Education:

1. B.S. in Entomology, Louisiana State University
2. Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley

Insect Research

• Exploit a fundamental understanding of insect developmental biology for the control of insect pests;
• Develop site-directed inhibitors for enzymes involved in juvenile hormone metabolism;
• Design chemical and biochemical agents for the disruption of insect development;
• Use clone proteins expressed in baculovirus vectors for insect control;
• Investigate regulation of endocrine events at the molecular level.

Mammalian Research

• Examine the effect of hepatic enzymes on foreign compounds in our diet and the influence of these compounds on hepatic  enzymes,
• Examine the mechanism of action of nongenotoxic carcinogens and their influence on esterases, epoxide hydrolases, and glutathione transferases;
• Design selective inhibitors, substrates and purification systems for hepatic esterases and expoxide hydrolases;
• Clone and hyper-express esterases and epoxide hydrolases for structural and toxicological studies.

Immunochemistry

• Development of assays for serum, urinary and other biomarkers for human exposure to foreign compounds;
• Development of immunoassays for pesticide residues in food and environmental samples;
• Development of immunoassays for industrial wastes;
• Development of assays for products of recombinant DNA research in agriculture;
• Development of rapid assays for analysis of toxic metals;
• Development of sample processing and clean up methods for immunoassays;
• Development of immunoaffinity chromatography systems for analysis of environmental contaminants;
• Validation of immunoassay protocols and integration with classical analytical technologies;
• Novel methods of hapten synthesis and presentation;
• Evaluation and development of novel immunoassay formats;
• Encourage and provide support for the transfer of immunoassay technology to other laboratories;
• Improve methods of antibody production and engineering.  We place heavy emphasis on PCR cloning techniques in bacterial systems followed by eukaryotic expression to yield glycosylatedmolecules;
• Antibody formatting for biosensor and field portable approaches;
• Accelerator mass spectrometry for pharmacokinetics and immunoassay.