Robert S. Aronstam, Ph.D.

Professor
Chair, Department of Biological Sciences
Director, Missouri S&T cDNA Resource Center
Director, Laboratory of Neurobiology

Research Interests

Neurochemical, pharmacological and toxicological characterization of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors

G Protein Coupled Receptors signaling pathways: second messenger production, calcium imaging, altered gene expression, posttranslational receptor processing

Influence of oxdative stress and nano particles on synaptic signal transduction process

Education

Columbia College of Columbia University, New York, B.A., 1972

University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, Ph.D., Neuroscience, 1978

Representative Publications

R.S. Aronstam and H.L. Puhl, Muscarinic receptors: Autonomic neurons, In: Encyclopedia of Neuroscience (G. Adelman and B Smith, eds.), CD-ROM, Elsevier Press, Amsterdam, 2008 (Fourth Edition)

Shi, R., C.-C. Huang, R.S. Aronstam, N. Ercal, A. Martin and Y-W. Huang, N-acetylcystenine amide decreases oxidative stress but not cell death induced by doxorubicin in H9c2 cardiomyocytes, BMC Pharmacology 9:7, 2009. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2210/9/7

D. Strassheim, L.G. May, K.A. Varker, H.L. Puhl, S.H. Phelps, R.A. Porter, R.S. Aronstam, J.D. Noti and C.L. Williams, Regulation of cytoplasmic myosin by M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors requires conventional protein kinase C isoforms and involves Rho proteins, J. Biol. Chem. 274:18675-18685, 1999

Courses Taught

General Biology (BIO 110), Cellular Biology (BIO 211), Neurobiology (BIO 301), Pharmacology (BIO 301), Senior Seminar (Bio 310)

Personal Websites

http://www.cdna.org

http://web.mst.edu/~aronstam

Roger F. Brown, Ph.D.

Professor
Director, Missouri S&T Animal Research Facility
Director, Biomaterials Laboratory

Research Interests

Biomaterials for bone repair and therapeutic applications

Development of bioactive glass coatings on titanium implants for enhanced bonding at implant site

Porous bioactive glass scaffolds for in vitro engineering of new bone tissue

Bioabsorbable composite materials for bone fracture fixation

Neutron-activatable glass microspheres for radiotherapeutic applications

Education

Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, B.S. Zoology, 1964

Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Ph.D., Physiology, 1968

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Postdoctoral training, 1968-71

Representative Publications

D.E Day, J. E. White, R.F. Brown and K.D McMenamin, "Transformation of borate glasses into biologically useful materials," Glass Technol.44(2): 75-81, 2003

S. Conzone, R. Brown, D. Day, and G. Ehrhardt, "In vitro and in vivo dissolution behavior of a dysprosium lithium borate glass designed for the radiation synovectomy treatment of rheumatoid arthritis," J. Biomed Mat. Res. 60: 260-268, 2002

Courses Taught

Human Anatomy (BIO 241), Human Physiology Lecture (BIO 242) and Lab (BIO 243), Biomaterials (BIO 340), Exercise Physiology (BIO 342), Tissue Engineering (BIO 401)

Website

http://web.mst.edu/~rbrown

Ronald L Frank, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director, Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics

Research Interests

Identification of gene families using computer algorithms

Evolution and expression of gene families in plants

Structure and expression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase genes in soybean

Education

Houghton College, Houghton, New York, B.S. in Biology, 1978

Ohio State University, Columbus, M.S. in Genetics, 1981

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ph.D. in Genetics, 1985

Representative Publications

Lee L, Leopold JL, Frank RL, Maglia AM. 2009. Protein Secondary Structure Prediction Using Rule Induction from Coverings. Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology 2009, 79-86.

Kandoth C, Frank RL, and Ercal F. 2008 Automation of an NSP-based (negative selection pattern) gene family identification strategy. In: Intelligent Engineering Systems Through Artificial Neural Networks. Vol. 18. (CH Dagli, DL Enke, KM Bryden, H Ceylan, M Gen, eds). ASME Press, Three Park Ave., New York, NY. 319-326.

Frank RL, Kandoth C, and Ercal F. 2008. Validation of an NSP-based (negative selection pattern) gene family identification strategy. BMC Bioinformatics 9(Suppl 9):S2.

Xu R, Wunsch DC, Frank RL. 2007. Inference of genetic regulatory networks with recurrent neural network models using particle swarm optimization. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 4(4):681-692.

Frank RL, Mane A, Ercal F. 2006. An automated method for rapid identification of putative gene family members in plants. BMC Bioinformatics 7(Suppl 2):S19.

Frank RL, Ercal F. 2005. Evaluation of Glycine max mRNA clusters. BMC Bioinformatics 6(Suppl 2):S7.

Mudhireddy, R.,  Ercal, F., Frank, RL. 2004.  Parallel Hash-Based EST Clustering Algorithm for Gene Sequencing. DNA and Cell Biology

Courses Taught

General Genetics (BIO 231), Evolution (BIO 235), Genomics (BIO 301), Molecular Genetics (BIO 331)

Website

http://web.mst.edu/~rfrank

Yue-wern Huang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director, Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology

Research Interests

Toxicity and mechanism of nanomaterials

Endocrine modulation in the environment

Education

National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, B.A., 1986

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ph.D., Zoology, 1998

Representative Publications

Chuan-Chin Huang, Robert S. Aronstam, Da-Ren Chen, and Yue-wern Huang. 2009. Intracellular calcium modulation and gene expression alteration in human lung epithelial cells exposed to ZnO nanoparticles. (Toxicology in Vitro; Accepted)

Rong Shi, Chuan-Chin Huang, Robert S. Aronstam, Nuran Ercal, Adam Martin, and Yue-wern Huang. 2009. N-acetylcysteine amide protects H9c2 cardiomyocytes fro doxorubicin-induced toxicity. BMC Pharmacology. DOI:  10.1186/1471-2210-9-7. (15 April 2009)

Yue-wern Huang, Dev K. Niyogi, Paul K. Nam, and Janet M. Bandeff. 2009. Livestock hormones in aquatic ecosystems. In Coats J., Henderson K. (Eds.), Veterinary Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. (In Press).

Weisheng Lin, Yi Xu, Chuan-Chin Huang, Yinfa Ma, Katie B. Shannon, Da-Ren Chen, and Yue-wern Huang. 2009. Toxicity of nano- and micro-sized ZnO particles in human lung epithelial cells. Journal of Nanoparticle Research 11:25-39. DOI: 10.1007/s11051-008-9419-7. (10 June 2008)

Weisheng Lin, Issac Stayton, Yue-wern Huang, Xiao-Dong Zhou, and Yinfa Ma. 2008. Cytotoxicity and cell membrane depolarization induced by aluminum oxide nanoparticles in human lung epithelial cells A549. Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry 90:983-996. DOI: 10.1080/02772240701802559.

Loretta Hunter, Gary Gadbury, and Yue-wern Huang. 2008. Atrazine exposure and breast cancer incidence: an ecologic study of Missouri counties. Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry. 90:367-376

Mauricio Solis, Chihchin Liu, Janet Bandeff, Paul Nam, Dev Niyogi, and Yue-wern Huang. 2007. Occurrence of organic chemicals in two rivers inhabited by Ozark hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi). Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. 53: 426-434.

Yue-wern Huang, Jacob R. Phillips, and Loretta Hunter. 2007. Human exposure to medical, dietary, and environmental estrogens. Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry. 89:141-160.

Mauricio E. Solis and Yue-wern Huang. 2007. Hematology and serum chemistry of Ozark and Eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). Herpetologica. 63:285-292.

Courses Taught

Ecology (BIO 251), Senior Seminar (BIO 310), Toxicology (BIO 370), Nanobiotechnology in Public Health (BIO 401)

Website

http://www.mst.edu/~huangy

Anne M. Maglia, Ph.D.

Associate  Professor
Director, Herpetology and Bioinformatics Laboratories

Research Interests

Evolution of amphibians, including phylogenetic relationships within and among groups, the role of development in generating anatomical diversity, and the evolution of life history traits

The development of computational methods for visualizing and analyzing biological data, including the application of data mining techniques, the development of a web-accessible library of 3D visualizations of anatomy, and the development of anatomical ontologies.

Education

Ohio University, Athens, B.S., Zoology-Pre-Veterinary Medicine, 1992

East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, M.S., Biological Sciences, 1994

University of Kansas, Lawrence, Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2000

Representative Publications

Pugener, L.A. and A.M. Maglia. 2009. Skeletal development  of the vertebral column of the miniature hylid frog Acris crepitans, with comments on vertebral anomalies. J. Morphol. 270: 52-69

Kazic, T., Leopold, J. and A. Maglia. 2009. Reasoning Over Anatomical Ontologies. In, M. Popescu and D. Xu (eds.), Data Mining Applications Using Ontologies in Biomedicine. Artech House Publishing.

Lee, L., Leopold, J.L., Frank, R. and A.M. Maglia. 2009. A computational method for identifying non-independent patterns in protein motif sequence data for secondary structure prediction. Proc. IEEE Symp. Comp. Intelligence Bioinformatics and Comp. Bio. Nashville, TN.

Pugener, L.A., and A.M. Maglia. 2007. Skeletal morphology and development of the olfactory region of Spea multiplicata (Anura: Pelobatidae).  J. Anat. 211(6): 737–753.

Maglia, A.M., Pugener, L.A., and J.M. Mueller. 2007. Skeletal morphology and postmetamorphic ontogeny of Acris crepitans (Anura: Hylidae): A case of minaturization in frogs. J. Morphol. 286:194–223.

Roy, A., Leopold, J.L. and A.M. Maglia. 2007. Alternative splicing: Associating frequency with isoforms. Proc. IEEE 7th Int. Symposium on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering (BIBE 2007).

Guntly, L., Leopold, J.L. and A.M. Maglia. 2007. Determining domain similarity and domain-protein similarity using functional similarity measurements of gene ontology terms. Proc. IEEE 7th Int. Symposium on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering (BIBE 2007).

Leopold, J., Maglia, A.M., Thakur, M., Patel, B., and F. Ercal. 2007. Identifying character non-independence in phylogenetic data using parallelized rule induction from coverings. Data Mining VIII: Data, Text, and Web Mining and Their Business Applications, WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies. 38:45-54.

Maglia, A.M., Leopold, J.L., Pugener, L.A., and S. Gauch.  2007. An anatomical ontology of amphibians. Proc. of the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing. 12:367-378.

Banbury, B.L., and Maglia, A.M. 2006. Osteological Development of Spea multiplicata and a Comparison of   the Development of Pelobatid Frogs. J. Morphol..267:803-821.

Dimitriu, P. A., Shukla, S., Conradt, J., Marquez, M. C., Ventosa, A., Maglia, A. M., Peyton, B., Pinkart, H. C., and M. R. Mormile. 2005. Nitrincola lacisaponensis gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from an alkaline, saline lake. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 55: 2273-2278.

Leopold, J. T. Hoeft, and Maglia, A. 2005. Interactive anatomy online: The MorpholgyNet digital library of anatomy. IEEE Potentials. 24(2)39-41.

Hu, X., Maglia, A.M., and Wunsch, D. J., II. 2005. A General Recurrent Neural Network Approach to Model Genetic Regulatory Networks. Proc. 27th Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol.

Maglia, A. M., Leopold, J. L., and Ghatti, V. R. 2004. Identifying Character Non-Independence in Phylogenetic Data Using Data Mining Techniques. In: Y.-P. Chen (ed.) Bioinformatics 2004 (APBC2004). ACM Conf. Research Pract. Inf. Technol. 29:181-190.

Courses Taught

Advanced Biodiversity (BIO 358), Bioinformatics (BIO 311/401), Developmental Biology (BIO 315), Comparative Chordate Anatomy (BIO 345)

Website

http://www.mst.edu/~magliaa

Melanie R. Mormile, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Environmental Microbiology

Research Interests

Anaerobic microorganisms

Biodegradation of organic chemicals

Extremophiles in saline environments

Education

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, B.S., 1985

University of Louisville, Louisville, M.S., 1988

University of Oklahoma, Norman, Ph.D., 1995

Representative Publications

Mormile, M.R., B-y. Hong, and K.C. Benison. 2009. Molecular analysis of the microbial communities of Mars-analog lakes in Western Australia. Revision submitted to Astrobiology - accepted provisionally.

VanEngelen, M.R., B.M. Peyton, M.R. Mormile, and H.C. Pinkart. 2008. Fe(III), Cr(VI), and Fe(III) mediated Cr(VI) reduction in alkaline media using a Halomonas isolate from Soap Lake, Washington. Biodegredation, 19: 841-850

Dimitriu, P.A., H.C. Pinkart, B.M. Peyton, and M.R. Mormile. 2008. Spatial and temporal patterns in the microbial diversity of a meromictic soda lake in Washington State. Applied and Environmental Biology, 74: 4877-4888.

Bowen, B.B., K.C. Benison, F.E. Oboh-Ikuenobe, S.L. Story, and M.R. Mormile. 2008. Active hematite concretion formation in modern acid saline lake sediments: A model for early diagenetic hematite on Mars? Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 268: 52-63.

Benison, K.C., E.A. Jagniecki, T.B. Edwards, M.R. Mormile, M.C. Storrie-Lombardi. 2008. Special Paper: "Hairy blobs": Microbial suspects preserved in modern and ancient extremely acid lake evaporites. Astrobiology, 8: 489-503.

Maccauley, JJ, C.D. Adams, and M.R. Mormile. 2007. Diversity of tet resistance genes in tetracycline-resistant bacteria isolated from a swine lagoon with low antibiotic impact. Canadian Journal of Microbiology, 53: 1307-1315.

Pollock, J., K.A. Weber, J. Lack, L.A. Achenbach, M.R. Mormile, and J.D. Coates. 2007. Alkaline iron(III) reduction by a novel alkaliphilic, halotolerant, Bacillus sp. isolated from salt flat sediments of Soap Lake. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 77: 927-934.

Arahal, D.R., R.H. Vreeland, C.D. Litchfield, M.R. Mormile, B.J. Tindall, A. Oren, V. Bejar, E. Quesada, and Antonio Ventosa. 2007. Recommended minimal standards for describing new taxa of the family Halomonadaceae. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 57: 2436-2446.

Benison, K.C., B.B. Bowen, F.E. Ikuenobe, E.A. Jagniecki, D.A. LaClair, S.L. Story, M.R. Mormile, and B-Y. Hong. 2007. Sedimentology of acid saline lakes in Southern Western Australia: Newly described processes and products of an extreme environment. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 77: 366-388, doi: 10.2110/jsr.2007.038.

Kovacik, Jr., W.P., K. Takai, M.R. Mormile, J.P. McKinley, F.J. Brockman, J.K. Fredrickson, and W.E. Holben.  2006.  Molecular analysis of deep subsurface Cretaceous rock indicates abundant Fe(III)- and S0-reducing bacteria in a sulfate-rich environment.  Environmental Microbiology, 8: 141-155.

Macauley, J.J, Z. Qiang, C.D. Adams, R. Surampalli, and M.R. Mormile.  2006.  Disinfection of swine wastewater using chlorine, ultraviolet light and ozone.  Water Research, 40: 2017-2026.

Courses Taught

Introduction to Biological Sciences (BIO 102), Microbiology Lecture (BIO 221), Environmental Microbiology (BIO 301), Advanced Microbial Metabolism (BIO 421), Astrobiology (BIO 452), Bioremediation (BIO 455)

Dev K. Niyogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director, Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology

Research Interests

Effects of humanity on stream ecosystems

Role of biodiversity in controlling ecosystem processes

Nutrient uptake in streams and other aquatic systems

Education

Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, B.A, 1989

University of Colorado, Boulder, Ph.D., 1999

Representative Publications

Niyogi, D.K., C.A. Cheatham, W.H. Thomson, and J.M. Christiansen. 2009. Litter breakdown and fungal diversity in a stream affected by mine drainage. Fundamental and Applied Limnology. 175:39-48.

Lear, G., Niyogi, D., J. Harding, Y. Dong, and G. Lewis. 2009. Biofilm bacterial community structure in streams affected by acid mine drainage. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 75:3455-3460.

Niyogi, D.K., M. Koren, C. A. Arbuckle, and C.R. Townsend. 2007. Stream community structure along a catchment land-use gradient; subsidy-stress responses to pastoral development. Environmental Management. 39:213-225.

Niyogi D.K., K.S. Simon and C.R. Townsend. 2003. Breakdown of tussock grass in streams along a gradient of agricultural development. Freshwater Biology. 48:1698-1708

Niyogi D.K., W.M. Lewis Jr, and D.M. McKnight. 2002. Effects of stress from mine drainage on diversity, biomass, and function of primary producers in mountain stream. Ecosystems. 5:554-567

Courses Taught

Introduction to Environmental Science (BIO 151), Ecology (BIO 251), Global Ecology (BIO 301), Freshwater Ecology (BIO 354)

Website 

http://www.mst.edu/~niyogid

Katie Shannon, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Director, Laboratory of Cytokinesis

Research Interests

The temporal and spatial control of cell division

Budding yeast as a model to determine how cytokinesis is cell-cycle regulated.

Education

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, B.A., 1994

Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA , Ph.D., Cell and Developmental Biology, 2000

Representative Publications

Stayton, I., Winiarz, J., Shannon, K., Ma, Y.* (2009) Study of Uptake and Loss of Silica Nanoparticles in Living Human Lung Epithelial Cells at the Single Cell Level. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. DOI 10.1007/s00216-009-2839-0

Park, S., Cable, A.E., Blair, J., Stockstill, K.E., Shannon, K.B.* (2009) Bub2 Regulation of Cytokinesis and Septation in Budding Yeast. BMC Cell Biology 10:43

Lin, W., Xu, Y., Huang, C., Ma, Y., Shannon, K.B., Chen, D. and Huang, Y.* (2008) In Vitro Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage Induced by Nano- and Micro-sized ZnO Particles in Human Lung Epithelial Cells. Journal of Nanoparticle Research Special Issue: Nanoparticles and Occupation Safety. DOI 10.1007/s11051-008-9419-7.

Ogony, J., Mathews, R., Anni, H., Shannon, K., and Ercal, N.* (2007) The mechanism of elevated toxicity in HepG2 cells due to combined exposure to ethanol and ionizing radiation. Journal of Applied Toxicology Published Online: Jul 13 2007 11:12AM in print J. Appl. Toxicol. 2008; 28: 345-355

Courses Taught

Cell Biology (BIO 211), Decoding Your Genes (BIO 201), Cancer Biology (BIO 301)

Website

http://openwetware.org/wiki/User:Katie_B_Shannon

David J Westenberg, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Director, Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology
Chair, Pre-Medicine Advisory Committee

Research Interests

Cell-cell interactions in the Bradyrhizobium japonicum/Soybean symbiosis
Bioenergetics of symbiotic nitrogen fixation
Rhizosphere microbiology

Education

Michigan State University, East Lansing, B.S. Microbiology and Public Health, 1982

University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 1991

Representative Publications

D.J. Westenberg, 2007 B. japonicum, Agriculture and the Bacterium, BIOforum Europe, 11:16

Burken, J.G., Gilbertson, A.W. and Westenberg, D.J. 2007 Genetically Enhanced Rhizodegradation for Organic Contaminants In L. Newman and C. Reynolds., (eds.) Plant-Microbe Interactions for Environmental Remediation, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX

D.J. Westenberg, 2002, Evidence for AHL autoinducer production by the soybean symbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum. In: Finan et al. (eds.), Nitrogen Fixation: Global Perspectives, CABI Publishing, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC

V. Gulley and D.J. Westenberg, 2002, Regulation of the Bradyrhizobium japonicum sdh operon encoding succinate dehydrogenase, In: Finan et al (eds.), Nitrogen Fixation: Global Perspectives, CABI Publishing, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC

D. J. Westenberg and M. L. Guerinot, 1999, Succinate dehydrogenase (Sdh) from Bradyrhizobium japonicum is closely related to mitochondrial Sdh and is sensitive to the agricultural fungicide carboxin, J. Bacteriol.181:4676-4679

D. J. Westenberg and M. L. Guerinot, 1997, The role of metals in bacterial gene regulation, Adv. Genetics 36:187-238

Courses Taught

Microbiology (BIO 221) and Microbiology Lab (BIO 222), General Genetics (BIO 231), Senior Seminar (BIO 310), Pathogenic Microbiology (BIO 321), General Virology (BIO 391), Advanced Microbial Metabolism (BIO 421)

Website

http://www.mst.edu/~djwesten

Terry Wilson, M.S.

Teaching Associate

Education

Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, B.S. in Education, 1983

Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, M.S. in Biology, 1993

Courses Taught

General Biology Lecture (BIO 110) and Lab (BIO 112), Principles of Biology (BIO 111), Biodiversity (BIO 113) and Lab (BIO 114), Cell Biology Lab (BIO 212), Ecology (BIO 251)