Education

1977-1983 Ph.D. in Pathology
Thomas Jefferson University    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dissertation Title: The Characterization of a submitochondrial system capable of DNA replication in vitro.

1973-1977 B.S. in Biology
Villanova University     Villanova, Pennsylvania

Academic and Research Appointments

September 1992 - Present
Associate Professor
Department of Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Sciences
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, Virginia

September 1990 - 1992
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological Sciences
Hampton University

June 1988 - September 1990
Special Assistant to the Assistant Dean for Student Academic Support
Research Instructor, Medical Education
University of University School of Medicine
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908

June 1988 - September 1990
Medical Academic Advancement Programs (MAAP-II)
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908

June 1987 - September 1990
Assisting Students to Achieve Medical
Degrees (A.S.A.M.d.) Project
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908

August 1993 - June 1988
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Virginia, School of Medicine
Department of Biochemistry
Charlottesville, Virginia 22908

Fall Semester 1982
Instructor, Pathology
Thomas Jefferson University
School of Allied Health Sciences
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

September 1979 - June 1980
Instructor of Gross Anatomy
Department of Anatomy
Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Other Employment

Summers 1991 and 1992
Research Consultant
Upjohn Company, Division of Molecular Biology
Kalamazoo, MI

1991-1992
Consultant
Virginia Scientific Research Associates
Harrisonburg, Virginia

1979-1981
Medical Laboratory Technician
Clinical Laboratories, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1975-1978
Wyeth Laboratories (Presently known as Wyeth/Ayerst Laboratories)
Radnor, Pennsylvania
I worked for four summers within the Biostatistics Division of Regulatory Affairs, which was responsible for the preparation of FDA approvals. My ongoing involvement was to assist in the preparation of the reports that led to the approval of Guanabenz-HCL.

Current Research Focus

My long term research commitment is the area of DNA replication, and cellular proliferation. Most recently my expertise in this area led to a collaborative arrangement between the Upjohn Company and me. I will help them develop a means to assay potential anti-viral agents. This has and will involve cloning, and purifying Herpes Simplex Virus DNA replication proteins that have been over-expressed using a baculovirus system. The preliminary investigation from this, and other data suggest that one of the problems in developing specific anti-viral agents may stem from similar protein mechanisms used by viruses and mitochondria.

Postdoctoral and Graduate Research Background

During my tenure as a research associate within the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Virginia, the focus of my studies was nuclear DNA replication, In addition I was given the opportunity to learn recombinant DNA technology. We attempted to isolate and characterize mammalian DNA sequences that could function as an origin of DNA replication. At the time the only demonstration of origin sequences in eukaryotes had been in yeast cells, in the form of autonomously replicating sequences (ARS). The work involved the isolation of the early replicative intermediates produced by cells synchronized at the GUS boundary; probing plasmids and cosmids to determine the location and organization of the early replicative intermediates; and attempts at cloning and comparing the functional characteristics of a minimal functional origin of replication to those of native origins of replication in vivo.

In addition, we also examined three proteins, calmodulin, DNA primase, and DNA polymerase associated exonuclease, that are thought be involved in the mechanism of DNA replication and are found within the multi-enzyme complex called nuclear replitase. Our work has shown calmodulin to be an important factor with respect to the assembly of the complex and the proper progression of cells through S-phrase of the cell cycle. The work with primase was an outgrowth of the work on the origin of DNA replication. Studies of the DNA polymerase associated exonuclease involved a novel method in which the turnover of misincorporated nucleotides is determined via HPLC analysis of nucleotide pools. This work is among the first to demonstrate the association of a 3'-5' exonuclease with the eukaryotic DNA replication apparatus.

As a graduate student I set out to develop and characterize a submitochondrial system which was capable of replicating mitochondrian DNA (mt-DNA) in vitro in a manner similar to that seen in vivo. My method produces a multi-enzyme complex that exhibits the same requirements for percursors and the same sensitivity to inhibitors with respect to DNA replication as do mitochondria in vivo. The method is also more reproducible than the Sarkosyl-band method.  Furthermore, I was able to demonstrate the association of a type II topoisomerase, a very labile enzymatic activity, with the complex, and assess its essential role in the maturation of newly replicated mt-DNA.