• Managing a $400,000 annual budget.• Leading a lab of 3 research technicians and 2 undergraduates.• Used immunofluorescence and Western blotting to demonstrate that glutamine deprivation causes reactivation of HSV-1 and two other herpesviruses. This work is the basis for a clinical trial currently being conducted at the National Institutes of Health.• Examined gene expression with luciferase and gfp expression assays.• Used an ELISA to examine cellular DNA synthesis and a slot… Show more • Managing a $400,000 annual budget.• Leading a lab of 3 research technicians and 2 undergraduates.• Used immunofluorescence and Western blotting to demonstrate that glutamine deprivation causes reactivation of HSV-1 and two other herpesviruses. This work is the basis for a clinical trial currently being conducted at the National Institutes of Health.• Examined gene expression with luciferase and gfp expression assays.• Used an ELISA to examine cellular DNA synthesis and a slot blot hybridization assay to examine viral DNA synthesis.• Determined glutathione concentration through a luciferase assay.• Observed formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) through a fluorescence assay.• Used an NADH absorbance assay to determine glutamine and glutamate concentrations.• Used a World Precision Instruments (WPI) free radical analyzer to determine nitric oxide concentration in cell culture.• Wrote standard operating procedures for this lab. Show less

• Used flow cytometry to examine the relationship between the cell cycle and replication an HSV-1 mutant. The results contradicted a 1991 paper that was widely accepted in the field.• Used virus plaque assays and growth curves to determine how cellular stress affects virus replication.• Identified through microarray analysis cellular genes whose expression is affected by cellular stresses that cause enhanced plating efficiency of an HSV-1 mutant virus.• Used flow cytometry and… Show more • Used flow cytometry to examine the relationship between the cell cycle and replication an HSV-1 mutant. The results contradicted a 1991 paper that was widely accepted in the field.• Used virus plaque assays and growth curves to determine how cellular stress affects virus replication.• Identified through microarray analysis cellular genes whose expression is affected by cellular stresses that cause enhanced plating efficiency of an HSV-1 mutant virus.• Used flow cytometry and Western blots to demonstrate that glutamine deprivation causes reactivation of two herpesviruses.• Used a mouse ocular model followed by neuronal explantation and cell culture to study HSV-1 reactivation following glutamine deprivation.• This research resulted in a patent filed in 2008 (20090176743. Methods for treating or preventing reactivation of a latent herpesvirus infection.) Show less

• Studied the nodulating and nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti and its symbiotic partner alfalfa for Ph.D. thesis.• Generated more than 100 unique vectors using gene cloning methods and site-directed mutagenesis.• Made more than 100 unique bacterial strains by high throughput random mutagenesis and by directed mutagenesis using integration of suicide vectors.• Conducted high throughput transposon mutagenesis and analyzed mutants by inverse PCR followed by sequencing… Show more • Studied the nodulating and nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti and its symbiotic partner alfalfa for Ph.D. thesis.• Generated more than 100 unique vectors using gene cloning methods and site-directed mutagenesis.• Made more than 100 unique bacterial strains by high throughput random mutagenesis and by directed mutagenesis using integration of suicide vectors.• Conducted high throughput transposon mutagenesis and analyzed mutants by inverse PCR followed by sequencing and BLAST searches.• Confirmed directed mutations by Southern blotting.• Studied gene mutations in Sinorhizobium by infecting plants in a nitrogen fixation assay.• Used a flow cytometer/cell sorter to enrich a population of bacterial mutants.• Purified a bacterial transcriptional activator and showed with a gel shift assay that it is a DNA-binding protein.• Used HPLC to examine sugar usage in bacterial cultures.• Performed bacterial growth curves to analyze carbon usage.• Developed and characterized a promoter-gfp plasmid for use in studying the ecology of sugar flow through the rhizosphere. Show less

• Purified polysaccharide-protein conjugates by size exclusion chromatography (SEC).• Developed conjugate vaccines consisting of a polysaccharide backbone with cross-linked protein. These vaccines are now in production.• Anesthetized and inoculated cotton rats.• Investigated immunologic response of cotton rat animal model to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).