Research Summary
My principal research interests are in the genetic susceptibility to complex diseases and in developing assays to measure DNA damage. I serve as the director of the Appalachian Cardiovascular Research Network (ACoRN). Cardiovascular disease (CAD) and one of its contributing causes, obesity, are significant health problems in West Virginia (WV). WV also has the highest rate of obesity. ACoRN is designed to explore the genetic and environmental causes of cardiovascular disease as well as the mechanism(s) of action of therapeutic agents. The ACoRN team is composed of biomedical investigators at Marshall University, West Virginia University, the University of Kentucky, West Liberty University and Charleston Area Medical Center. ACoRN projects include investigations on the genetic basis of Familial Combined Hyperlipidemia, epicardial fat biomarkers in CAD patients in Appalachia, use of gene expression post-stroke to predict stroke outcome, mechanisms of statin mode of action, and the regulation of brain endothelial phenotype and function by diabetic plasma.
I also serve as the director of the MU Genomics Core Facility (http://musom.marshall.edu/genomics/). The Genomics Core Facility provides the following services to researchers at Marshall and other universities: (1) Next Generation DNA Sequencing (2) microarray-based gene expression profiling and pathway analysis, (2) automated DNA sequencing and genotyping, (3) access to real-time thermal cyclers for quantitative PCR and Luminex 100 for multiplex protein detection.