External Advisory Board
We have assembled an outstanding group of individuals who come from across the country to serve as an External Advisory Board for the BCMB Department. The purpose of the Board is to provide input on our departmental mission and goals and to give feedback on a variety of issues regarding our curriculum, our preparation of students for future careers, the research activities in the department, and our outreach activities. On May 27th and 28th some of members came to Knoxville for the first meeting of the Board. On Thursday night the BCMB faculty and Board had an informal get-together to become acquainted and introduce the department to the visitors. On Friday morning, the Board members met at Walters Life Sciences Building for a tour of our facilities, a presentation by Dr. Peterson with an overview of department activities, and a presentation by Randy Atkins on development activities in the College of Arts and Sciences and in BCMB. This continued with research presentations by Barry Bruce, Rebecca Prosser and Jeremy Smith. The Board enjoyed a luncheon with many of our BCMB graduate students. The day continued with presentations highlighting our graduate student and undergraduate student research activities. The department looks forward to hosting the External Advisory Board for a visit again during the current academic year.
Pictured (left to right): Dr. Cynthia Peterson, Dr. Carole Dabney-Smith, William Beasley, Dr. Paul Naylor, Dr. Robert Tilton, Dr. Mary Ann Handel and Dr. Sean Sullivan. Not Pictured: Dr. Mary Kot, Dr. John Lamerdin, Paul Ottaviano, Dr. Richard Smith, Dr. Jason Williams, Dr. Kenneth Monty
William Beasley
William G. Beasley, BS, CCRP is the Vice President of Clinical Research at BioMimetic Therapeutics, Inc., located in Franklin, TN. He received a B.S. in Biology (cum laude) from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Mr. Beasley led the orthopedic program resulting in the Device License Application (DLA) approval in Canada and pending Pre-Market Application (PMA) review for recombinant growth factor for foot and ankle fusion applications. In addition, he directed the clinical operations for the Company’s lead therapeutic application for recombinant platelet-derived growth factor (rhPDGF-BB) approved for dental applications. Mr. Beasley’s clinical trial therapeutic experience includes; CNS (Multiple Sclerosis, migraine); Dermatology (Psoriasis) Orthopedics, Periodontics, Tissue Engineered Therapeutics and In vitro Diagnostics. He has certifications and memberships in the Certified Clinical Research Professional (CCRP), the Drug Information Association (DIA), the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) and the Society of Clinical Research Associates (SoCRA). His awards and honors include Phi Beta Kappa, Golden Key National Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society and Order of Omega.
His publications include:
Genco R, Lavin P, Lynch SE, Beasley WG, Lynch LW. A New Composite Endpoint To Assess Efficacy In Periodontal Therapy Clinical Trials; J Periodontol. 2006 Aug;77(8): 1314-22.. (Recipient of R. Earl Robinson Periodontal Regeneration Award)
Mitchel JT, Ernst CE, Cappi S, Beasley WG, Lau A, Kim YJ, Yoo J: Changing Roles of Data Management, Clinical Research, Biostatistics and Project Management When Implementing Internet-Based Clinical Trials; DIA Forum.
Mitchel JT, Ernst CE, Cappi S, Beasley WG, Lau A, Kim YJ, Yoo J: Meeting the Challenges of Internet-based Clinical Trials; Applied Clinical Trials. June 2004, Vol. 13, No. 6.
Carole Dabney-Smith, PhD
Dr. Carole Dabney-Smith is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Miami University located in Oxford, OH. She received her Ph.D from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology in 2001. She has received funding from the Department of Energy Early Career Research Program for “Thylakoid Assembly and Folded Protein Transport” and from the Ohio Plant Biotechnology Consortium Research Initiative for “Understanding thylakoid protein transport for improved Ohio crops,” as well as internal funding from the College of Arts and Science Summer Research Grant and the Miami University Committee for Faculty Research for the “Overexpression and Purification of Membrane-Bound Protein Transport Components”. She is a member of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research, American Society of Cell Biology, the American Society of Plant Biologists, and a member of the Midwest-Section American Society of Plant Biologists. Dr. Dabney-Smith received the Science Alliance Graduate Student Award for Research, the Alexander Hollaender Fellowship, Yates Dissertation Fellowship and the Citation for Extraordinary Professional Promise from the University of Tennessee. She has been an invited presenter for the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Cincinnati, also for the 13th International Congress on Photosynthesis, Montreal, CA,, , and for the Southern-Section American Society of Plant Biologists, Chattanooga, TN.
Some of her publications:
Dabney-Smith, C. and Cline, K. 2009. Clustering of C-terminal stromal domains of Tha4 homo- oligomers during translocation by the Tat protein transport system. Mol Biol Cell 20:2060-2069. doi:10.1091/mbc.E08-12-1189. PMCID: PMC2663938.
Cline, K. and C. Dabney-Smith. 2008. Plastid protein import and sorting: different paths to the same compartments. Curr Opin Plant Biol 11(6): 585-92. PMCID: PMC2628589.
Auldridge ME, Block A, Vogel JT, Dabney-Smith C, Mila I, Bouzayen M, Magallanes-Lundback M, DellaPenna D, McCarty DR, Klee HJ. 2006. Characterization of three members of the Arabidopsis carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase family demonstrates the divergent roles of this multifunctional enzyme family. Plant J 45(6):982-993.
Dabney-Smith, C; Mori, H; and Cline K. 2006. Oligomers of Tha4 organize at the thylakoid Tat translocase during protein transport. J Biol Chem 281:5476-5483.
Mary Ann Handel, PhD
Dr. Mary Ann Handel received her Ph.D. in Biology from Kansas State University. Her current position is Senior Research Scientist and Director of Cooperative Predoctoral Program at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maine and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Handel served on the faculty of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, from 1973 – 2003, until she moved to the Jackson Laboratory. She holds research grants from the National Institute of Health to investigate cell cycle regulation in spermatogenesis, chromatin structure during spermatogenesis, and to analyze newly induced mutations affecting meiosis. Dr. Handel has received honors as The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health Larry Ewing Memorial Lecturer, from the Association for Women in Science East Tennessee Chapter for Distinguished and Sustained Scientific Contributions, and the American Society for Andrology ASA/NME State of the Art Lecture, the University of Tennessee Macebearer and the University of Tennessee Distinguished Service Professor from 1989 – 2003. She is the Consulting Editor for Biology of Reproduction and was the Editor-in-Chief for Biology of Reproduction from July 2004 – June 2009. She published a book in 1998, entitled Meiosis and Gametogenesis.
Recent publications include:
Handel MA, JC Schimenti. 2010. Genetics of mammalian meiosis: regulation, dynamics and impact on fertility. Nat Rev Genet 11:124-136.
Sun F, K Palmer, MA Handel. 2010. Mutation of Eif4g3, encoding a eukaryotic translation initiation factor, causes male infertility and meiotic arrest of mouse spermatocytes. Development 137:1699-1707.
Reinholdt LG, A Czechanski, S Kamdar, BL King, F Sun, MA Handel. 2009. Meiotic behavior of aneuploid chromatin in mouse models of Down syndrome. Chromosoma 118:723-736.
Mary Kot, PhD
Dr. Mary Kot, Professor of Biology and former Chair of Biology from 2003-2010 has been at Mercer University since 1991. She is currently the Director of Global Health Systems and was the Director of Scientific Inquiry Program at Mercer University from 2002-2003. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her specialty is Cell Biology and her research interest is the contribution of Candida albicans to biofilm formation. Dr. Kot has written a paper, “The Hungry Gene as a Core Text in a Freshman Learning Community” that was included in the book The Place of Core.
Some of her publications:
Crecink ME and MA Handel (1985), Binding of abnormal sperm to mouse egg zonae pellucidae and plasmalemmae in vitro. Paper presented at 1985 Southeastern Regional Developmental Biology Conference.
Handel MA, PA Hunt, MC Kot, C Park, and M Shannon (1991), Role of the Sex Chromosomes in the Control of Male Germ-Cell Differentiation In The Male Germ Cell: Spermatogonium to Fertilization. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 637: 64-73.
Handel MA, C Park, and MC Kot, Genetic Control of Sex-Chromosome Inactivation During Male Meiosis. Biology of Reproduction.
Kot MC and MA Handel (1989), Spermatogenesis in XOSxr Mice: Role of the Y Chromosome. Journ Exp Zoology 256:92-105.
Kot MC and MA Handel (1987), Binding of morphologically abnormal sperm to mouse egg zonae pellucidae in vitro. Gamete Research 18:57-66.
Kot MC and MA Handel (1987), Spermatogenic kinetics and differentiation in XOSxr Mice. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction.
Kot MC. (2003), The Hungry Gene as a Core Text in a Freshman Course. The Association for Core Texts and Course 2003 Meeting. Atlanta Georgia.
Kot MC (2007), “The Hungry Gene as a Core Text in a Freshman Learning” Community””, in The Place of Core Texts edited by J. Scott Lee and published by the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC).
John Lamerdin, PhD
John Lamerdin is currently Senior Counsel in the Intellectual Property and Litigation group of Amgen Inc in Thousand Oaks, CA. He was previously Associate Patent Counsel and Patent Counsel in the Patent Department of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co in Princeton, NJ. Before practicing as an in-house attorney, John was an Associate Attorney with Jenkins & Wilson, a patent law firm in Durham, NC. John earned his PhD in the Biochemistry Department at UT Knoxville working in the lab of Dr Engin Serpersu. John also holds a JD from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, NH and an MS in Chemistry (concentration in biochemistry) from San Francisco State University in San Francisco, CA. John did his undergraduate studies at the University of Redlands in Redlands, CA, where he earned a BS in Chemistry and a BA in Philosophy. He is licensed in various state and federal courts and focuses his practice on biopharmaceutical and biotechnology patent and intellectual property matters.
Kenneth Monty, PhD
As an undergraduate at Bowdoin College, Ken developed a double major in Chemistry and Physics. The University of Rochester School of Medicine offered him a graduate research assistantship in Biochemistry. His first biology course, ever, was med school physiology, and his research was on the question of where the DNA and the newly discovered RNA were to be found in the sub-cellular structures of mammalian cells. WithPh.D. inhand (1955), he went to the Biology Department and McCollum-Pratt Institute at Johns Hopkins University, first as a research associate and then as an Assistant Professor. He studied the negative metabolic effects of molybdenum and selenium, of great significance to grazing livestock in parts of the U.S. and Canada. Finding the failed synthesis of cysteine and methionine by enteric bacteria to be the central problem led to over 15 years of study of the enzymology of the cysteine biosynthetic pathway in Salmonella typhimurium, definition of the genes coding for that pathway, of how the synthesis of the enzymes was controlled, and of how feed-back inhibition by metabolic intermediates controlled the function of the enzymes once synthesized. Control of gene function for this pathway was the first published example of positive rather than repressive action.
In the middle of that project, Ken was hired by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to create a biochemistry department within the College of Arts and Sciences. Much of the current organization of the biological sciences within the College, and of their undergraduate and graduate educational programs, reflect strongly the changes introduced in those 15 or so years.
Ken received an award for work with undergraduates through the Liberal Arts Advising Center. He participated in a program that brought high school students to campus (The Stokely Scholars Program), and subsequently became responsible for that program. In 1989 he was asked to form an Academy for Teachers of Math and Science, funded by a coalition of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Canadian Commissioner of Education and the Governor of Tennessee. Over the years 1993-2003, that program brought approximately 900 teachers from school systems around the Eastern U.S. and Canada for a summer month of exploring alternative goals and methods for the teaching of science and math in middle and high schools. To do these projects Ken carried the title Director of Special Programs, operating out of the Chancellor’s Office.
Now retired, he now indulges interests in music, woodworking, the outdoors of East Tennessee, and the exploration of reef structures and populations in the Caribbean and the Hawaiian Islands.
Paul Naylor, M.D., PhD
Dr. Paul T. Naylor is a practicing orthopedic surgeon in Knoxville, TN, who specializes in sports medicine, surgery of the shoulder, and total joint replacement. After graduating with his MD from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, he pursued his residency at the Wake Forest School of Medicine, North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. Before attending medical school, Dr. Naylor received his Ph.D., Biochemistry, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he was a published scientist studying cell biology, musculoskeletal infection, and antibiotic resistance. Dr. Naylor is a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Southern Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the Orthopaedic Research Society, and he is Licensed in the States of Tennessee and North Carolina.
Paul Ottaviano, M.S., MBA
Mr. Paul J. Ottaviano has over 35 years of executive leadership, entrepreneurial, research, and teaching experience in the healthcare industry. In addition he has taught undergraduate and graduate college level courses, served on the boards of colleges, presidential advisory committees, and lead research efforts at the medical school level. During these 35 years he has helped to found two publically traded companies (International Clinical Laboratories and ClinTrials Research) and two privately held companies (Cytometry Associates and GeneRx-Plus ). Since April of 2008 he has been teaching at the college level in both upper level science and business, and participating in various capacities with Emory School of Medicine, Lincoln Memorial University, Maryville College, and Tennessee Wesleyan College.
From July 2001 - April 2008, Mr. Ottaviano was President and Chief Executive Officer for several divisions of TEAM HEALTH Inc., including Anesthesia Management, After Hours Pediatrics, and Medical Call Centers / Occupational Health. Team Health is a billion dollar provider of hospital based physician services primarily to Emergency Departments. He served in the United States Army from 1971-1973 when he was honorably discharged. One of his many honors while serving was the National Service Commendation Medal. Mr. Ottaviano received his Masters of Business Administration in 1978 from the University of South Carolina and his M.S. in Microbiology from East Tennessee State University. He has been married to Cheryl for 40 years and has two sons and four grandchildren.
Richard Smith, M.D.
Dr. Richard Smith earned his M.D. at the University of Tennessee, Memphis in 1984. He did his Surgery internship and Orthopedic surgery residency at the University Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. He is a Tennessee native who is originally from Chattanooga, TN. Dr. Smith began his practice in 1990. He is a Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and possesses the American Board of Orthopedic Surgeons Certificate of Added Qualification in Surgery of the Hand. His interests are injuries and problems of the hand, wrist and elbow. Dr. Smith also specializes in the treatment of arthritis, carpal tunnel surgery and injuries of the upper extremity. Dr. Smith currently serves as a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Surgery as the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, TN. His professional distinctions are the Knoxville Academy of Medicine, the Knoxville Orthopedic Society, the Tennessee Orthopedic Society, the Tennessee Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery and the American Society of Surgery of the Hand. Dr. Smith enjoys golf, history and music. He is a gifted songwriter and has produced three gospel bluegrass CDs. All the proceeds go to various charities.
Sean Sullivan, PhD
Dr. Sean Michael Sullivan received his Ph.D. in 1984 in Biochemistry from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, followed by postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology from 1984-1987. In 2007 he became the Executive Director for Pharmaceutical Sciences Vical, Inc. located in San Diego, CA. Before this position he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Florida for seven years. Dr. Sullivan supervised an academic research program that developed cancer gene therapeutics for treatment of brain cancer with target focused on anti-angiogenesis and developed organ culture models for cerebral proliferating arteries and brain tumor slice cultures for screening genes and developing targeted delivery systems. He developed a drug delivery program at Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals (RPI) for the delivery of ribozymes. Both lipid and polymer based delivery vehicles were developed. He also successfully developed an in vivo ocular delivery vehicle at RPI for ribozyme delivery to the corneal epithelial layer of the eye using polyacrylic acid. He is a member of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Science and the America Society for Gene Therapy. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board for Discovery Genomics in Minneapolis, MN.
Some of his recent publications:
A. Vilalta, M. Shlapobersky, Q. Wei, R. Planchon, A. Rolland, S. Sullivan “Analysis of biomarkers after intramuscular injection of Vaxfectin-formulated hCMV gB plasmid DNA (2009) Vaccine 27:7409-7417
Sengupta N, Caballero S, Sullivan SM, Chang L-J, Afzal A, Calzi SL, Kielczewski JL, Prabarakan S, Ellis EA, Moldovan L, Moldovan NI, Bouldton ME, Grant MB “Regulation of adult hematopoietic stem cells fate for enhanced tissue-specific repair” (2009) Mol. Ther. 17: 1594-1604
Shlapobersky M, Wei Q, Sullivan S, Vilalta A “Vaxfectin®-adjuvanted seasonal influenza protein vaccine: Correlation of systemic and local immunological markers with formulation parameters” (2009) Vaccine 27:6404-6410
Robert Tilton, PhD
Dr. Robert F. Tilton, Jr. has worked for PhytoCeutica, Inc located in New Haven, CT since 2001. His current position is Chief Operating Officer. He received his Ph.D in 1984 in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California at San Francisco and pursued his postdoctoral work at MIT from 1984-1986. He was an Assistant Professor at the Scripps Research Institute until 1987, and has since worked at Bayer Pharmaceuticals and ArQule, Inc. before joining PhytoCeutica. His Research experience includes a broad range of techniques to explore protein structure and dynamics and protein ligand interactions. These techniques include NMR, X-ray crystallography and computational chemistry. At PhytoCeutica he is responsible for building a multidisciplinary group to establish a robust scientific and informatics foundation for the modernization and FDA approval of traditional Chinese botanicals. In addition, Dr. Tilton is responsible for the design and development of the PhytomicsQC platform for systematic quality control assessment, the design of sophisticated statistical and computational software for quantitative comparison of chemical and biological response profile patterns, the co-development of a comprehensive botanical informatics system to support drug discovery, the approval and the discovery and pre-clinical support for novel botanical formulations. Some of Dr. Tilton’s honors & awards include; Phi Beta Kappa, Regents Fellowship, Rho Chi Scholarship.
His recent publications:
Tilton, R.F., Paiva, A.A., Guan, J., Marathe, R., Jiang, Z., van Eyndhoven, W., Bjoraker, J., Prusoff, Z., Wang, H., Liu, S.H., Cheng, Y.C. (submitted, 2010) “PhytomicsQC: A Comprehensive Platform for Quality Control of Botanical Drugs – A Case Study of PHY906”.
Rong, J., Tilton, R., Shen, J., Ng, K.M., Liu, C., Tam, P.K., Lau, A.S., Cheng, Y.C. (2007) “Genome-wide Biological Response Fingerprinting (BioReF) of the Botanical Formulation ISF- Enables the Selection of Multiple Marker Genes as a Potential Metric for Quality Control”, Ethnopharmacol., 113(1), 35-44.
Coffen, D.L., Baldino, C.M., Lange, M., Tilton, R.F., Jr. , Tu, C. (1998) "Molecular Diversity, Biological Activity and Common Ground Shared By Both", Med.Chem.Res., 8, 206-218.
Jason Williams, PhD
Dr. Jason Grant Williams earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2001 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after graduating from the Biochemistry Department at UTK in 1996. Since 2004 he has been working for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences as the Director of the Protein Microcharacterization Core Facility (PMCF). He manages both the scientific and administrative operations of the PMCF by overseeing personnel, budget, and scientific projects. Dr. Williams also did his Postdoctoral Fellowship with NIEHS where he elucidated the antigenic surfaces of HIV p24 using limited proteolysis, chemical modification and mass spectrometry and also performed initial experiments into the investigation of the tertiary structures of other proteins using chemical modification and mass spectrometry. He developed a unique method of sample purification, concentration and introduction into a mass spectrometer for analyses of proteins and peptides. Some of his current memberships are The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities, The American Chemical Society, The American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the Triangle Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group. He has received a number of awards one of those being the NIH/NIEHS Performance Award, which he received in 2007, 2008, twice in 2009 and 2010. He also received from the Merit Scholarship and the Andrew Holt Scholarship from the University of Tennessee.
Some of his recent publications include:
McCormack T, Petrovich RM, Mercier KA, DeRose EF, Cuneo MJ, Williams J, Johnson KL, Lamb PW, London RE, Yakel JL. (2010) Biochemistry. 49(10):2279-87. “Identification and functional characterization of a novel acetylcholine-binding protein from the marine annelid Capitella teleta”
Guo X, Williams JG, Schug TT, Li X. (2010) J. Biol. Chem. 285(17):13223-32. “DYRK1A and DYRK3 promote cell survival through phosphorylation and activation of SIRT1.” Smyth, J.T., Petranka, J.G., Boyles, R.R., DeHaven, W.I., Fukushima, M., Johnson, K.L., Williams, J.G., and Putney, J.W. (2009) Nat. Cell Bio. 11:1465-1472. “Phosphorylation of STIM1 Underlies Suppression of Store-operated Calcium Entry During Mitosis.”