 Pestell showed that nuclear receptors (estrogen, androgen and PPARγ) are acetylated, and that this event is rate-limiting in hormone signaling and growth control- thus identifying a new target for cancer therapy.His laboratory demonstrated this was a general mechanism conserved among nuclear receptors that affect diverse biological processes.In the cell cycle field, his research has shown the discovery that cyclins are direct transcriptional targets of oncogenic and tumor suppressor signals.