Professional Collaborators
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Dr. David Miyamoto
Dr. Miyamoto was a professor of biology at Drew University and the director of the New Jersey Governor’s School. His research involves studying the role of nitric oxide and program cell death in initiating the response of ciliated tracheal cells to infection by Bordetella avium, a bacterium that causes a whooping cough-like disease in poultry. He is enjoying retirement and spending time with his granddaughters.
Dr. Josh Eby and Dr. Erik Hewlett
Dr. Eby and Dr. Hewlett are both infectious disease specialists at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA.
Dr. Gordon Archer
Dr. Archer has been a founding Senior Associate Dean for Research & Research Training at Virginia Commonwealth University, formerly Medical College of Virigina. His early research interest was in infective endocarditis and he was one of the first developers and users of the rabbit model of endocarditis. He has been continuously NIH-funded for his research since 1975, including an NIH MERIT grant from 1995 to 2005.
Dr. Allison Johnson
Dr. Alison Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Bioinformatics program at Virginia Commonwealth University and the Assistant Director at the center for the study of biological complexity. She researched biochemistry and inhibition of HIV-1 integrase and the National Cancer Institute, and determined a contact between a flexible loop in the protein and the viral DNA end.
Dr. Lynn Lewis
Lynn O. Lewis, Professor of Biology, is an expert on microbiology and virology, including disease mechanisms, microbial physiology and veterinary microbiology. Dr. Lewis’ current research involves the analysis of viruses that infect bacteria, and her students have presented research at meetings of the Virginia Academy of Science and the Virginia Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
Dr. Daniel Nelson
Dr. Nelson is an associate professor at the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland. His current research includes structure and function studies of bacteriophage endolysins, thermodynamic enginineering of endolysins and measuring endolycin kinetics.
Dr. Bill Pierson
Dr. Bill Pierson is Professor of Biosecurity and Infection Control and Avian Medicine with the Department of Population Health Sciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Pierson's research, teaching, and mentoring interests lie in the areas of infectious disease, immunology, biosecurity, and the development of animal models for human disease. Primary research interests include chickens as a model for hepatitis E, hemorrhagic enteritis virus in turkeys, and mycobacteriosis.
Dr. Paul Orndorff
Dr. Orndorff was a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the College of Vetrinary Medicine at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. His reserach emphasis is on infectoius diseases.
Dr. Gail Christie
Dr. Chrisite is a professor at the department of Microbiology and Immunology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research is in bacterial genetics and gene expression; RNA polymerase structure and function; transcriptional regulation; translational regulation; microbial genome sequencing; molecular genetics of bacteriophages; site-directed mutagenesis; recombinant protein expression and purification; protein:nucleic acid interactions.
Dr. Alison Weiss
Dr. Weiss is professor of molecular genetics, biochemistry and microbiology at the University of Cincinatti. The Weiss laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying Bordetella pertussis and E. Coli 0157:H7 pathogenesis. The lab is particularly interested in the actions of the Pertussis and Shiga Toxins encoded by the bacteria. Model systems including organoids are of particular interest.
Dr. Rachel Fernandez
Dr. Fernandez is an associate professor in the department of microbiology and immunolgy at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include molecular pathogenesis of Bordetella pertussis: bigenesis and immunomodulatory properties of the other membrane.