I was trained as a Developmental Biologist and my broad interests focus on regulation of genes that serve to distinguish and define specific cell types in maturing tissues. My coworkers and I have defined a number of specific gene products that define cells of the vertebrate neural retina. One such gene product is the enzyme Carbonic Anhydrase which is expressed specifically by the glial cells of the retina. Other gene markers for the glial cells have been utilized in analyses of the regulation of cell phenotype maturation. My expertise with Carbonic Anhydrase has also drawn me into a project which focuses on the biology of disease vector mosquitoes and in particular larval molecular physiology. Our recent investigations have shown that mosquitoes possess as many as 14 Carbonic Anhydrase genes which are differentially expressed. Currently we are building a comprehensive physiological model of larval mosquito gut function in relation to its relatively unique alkaline digestive strategy. Mosquitoes are the number one threat to human health according to the World Health Organization with Malaria alone killing 3,000 children per day. Hence our investigations of larval mosquito biology have the potential to generate new control strategies and to help alleviate the burden of diseases vectored by mosquitoes.

Our lab is pursuing two very different projects. The first is aimed at delineating molecular mechanisms that regulate gene cell development in the vertebrate neural retina. The second project focuses on the molecular physiology of the alkaline gut of the mosquito larva.

I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from the University of Cincinnati in 1977 and then moved to Chicago to perform postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Professor A.A. Moscona at the University of Chicago. I joined the University of FloridaÕs Whitney Laboratory and the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in 1982 as an Assistant Professor. I have remained on the faculty of the University of Florida since then with a brief (1 year) sabbatical spent at the National Institutes of Health in 1990. The one distinguishing characteristic that I possess is unusually long fingernails on my right hand which are a reflection of my passion for playing fingerstyle guitar.