After graduation from the Department of Biology at MIT, I moved on to postdoctoral training in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. I then established my own research lab as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and taught medical students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After four years I moved my lab to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where I am currently Associate Professor of Cell Biology.
Teaching
Since 1983, I have taught students in Biochemistry, Biophysics, Physiology, and Cell Biology as well as in developing students’ critical and scientifically creative thinking skills in active learning in-class and on-line. In three of these areas, I have helped develop innovative learning-teaching strategies in new courses, based on what I have learned from my students and advances in cognitive science. I have been an elected member of the Academy of Master Educators at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine since 2005. I was Co-Lead of the two-year Planning Phase 2 of Curriculum Reform, which produced the blueprint of the MD program's innovative Three Rivers Curriculum. I have received from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine the Sheldon Adler Award for Innovation in Medical Education in 2005, the Pre-Clinical Medical Student Education Award from the NEGEA of the AAMC in 2006, the Kenneth E. Schuit Award, Recognizing the Dean's Master Educators in 2014, and the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2022, for exceptional contributions to medical education, including the development of courses that have significantly enhanced the School of Medicine’s national reputation.
- Post-Doc - Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
- PhD - Department of Biology at MIT
Education & Training
Peptide hormones enter the secretory pathway as propeptides and must traffick out of the ER through the Golgi to secretory granules specialized for the regulated release of their cargo. The itinerary requires proper folding and proteolytic maturation of the propeptides into mature peptide hormones. My work has featured the first use of tagging the propeptide but not the mature peptide hormone with fluorescent proteins. I have served on study sections, including the European Research Council (ERC), NIH, ADA, and JDRF. I have received a major Innovator award from the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor in 2010 for commercially successful inventions which have garnered income from a large pharmaceutical company.