Dr. Mary B. Sevigny obtained a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology, with emphasis in Microbiology, from U.C. Berkeley in 1992. She received her PhD. in Microbiology from U.C. Davis in 1998. In 2000 she accepted a research position as a postdoctoral fellow in the Neurology Department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. She was an adjunct instructor at Napa Valley College for three semesters (2004- 2005) and joined the faculty at Dominican in Fall 2006. She has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses at Dominican, including Advanced Microbiology, Medical Microbiology, Immunology, Advanced Molecular Biotechnology, Research Methodology, and Molecular Diagnostics Lab. From 2013- 2019, Mary was the Director of the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Masters Program, which she co-founded. Much of her research interests have involved studying “cancer-promoting” enzymes that either glycosylate other proteins or are glycosylated themselves. Her studies have focused on how this glycosylation may affect the development of certain kinds of cancers. Her most recent research has involved determining (1) how glycosylation of the pro-inflammatory enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) affects its function and role in cancer progression and (2) the role of steroid receptors— particularly estrogen receptor a (ERa)— in breast cancer progression.

Currently, Mary is an Adjunct Professor at Dominican University. She is also a Scientific Review Officer for General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) where she manages peer review panels for grant applications submitted to the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).