exp Dermatol 21(3):217-220, 2012. PMID: 22379968.
- Ferguson BW, Gao X, Kil H, Lee J, Benavides F, Abba MC, Aldaz CM. Conditional Wwox deletion in mouse mammary gland by means of two Cre recombinase approaches. PLoS One 7(5):e36618, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22574198.
- Benavides F, Perez C, Blando J, Contreras O, Shen J, Coussens LM, Fischer SM, Kusewitt DF, Digiovanni J, Conti CJ. Protective role of cathepsin L in mouse skin carcinogenesis. Mol Carcinog 51(4):352-361. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21538579.
- Benavides F, Blando J, Perez CJ, Garg R, Conti CJ, DiGiovanni J, Kazanietz MG. Transgenic overexpression of PKCe in the mouse prostate induces preneoplastic lesions. Cell Cycle 10(2):268-277, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21224724.
- Perez CJ, Jaubert J, Guénet JL, Barnhart KF, Ross-Inta CM, Quintanilla VC, Aubin I, Brandon JL, Otto NW, DiGiovanni J, Gimenez-Conti I, Giulivi C, Kusewitt DF, Conti CJ, Benavides F. Two hypomorphic alleles of mouse Ass1 as a new animal model of citrullinemia type I, and other hyperammonemic syndromes. Am J Pathol 177(4):1958-1968, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20724589.
- Fu J, Jin F, Zhang J, Fong K, Bassi DE, Lopez De Cicco R, Ramaraju D, Braunewell KH, Conti C, Benavides F, Klein-Szanto AJ. VILIP-1 expression in vivo results in decreased mouse skin keratinocyte proliferation and tumor development. PLoS One 5(4):e10196, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20419170.
- Rojas P, Benavides F, Blando J, Perez C, Cardenas K, Richie E, Knudsen ES, Johnson DG, Senderowicz AM, Rodriguez-Puebla ML, Conti CJ. Enhanced skin carcinogenesis and lack of thymus hyperplasia in transgenic mice expressing human cyclin D1b (CCND1b). Mol Carcinog 48(6):508-16, 2009. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18942117.
- Blando J, Portis M, Benavides F, Alexander A, Mills G, Dave B, Conti CJ, Kim J, Walker CL. PTEN deficiency is fully penetrant for prostate adenocarcinoma in C57BL/6 mice via mTOR-dependent growth. American Journal of Pathology 174(5):1869-79, 2009. PMID: 19395652.
- Chen X, Schneider-Broussard R, Hollowell D, McArthur M, Jeter CR, Benavides F, DiGiovanni J, Tang DG. Abnormal differentiation, hyperplasia and embryonic/perinatal lethality in BK5-T/t transgenic mice. Differentiation 77(3):324-34, 2009. PMID: 19272531.
- Benavides F, Oberyszyn TM, VanBuskirk AM, Reeve VE, Kusewitt DF. The hairless mouse in skin research. J Dermatol Sci 53(1):10-8, 2009. e-Pub 2008. PMID: 18938063.
- Maschi F, Ayala M, Benavides F, Carbone C. Development of the BALB/c.Cg-Ctslnkt congenic mouse strain. Journal of Basic and Applied Genetics 19:15-19, 2009.
- de Cicco RL, Bassi DE, Benavides F, Conti CJ, Klein-Szanto AJ. Inhibition of proprotein convertases: Approaches to block squamous carcinoma development and progression. Mol Carcinog 46(8):654-9, 2007. PMID: 17440928.
- Rojas P, Cadenas MB, Lin PC, Benavides F, Conti CJ, Rodriguez-Puebla ML. Cyclin D2 and cyclin D3 play opposite roles in mouse skin carcinogenesis. Oncogene 26(12):1723-30, 2007. e-Pub 2006. PMID: 16983339.
- Montero Girard G, Vanzulli SI, Cerliani JP, Bottino MC, Bolado J, Vela J, Becu-Villalobos D, Benavides F, Gutkind S, Patel V, Molinolo A, Lanari C. Association of estrogen receptor-alpha and progesterone receptor A expression with hormonal mammary carcinogenesis: role of the host microenvironment. Breast Cancer Res 9(2):R22, 2007. PMID: 17341305.
- Benavides F, Gomez G, Venables-Griffith A, Lambertz I, Flores M, Angel JM, Fuchs-Young R, Richie ER, Conti CJ. Differential susceptibility to chemically induced thymic lymphomas in SENCARB and SSIN inbred mice. Molecular Carcinogenesis 45(7):543-8, 2006. PMID: 16479612.
- Gonzalez-Guerrico AM, Meshki J, Xiao L, Benavides F, Conti CJ, Kazanietz MG. Molecular mechanisms of protein kinase C-induced apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. J Biochem Mol Biol 38(6):639-645, 2005. PMID: 16336777.
- Fabris VT, Benavides F, Conti C, Merani S, Lanari C. Cytogenetic findings, Trp53 mutations, and hormone responsiveness in a medroxyprogesterone acetate induced murine breast cancer model. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 161(2):130-9, 2005. PMID: 16102583.
- Kim E, Rundhaug JE, Benavides F, Yang P, Newman RA, Fischer SM. An antitumorigenic role for murine 8S-lipoxygenase in skin carcinogenesis. Oncogene 24(7):1174-87, 2005. PMID: 15558016.
- Bourgade F, Montagutelli X, Bigbee C, Weiss A, Rigottier-Gois L, Conti CJ, Benavides F. Simple duplex fecal PCR assay that allows identification of false-negative results in Helicobacter sp.-infected mice. Comp Med 54(5):528-32, 2004. PMID: 15575366.
- Amornphimoltham P, Sriuranpong V, Patel V, Benavides F, Conti CJ, Sauk J, Sausville EA, Molinolo AA, Gutkind JS. Persistent activation of the Akt pathway in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a potential target for UCN-01. Clin Cancer Res 10(12 Pt 1):4029-37, 2004. PMID: 15217935.
- Lopes EC, Garcia M, Benavides F, Shen J, Conti CJ, Alvarez E, Hajos SE. Multidrug resistance modulators PSC 833 and CsA show differential capacity to induce apoptosis in lymphoid leukemia cell lines independently of their MDR phenotype. Leuk Res 27(5):413-23, 2003. PMID: 12620293.
- Benavides F, Conti CJ, LaCava M, Flores M, Glasscock E, Sternik G, Gimenez-Conti IB, Johnston DA, Dunsford HA, Goldstein LS, Rodriguez LV. Loss of heterozygosity analysis of mouse pulmonary adenomas induced by coal tar. Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis 41(4):300-8, 2003. PMID: 12717785.
- Benavides F, Zamisch M, Flores M, Campbell MR, Andrew SE, Angel JM, Licchesi J, Sternik G, Richie ER, Conti CJ. Application of inter-simple sequence repeat PCR to mouse models: assessment of genetic alterations in carcinogenesis. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 35(4):299-310, 2002. PMID: 12378524.
- Stern MC, Benavides F, LaCava M, Conti CJ. Genetic analyses of mouse skin tumor progression susceptibility using SENCAR inbred derived strains. Mol Carcinog 35(1):13-20, 2002. PMID: 12203363.
- Benavides F, Starost MF, Flores M, Gimenez-Conti IB, Guénet JL, Conti CJ. Impaired hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling with abnormal epidermal differentiation in nackt mice, a cathepsin L-deficient mutation. Am J Pathol 161(2):693-703, 2002. PMID: 12163394.
- Vanzulli S, Efeyan A, Benavides F, Helguero LA, Peters G, Shen J, Conti CJ, Lanari C, Molinolo A. p21, p27 and p53 in estrogen and antiprogestin-induced tumor regression of experimental mouse mammary ductal carcinomas. Carcinogenesis 23(5):749-58, 2002. PMID: 12016147.
- Starost MF, Benavides F, Conti CJ. A variant of pulmonary alveolar microlithiasis in nackt mice. Vet Pathol 39(3):390-2, 2002. PMID: 12014504.
- Benavides F, Venables A, Poetschke Klug H, Glasscock E, Rudensky A, Gomez M, Martin Palenzuela N, Guenet JL, Richie ER, Conti CJ. The CD4 T cell-deficient mouse mutation nackt (nkt) involves a deletion in the cathepsin L (CtsI) gene. Immunogenetics 53(3):233-42, 2001. PMID: 11398968.
- Benavides F, Glasscock E, Coghlan LG, Stern MC, Weiss DA, Conti CJ. PCR-based microsatellite analysis for differentiation and genetic monitoring of nine inbred SENCAR mouse strains. Lab Anim 35(2):157-62, 2001. PMID: 11315165.
- Benavides F, Guenet JL. [Murine models for human diseases]. Medicina (B Aires) 61(2):215-31, 2001. PMID: 11374148.
- Benavides F, Stern MC, Glasscock E, DiGiovanni J, Coghlan LG, Conti CJ. Microsatellite DNA variants between the inbred SENCAR mouse strains. Mol Carcinog 28(4):191-5, 2000. PMID: 10972988.
- Stern MC, Benavides F, Klingelberger EA, Conti CJ. Allelotype analysis of chemically induced squamous cell carcinomas in F(1) hybrids of two inbred mouse strains with different susceptibility to tumor progression. Carcinogenesis 21(7):1297-301, 2000. PMID: 10874006.
- Benavides F, Salaverry M, Cazalla D, Pereira P, Pazos P, Fontanals A, Corley E. Six cases of paternity disputes resolved by DNA fingerprinting. Revista de Medicina Veterinaria 77(6):397-400, 2000.
- Benavides F, Giordano M, Fiette L, Bueno Brunialti AL, Martin Palenzuela N, Vanzulli S, Baldi P, Schmidt R, Dosne Pasqualini C, Guenet J. Nackt (nkt), a new hair loss mutation of the mouse with associated CD4 deficiency. Immunogenetics 49(5):413-9, 1999. PMID: 10199917.
- Benavides FJ. Genetic contamination of an SJL/J mouse colony: Rapid detection by PCR-based microsatellite analysis. Contemp Top Lab Anim Sci 38(2):54-55, 1999. PMID: 12086434.
- Gorla N, Benavides F, Salaverry M, Ludueña R, Grandoli N, Corley E, Larripa I. Application of DNA fingerprinting to determine paternity in cattle with large congenital abdominal wall defect progeny (Spanish). Archivos de Medicina Veterinaria 30(2):151-5, 1998.
- Benavides F, Cazalla D, Pereira C, Fontanals A, Salaverri M, Goldman A, Buggiano V, Dran G, Corley E. Evidence of genetic heterogeneity in a BALB/c mouse colony as determined by DNA fingerprinting. Lab Anim 32(1):80-5, 1998. PMID: 9481698.
- Dyzenchauz F, Fontanals A, Benavides F. Experimental animals in Argentina: species and strains (Spanish). Animales de Experimentacion 3(3):23-6, 1998.
- Benavides F, Guenet JL. [Gene mapping in mice]. Medicina (B Aires) 57(4):507-10, 1997. PMID: 9674277.
- Barassi N, Benavides F, Ceccarelli A. [Ethics in the use of experimental animals]. Medicina (B Aires) 56(5 Pt 1):531-2, 1996. PMID: 9239891.
- Benavides F. [Mutant mice in experimental oncoimmunology]. Medicina (B Aires) 55(1):84-7, 1995. PMID: 7565043.
- Bonfil RD, Vinyals A, Bustuoabad OD, Llorens A, Benavides FJ, Gonzáles-Garrigues M, Fabra A. Stimulation of angiogenesis as an explanation of Matrigel-enhanced tumorigenicity. Int J Cancer 58(2):233-9, 1994. PMID: 7517919.
- Benavides F, Pereira C. [Evaluation of the genetic quality of mice used in biomedical research]. Rev Argent Microbiol 25(2):100-9, 1993. PMID: 8234731.
- Benavides F, Pereira C. [Transgenic animals in biomedicine]. Medicina (B Aires) 53(4):374-6, 1993. PMID: 8201922.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | Research Education Program for Laboratory Animal Medicine Veterinarians |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCRR |
| Role: | Research Mentor |
| Title: | Infertility in Lrrc8a Mutant Mice |
| Funding Source: | The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Pilot Grant |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified October 16, 2023