Vellareddy Anantharam, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Anantharam's research centers around the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and neuroprotection and the application of such information to the development of novel strategies for treating several neurological disorders.

Jeffrey Beetham, Associate Professor, Veterinary Pathology; Entomology
Parasitology, oxidative stress, lysozomes, gene regulation.

Diane Birt, Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Identification and study of mechanisms for cancer prevention by novel dietary constituents and mechanisms for cancer enhancement by overeating and obesity. Assessment of potential bioactive and toxic components of botanical dietary supplements and studies on the mechanism of these effects.

Bryony Bonning, Associate Professor, Entomology
Virus-based strategies for management of insect pests; Risk assessment of a recombinant baculovirus insecticide that expresses a basement membrane-degrading protease, Novel insect toxins for pest management, Cost-effective production of baculovirus insecticides, Identification of molecular determinants of baculovirus host ran. Use of small RNA viruses for aphid control. Analysis of a putative esterase binding protein,

Joel Coats, Professor, Entomology
Joel Coats' major research areas are insecticide toxicology and environmental toxicology. His specific interests in insecticide toxicology include mechanisms of toxic action, selectivity, metabolism, and structure-activity relationships. He conducts studies on the spectrum of activity and mode of action of several classes of natural products as insecticides. Their potential utility in insect control is evaluated, derivatives and analogs are synthesized and bioassayed, and structure-activity relationships are developed.

Timothy Day, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Day's research centers on the neuromuscular systems of parasitic worms. He does all of the electrophysiology in his research lab and the isolated muscle contraction work. Dr. Day is also coordinating the bioinformatic and PCR-based efforts to discover neuropeptide receptors in parasitic worms, focused mostly on schistosomes.

Alan DiSpirito, Associate Professor, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Bioenergetics of chemoautotrophic and methanotrophic bacteria

Steven Ensley,Clinician/Toxicology Section Leader, Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine
Toxicology, Field Investigation of Tox Issues, Drinking Water Quality

Jiasong Fang, Assistant Professor Geological and Atmospheric Science
Marine biogeochemical cycles; biochemistry of extremophiles; microbial degradation of toxic organics.

Tom Glanville, Professor, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Current research efforts include agricultural water quality and management, engineering for economically and environmentally sound animal production systems, grain handling and food processing, agricultural machine design and automated controls, precision farming systems, agricultural safety, seed conditioning and processing, and soil tillage and management systems.

Larry Halverson,Senior Lecturer, Plant Pathology
My research group focuses on how water deprivation (low moisture contents, high salinity) influences biofilm growth and development, and survival (fitness), and the diversity of bacteria in residing in soil or in association with plants.

Suzanne Hendrich, Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Food toxicology; gut microbial metabolism of phytochemicals; health effects and bioavailability of soybean isoflavone, detoxification of fumonisin (a corn fungal toxin), immune and other cellular functional regulation by prostaglandins and oxidatively modified (S-thiolated) proteins.

Walter Hsu, Professor, Biomedical Sciences

Walter Hyde, Professor, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and Production Animal Medicine
Dr. Hyde designs and implements all aspects of a chemical analysis laboratory for the detection, identification and legal confirmation of drugs and foreign compounds in biological samples for several state and association-based pari-mutual regulatory agencies (Complementary Drug Testing). In addition, Dr. Hyde and the Racing Chemistry Lab provide international proficiency testing programs to testing labs around the world.

Anumantha Kanthasamy, Eugene and Linda Lloyd Professor and Chair of Toxicology, Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Kanthasamy's work focuses on the effects of environmental neurotoxicants on pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease and Prion diseases. Interests: neurotoxicology, neuropharmacology, neuroprotection, neuroinflammation, signal transduction, gene expression and regulation, apoptosis.

Arthi Kanthasamy, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences
Parkinson's disease, stroke and drug abuse. Interests: neurodegeneration, signal transduction, animal models, autophagy, ischemia, apoptosis.

Jacek Koziel, Assistant Professor Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Research interests: Quantification of emissions of volatile organic compounds, odor, NH3, H2S, and particulate matter from livestock operations, chemical and sensory analysis of odors from confined animal feeding operations using solid phase microextraction, multidimensional gas chromatography, mass spectromety, and olfactometry (SPME, GC, MS, O); development and testing of odor control technologies; environmental analysis; biotechnology; plant-aphid-insect interactions, human breath and oral malodor, polyphenolic compounds in grapes and wines.

George Kraus, Professor, Chemistry
Our approach to total synthesis involves first the creation of generally-useful methodology for natural product subunits (such as quinones or lactones) which are common to a variety of natural products. This methodology is then applied to those compounds for which it is most appropriate. The development of methods for quinone synthesis has led to highly efficient and regioselective syntheses of pyranonaphthoquinones. The development of reactive bridgehead intermediates has led to direct syntheses of lycopodine and modhephene. The study of the stereoselectivity of the Norrish type II photocyclization has led to an expedient synthesis of paulownin, a biologically-active lignan. The more recent studies on the chemistry-virology interface have led to an interesting chemotherapeutic approach termed the "molecular flashlight".

Ruth MacDonald, Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition. Identifying factors in foods that reduce the incidence or progression of cancer.

Richard Martin, Professor and Chair of Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Sciences
My research activity stems from an interest in the electrical properties of cells and their responses to drugs. I have developed the Ascaris suum, Oesophagostomum dentatum & Schistosoma mansoni preparations for electrophysiological recording and the examination of the mode of action of anthelmintics which exert their effects on membrane ion-channels.

Thomas Moorman, Professor, Agronomy.
Research seeks to determine environmental impacts of agriculture, especially fate and behavoir of agricultural chemicals, biodegradation processes, and microbial communities in soil.

Gary Munkvold, Associate Professor, Plant Pathology
My research program has two foci: diseases that affect the production and utilization of seeds; and epidemiology and management of mycotoxigenic fungi in corn.

Patricia Murphy, Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Soybean isoflavone analysis and health benefits; fumonisin toxicology; soy storage proteins.

Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Professor, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology
Regulation of gene expression by growth factors in animal cells, Imaging of gene expression in vivo, Applications of aptamers to medical technology

Gary Osweiler, Professor, Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and Production Animal Medicine
Dr. Osweiler's professional activities include chemical poisoning, drug and chemical residues and preventive management for drug and chemical problems in food animals. His recent research has involved the toxicological characterization of fumonisin toxicosis in swine and the alleviation of toxic effects by dietary supplementation.

Jo Anne Powell-Coffman, Associate Professor , Genetics, Development and Cell Biology
The Powell-Coffman Lab employs a powerful genetic model system, the nematode C. elegans, to study how animals sense and adapt to their environment. Currently, the lab’s research is focused on two biomedically important transcription factors: the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) and the hypoxia- inducible factor (HIF).

Dusan Palic, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Sciences
His main research interest is innate immunology and diseases of aquatic organisms. He also performs research in mammalian and bird innate immunology, as well as aquatic ecosystem health.

Manju Reddy, Associate Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Role of iron in Parkinson's and cardiovascular diseases and role of dietary components that affect iron metabolism on preventing these diseases.

Eric Rowe, Assistant Professor Biomedical Sciences
Glial/neuron interactions in both the healthy brain and in neurodegenerative disorders.

Matthew Rowling, Assistant Professor Food Science and Human Nutrition
Nutrient and hormone transport mechanisms in relation to chronic disease. Health protective effects of nutritional supplementation relevant to chronic disease.

Kevin Schalinske, Associate Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
Nutritional and hormonal regulation of folate/ methyl group metabolism relevant to health and disease.

Ravindra Singh, Associate Professor, Biomedical Sciences.
Singh group works on the interface of fundamental and translational biology. General interest of his group has been to understand the mechanism of alternative splicing, a vital process that increases the coding potential of genome in all higher eukaryotes. Alternative splicing is also associated with a growing number of diseases including neurological and neuromuscular disorders, cardiovascular disorders and cancer. Particular focus of his group has been to understand the molecular basis of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a debilitating genetic disease of infants and children. His award-winning discovery relates to finding a unique regulatory element located within the non-coding region (or intron) of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) gene. He has termed this novel regulatory element as “Intronic Splicing Silencer N1”, which is abbreviated as “ISS-N1”. Currently, his group is working on the mechanistic details of how ISS-N1 could be used as a therapeutic target. His other interests include RNA-protein interactions and isolation of RNA aptamers as detection and diagnostic tools.

Jeff Wolt, Professor Agronomy
Risk analysis for new technologies in agriculture with emphasis on plant biotechnology. Applied soil solution chemistry as it pertains to plant nutrition and environmental fate of xenobiotics and transgenic protein.

Edward Yu, Assistant Professor Physics and Astronomy
Multidrug efflux pumps are now known to exist in most living cells. These membrane proteins recognize a number of structurally unrelated toxic compounds and actively extrude them from cells. Our long-term goal is to elucidate the structures and fundamental mechanisms that give rise to multiple drug recognition and extrusion in these multidrug transporters. The primary target of our work is the Escherichia coli AcrB multidrug efflux pump, which shows the widest substrate specificity among all known multidrug transporters, ranging from most of the currently used antibiotics, disinfectants, dyes, detergents, to simple solvents. This inner membrane efflux pump, AcrB, interacts with a periplasmic membrane fusion protein, AcrA, to mediate the extrusion of drugs from E. coli.

URL: http://www.grad-college.iastate.edu/toxicology/faculty.html
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