Postdoctoral Research and Teaching; James Madison University, Harrisonburg VA Ph.D.; Miami University, Oxford OH B.S.; Central State University, Wilberforce OH
My research interest is in the diversity of function and regulation observed within enzyme families, primarily through use of a family of starch degradation enzymes, β-amylases, in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Some research questions that stem from this interest include: (1) How are similar enzymes selectively regulated to restrict function to specific times and stress conditions; (2) How is degradation of starch in leaves altered throughout plant development to maximize growth and adapt to stress; (3) Are non-catalytic members within enzyme families serving regulatory roles? Undergraduate and graduate students in my lab will have projects related to these broad questions involving a variety of approaches, such as generation and characterization of transgenic and T-DNA knock-out plants, protein bioinformatics, enzyme kinetics, molecular cloning and analysis of protein interactions and modifications.