• Assistant Member, Arthritis and Immunology Research Program
• Director, OMRF Microarray Research Facilit
• Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
• Mentoring Faculty Member, Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience

Using genomics- and proteomics-based biomedical discovery technology and bioinformatics, our lab helps to define the molecular mechanisms mediating human inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Patients samples are collected in ongoing clinical research programs in collaboration with local physicians and clinical researchers. Gene and protein-based biomarkers of disease activity are then identified in broad-based screening assays and the massive data sets integrated with clinical data. Our studies have led to a refined understanding of the etiopathology of these complex disorders by defining novel disease mediators and the mechanisms in which they participate.

A principal focus of our laboratory is to utilize this discovery pipeline to create the next generation of diagnostic and therapeutic response tests that will enhance treatment through broad-based monitoring of disease regulators. A section of the lab develops novel bioinformatics methodologies necessary to present these complex data in a manner that can be used practically by clinicians.

Research interests: Glycoconjugate structure/function/biosynthesis; cell adhesion involving lectins and glycoproteins in human inflammation, tumor metastasis and schistosomiasis.

My laboratory is interested in the fundamental biological process by which cells adhere to each other and interact with the extracellular matrix or basement membrane. This research area also relates to processes by which animal pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites stick to animal cells and initiate disease. Cell adhesion is an essential prelude to animal cell development, differentiation, tumor metastasis, inflammation and microbial pathogenesis.

Many recent studies indicate that carbohydrate residues within glycoconjugates on the surfaces of cells and in the extracellular matrices are critically involved in cell "stickiness" or cell adhesion phenomena. The overall hypothesis is that these glycoconjugates are recognized and bound by a class of proteins called lectins expressed by a wide variety of cells. There are likely to be many different lectins and many different glycoconjugates involved in cell adhesion. My laboratory is currently studying lectins and glycoconjugates important in a wide variety of cell adhesion phenomena. These include leukocyte recruitment to sites of inflammation in human tissues, adhesion of human rotaviruses to human intestinal cells, structure and immunogenicity of glycoproteins on the surfaces of the human parasitic blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni, binding of lectins to glycoproteins of the extracellular matrix, and the cloning and identification of genes encoding lectins and enzymes (glycosyl transferases) responsible for synthesizing glycoconjugates.

• University of Missouri, Rolla, MO; B.S. 1976 Nuclear Engineering
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; M.S. 1978 Nuclear Engineering
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; Ph.D. 1982 Plasma Physics
• University of Missouri, Rolla, MO; P.E. (Honorary) 1994 Nuclear Engineering

• 2000 - 2002 - Program Chair, Joint Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and University of Texas at Arlington
• 1997 - Present - P.O'B Montgomery Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Internal Medicine
• 1994 - 1998 - Professor of Biochemistry and Associate Director, Genome Science and Technology Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
• 1991 - 1994 - Principal Scientist, General Atomics, San Diego, CA
• 1986 - 1993 - Appointed to the Institute for Development and Application of Advanced Technology at General Atomics
• 1982 - 1986 - Senior Scientist, General Atomics, San Diego, CA