Alumni News
Michael Schurr, PhD After graduating with a Ph.D., he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) working on bacterial pathogenesis. While at UTHSCSA, he earned a postdoctoral fellowship from the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation (CFF) as the laboratory was (and still is) working on a bacterial pathogen that infects people with CF. In 1994, Jill Ruley (MS 1995 UNT Biology) and he married and lived in San Antonio until 1996. In 1996, his postdoctoral mentor, Dr. Vojo Deretic, moved to the University of Michigan Medical School. He went with him and since he had earned a New Investigator award from the CFF, he was promoted to Research Assistant Professor. We stayed at Michigan for 2 yrs, watched them win a National Championship in football (Go BLUE!!) and in 1998 he got my first independent tenure track faculty position at Tulane Medical School. We were in New Orleans from 1998 to 2006 where he earned promotion to Associate Professor with tenure (2004). After Katrina, he decided to relocate to The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. His laboratory, so far, has graduated 3 PhD students, trained 3 postdoctoral fellows and been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NASA, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the state of Louisiana Health Excellence Fund and Board of Regents Support Fund. He have published 36 peer-reviewed primary research articles and one book during my academic career, to date. He have taught medical microbiology lectures and labs to medical students every year since 1996. He have taught graduate level bacterial physiology, genetics and pathogenesis to graduate students since 1998. He currently serve on the editorial board of Infection and Immunity and have served on many NIH study section panels. More details about my specific research interests can be read at: http://uchsc.digitalassetsinc.com/Faculty/Schurr.php
Alan Prem Kumar, PhD earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Department of Biological Sciences under the mentorship of Dr. Gerard A. O’Donovan. From his Ph.D. work, he discovered a novel regulatory protein, PyrR for the pyrimidine biosynthetic pathway in Pseudomonas. Because pyrimidine biosynthesis is an essential step in the progression of secondary Pseudomonas infections, PyrR presents an attractive antipseudomonal drug target. Dr. Kumar then made a research focus switch from Microbiology to pursue Postdoctoral training in Cancer Research at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, California, USA with Dr. Wanda Reynolds. He was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship for his work on the role of nuclear receptors in the transcriptional regulation of human myeloperoxidase, a leukocyte enzyme implicated as causative agent in atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Following his postdoctoral years, Dr. Kumar relocated back to Singapore to join the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore as an independent Principal Investigator to continue on his expertise on nuclear receptor and cancer biology. His current research interest includes the role of nuclear receptors involved in the regulation of target genes and to elucidate mechanism and associated signal pathways. Another area of interest is to have a greater understanding of these nuclear receptors – aimed to develop new derivative drugs with hopefully fewer side effects. From a commercialization perspective, he recently co-filed a patent on a new potent PPARgamma ligand for treatment of diabetes and cancer. Dr. Kumar has also successfully set up a 3-country (Spain-USA-Singapore) collaboration agreement (covering patent issues as well) for another 16 new derivatives drugs - activators and inhibitors of PPARgamma for treatment of diabetes and cancer, thence to a clinical trial here in Singapore. Over the years, Dr. Kumar and his laboratory have forged several relationships with scientists in cancer research and with cancer advocacy groups in Singapore.
To read more about Dr. Alan Prem Kumar's research
Edward Keefer, PhD received his MS and PhD degree from the University
of North Texas, department of Biological Sciences. He published four
papers before the completion of his PhD degree in 2001 and was subsequently
invited to join Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman at the Neuroscience
Institute in San Diego as a postdoctoral fellow. Ed Keefer returned
to Texas in 2006 and is presently associated with the Department
of Plastic Surgery at the UTSW Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Keefer
has just published a paper in Nature Nanotechnology (listed below)
that reports the successful addition of single walled carbon nanotubes
to metal surfaces of microelectrodes. This represents a major step
forward in fabricating microelectrodes with very low impedances for
applications in pain management, control of epilepsy, and activation/movement
of prosthetic devices.
Edward W. Keefer, Barry R. Botterman, Mario I. Romero, Andrew F.
Rossi, and Guenter W. Gross (2008) Carbon nanotube coating improves
neuronal recordings. Nature Nanotechnology 3, 434 - 439 (01 Jul 2008).