2005 MCBP Graduates PhD Degree Yair Adereth Dissertation Title: “The Biological and Clinical Significance of MLP1: A Novel Mechanism of RNA-directed Integrin Protein Localization” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Tien Hsu Current Position: Postdoctoral position   Ralph J. Barker Dissertation Title: “Z01 as a Factor in the Remodeling of Myocardial Gap Junctions” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Robert G. Gourdie Current Position: Postdoctoral Position Kevin P. Becker Dissertation Title: “The Pericentrion : Identification, Characterization, and Function of a Novel cPKC-Dependent Compartment” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Yusuf A. Hannun Current Position: Internship/Residency Yale University - Medicine (preliminary) and Neurology Michael L. Bernard Dissertation Title: “Structural and Functional Characterization of the Activator of G-protein Signaling 3 (AGS3) Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Stephen Lanier Current Position: Internship/Residency Vanderbilt University Robert R. Bowers Dissertation Title: “Mechanisms of Seasonal Weight Loss in Siberian Hamsters: Sympathetic Nervous System Regulation of Body Fat” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Thomas W. Gettys Current Position: Postdoctoral Position, Johns Hopkins University, Boston, Massachusetts Jeannie Chapman Dissertation Title: “Characterization of the Colon Anion Exchanger, DRA, in Cellular Growth” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Clifford Schweinfest Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of South Carolina-Upstate, Spartanburg, South Carolina Michelle Crosby Dissertation Title: “The Role of PPAR-gamma in the Inflammatory Suppression of iNOS” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Gary Gilkeson Current Position: Internship/Residency Harbor UCLA Medical Center – Transitional Year Emory University - Ophthalmology Christopher V. Crosby Dissertation Title: “The Role of Hepatocytes Growth Factor and Vascular Endothelial Cadherin in Vasculogenesis” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Christopher Drake Current Position: Internship/Residency Harbor UCLA Medical Center – Transitional Year Emory University - Dermatology Ron Feldman Dissertation Title: “The Role of the Ets Transcription Factor Pdef in Breast Development and Cancer” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Dennis Watson Current Position: Internship/Residency Cleveland Clinic Foundation – Dermatology/Research Eric Grund Dissertation Title: “IL-2 Receptor Signaling Regulates Ets1 Translation in Human Natural Killer Cells” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Robin Muise-Helmericks Current Position: Postdoctoral position, Serono (biotech company), Boston, Massachusetts Joshua M. Hubbard Dissertation Title: “Pyk2 as a Therapeutic Target in Pancreatic Cancer” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. David Cole Current Position: Internship/Residency Greenville Hospital, South Carolina – Surgery (preliminary)University of Virginia – Radiology Diagnostics/Vascular Intervention Ravinder Pannu Dissertation Title: “A Novel Role for Lactosylceramide in Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Expression and Astrogliosis in Spinal Cord Injury Induced Inflammatory Disease. Investigation of Potential Anti-inflammatory Interventions in Spinal Cord Injury” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Inderjit Singh Current Position: Postdoctoral Position, MUSC, Dr. Inderjit Singh's Laboratory Richard E. Peterson, Jr. Dissertation Title: “Antagonistic Roles for Two Isoforms of the Prx1 Homeobox Gene in Chondrogenesis” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Michael Kern Current Position: Postdoctoral Position, Yale University, Dr. Craig Crews' Laboratory Benjamin J. Pettus Dissertation Title: “The Synergistic Role of Sphingosine-1-phosphate in COX-2 Induction and Ceramide-1-phosphate in cPLA 2 Binding/Translocation” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Yusuf Hannun Current Position: Internship/Residency Riverside Regional Medical Center, Virginia – Transitional Year Barnes Jewish Hospital, Missouri – Radiology-Diagnostics Research, Drs. John Altman and Sam Speck Mark Pilgrim Dissertation Title: “Murine Cytomegalovirus Infection of the Salivary Gland: Investigation of the Salivary Gland as an Inductive Site in the Mucosal Immune System” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Steve London Current Position: Postdoctoral Position, Fellows in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) Program, Emory University Vijay Rao Dissertation Title: “Regulation of the Cardiocyte Growth Response by the nPKC Isoform, PKC-Epsilon”Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Paul McDermott Current Position: Internship/Residency Duke University – Internal Medicine Nicole Redmond Dissertation Title: “The Effect of Multiple Withdrawals from Chronic Ethanol on Expression and Function of the GABA A Receptor in Mice” Dissertation Advisors: Drs. Mark W. Nowak and Howard C. Becker Current Position: Internship/Residency Emory University – Internal Medicine Mark G. Slomiany Dissertation Title: “Mechanisms of IGF-1 Induced VEGF and IGFBP-3 Expression and Autoregulation in Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells” Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Steven A. Rosenzweig Current Position: Postdoctoral position, MUSC (Dr. Steve Rosenzweig's laboratory)   MS in Biomedical Sciences Thomas J. Christl Thesis Title: “The Ability of P-Glycoprotein Multixenobiotic Resistance Transporter to Respond to Two Common Aquatic Containments and Mitigate Resulting Toxicities” Thesis Advisor: Dr. Geoffrey Scott Cwengros, Emily E. Thesis Title: “Molecular Approaches to Investigating the Role of DMSP-lyase in the Dinoflaggellate, Karenia brevis” Thesis Advisor: Dr. Giacomo Titullio Jessica Paulk Peterson Thesis Title: “Differential Activation of Smad2 and Smad3 in the Embryonic Mouse Heart Suggests Distinctive Roles during Cardiogenesis” Thesis Advisor: Dr. Steven W. Kubalak

  2004 MCBP Graduates

PhD Degree

Patrick Brian Giles
Dissertation Title: “VEGF Regulation of Endothelial Cell Survival, Proliferation and Lineage Recruitment during Embryonic Vascular Patterning”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Christopher J. Drake
Current Position: Science Advisor, Needle & Rosenberg, P.C., Atlanta, Georgia

Michael G. Janech
Dissertation Title: “Identification and Molecular Characterization of Renal Urea Transporter Isoforms from the Euryhaline Elasmobranch, Dyasyatis sabina ”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. David W. Ploth
Current Position: NSF International Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Jeffrey A. Jones
Dissertation Title: “Phosphatidic Acid: A Potent in vitro Regulator of Protein Phosphatase-1”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Yusuf Hannun
Current Position: Postdoctoral position, Dr. Yusuf Hannun, Medical University of South Carolina

Gina Maria Keller
Dissertation Title: “Use of Regulatable Mutant p53 and Mutant Kras to Enhance Prostate Cancer Models ”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. James S. Norris
Current Position: Unknown

Robert Sean Norman
Dissertation Title: “Exploring the Role of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa in Crude Oil Biodegration”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Pamela J. Morris
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Robert S. Smith, Jr. Dissertation Title: “Using a Gene Transfer Technique to Study the Role of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase in Neovascularization and Myocardial Infarction”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Julie Chao
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

L. Ashley Smithwick
Dissertation Title: “Effect of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Biotransformation Processes on Immunological Responses in Murine Splenocytes”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Pamela Morris
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Translational Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylavania

N. Andrew Whitlock
Dissertation Title: “The Role and Regulation of Heat Shock Protein 27 in Retinal Ischemic Preconditioning”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Craig Crosson
Current Position:

Xingjun (Bill) Wu
Dissertation Title: “Studies of RDH10, A Novel All-Trans-Retinol Short-Chain Dehydrogenase/Reductase Identified from the Retinal Pigment Epithelium”
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Rosalie Crouch
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

MS in Biomedical Sciences

Ibrahim Abdelrahman
Thesis Title: “Caspase regulation of de novo ceramide synthesis”
Thesis Advisor: Dr. David Perry

Christina Brown Fieber
Thesis Title: “Differential Regulation of the Akt Family of Kinases during Endothelial Angiogenic Stimulation”
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Robin Muise-Helmericks

Holly A. Gefroh
Thesis Title: “Molecular Characterization of Immunoglobulins M, G, and A in the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus ”Thesis Advisor: Dr. Tracy Romano

Amanda Graham
Thesis Title: “The USS Arizona and Bunker C Fuel Oil: An Environmental Study”
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Pamela Morris

Kerin A. McCormack
Thesis Title: “Effects of the Hepatic Lipase C-514T Polymorphism on Plasma Lipids and NMR Lipoprotein Subclasses in Subjects with Diabetes: European Americans with Type 1 (DCCT/EDIC COHORT) and Sea Island African Americans with Type 2”
Thesis Advisor: Dr. W. Timothy Garvey

2003 MCBP Graduates

PhD Degree

Melissa M. Fraser
Dissertation title: The molecular and functional characterization of the gene CaSm
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Dennis Watson
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, St. Jude Medical Center

Michelle L. Hairfield
Dissertation title: Roles for PLD1 and PI4P5K in polarized cell growth in S. cerevisiae and C. albicans
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Joseph Dolan
Current position: Possible Postdoctoral Fellowship, UCSD

Joseph R. Kelley
Dissertation title: The cancer associated SM-like (CaSm) oncogene: A novel target for the gene therapy of pancreatic cancer
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. David Cole
Current position: Residency, UNC Chapel Hill and Medical College of Virginia (Radiology/Oncology)

Stewart M. Knoepp
Dissertation title: Role of phospholipase D2 and focal adhesion kinase in mitogenic signaling and cellular adhesion
Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Kathryn Meier
Current position: Residency, Massachusetts General (Pathology)

Amanda C. LaRue
Dissertation title: Regulation of vascular pattern formation during vasculogenesis
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Christopher Drake
Current position: NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, MUSC (Dr. Makio Ogawa)

David C. McLean
Dissertation title: Maternal and paternal genetic affinities of Gullah-speaking African Americans
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. W. Timothy Garvey
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, MUSC (Biometry)

Bryce A. Nelson
Dissertation title: High glucose and glucosamine induced insulin resistance in 3T3-L1 adipocytes
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Maria Buse
Current position: Residency, Vanderbilt (Pediatrics)

Mark P. Rubinstein
Dissertation title: Making T cells more useful: 1) TCR gene transfer 2) Administration of IL-15 following vaccination
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. David Cole
Current position: Postdoctoral Position, Scripps Institute (Dr. Jeff Sprent)

Christopher D. Willey
Dissertation title: Mechanism of c-SRC activation and its role during cardiac hypertrophy
Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Dhan Kuppuswamy
Current position: Resident, Spartanburg and Vanderbilt University (Radiation/Oncology)

MS in Biomedical Sciences

Marie E. Nielsen
Thesis title: Trafficking of the insulin-responsive glucose transporter, GLUT4, in cardiocytes
Thesis Adviser: Dr. George Cooper/Dr. Donald Menick

Jeannette A. Weiner
Thesis title: Atrazine toxicity in microalgae: Differential sensitivities, predictive cellular characteristics, and subcellular alterations
Thesis Adviser: Dr. Michael Fulton

2002 MCBP Graduates

Paula Acierno
Dissertation title: A Novel Approach in the Immunotherapy of AIDS
Mentor: Dr. Sebastiano Gattoni-Celli
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Norman Letvin's Laboratory, Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Elizabeth Chesterman
Dissertation title: Expression Analysis of Prx1 and Prx2 Homeodomain Proteins Leads to the Identification of an Internal Ribosomal Entry Site in Prx1 Transcripts
Mentor: Dr. Michael Kern
Current position: deceased

Deanne King
Dissertation title: TRAIL – Mediated Apoptosis in Prostate Cancer
Mentor: Dr. James Norris
Current position: Resident, Otolaryngology, University of Arkansas

Danforth Newton
Dissertation title: Development and Application of a Universal Donor Cell Line for the Preparation of Semiallogeneic Cell HybridsMentor: Dr. Sebastiano Gattoni-Celli
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. John Baatz' Laboratory, MUSC

Victor Sementchenko
Dissertation title: The Function of Ets Transcription Factors Ets2 and ESF in Prostate Cancer
Mentor: Dr. Dennis Watson
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Affymetrix, Inc., Santa Clara, California

Todd Shearer
Disseration title: Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase-dependent Secretion of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 in Trabecular Meshwork Cells
Mentor: Dr. Craig Crosson
Current position: Research Pharmacologist, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland

William Tuxworth
Dissertation title: Differential Regulation of Translation Initiation in a Model of Cardiac Hypertrophy
Mentor: Dr. Paul McDermott
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Paul McDermott's Laboratory, MUSC

MS in Biomedical Sciences

Yoko Okake Thesis title: Metabolism of the Flavonoid Galangin in Humans: Glucuronidation versus Oxidation
Mentor: Dr. Thomas Walle