Search 
MyUMUC 
WebTycho Biotechnology Studies
Graduate School of Management and Technology
Program Information
Certificate Programs
Events
Program Director
Rana Khan is the director of the MS in biotechnology program at UMUC. She received her PhD from University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Khan has extensive research experience in molecular biology, working both in academia and the government. Her research work over the years has been published in a number of peer-reviewed science journals. She has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate level. She teaches the Techniques in Biotechnology and Practicum courses.
Faculty
Robert Ouellette has over 25 years of experience in marketing, business development, and strategic planning. He has been teaching for more than five years as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Management and Technology at UMUC. Dr. Ouellette has taught classes in accounting, financial management, project management, technological forecasting, marketing, strategic planning, and entrepreneurship. He has also taught traditional and distance learning classes. He has held senior-level management positions, as well as director of marketing and business development positions for a number of firms. Dr. Ouellette is the author of 35 books on management, environment, energy, biotechnology, information management, and electrotechnologies. He has authored hundreds of articles and is a sought-after speaker. He was a founding member and first president of The Environmental Business Association and was formerly on the Northern Virginia Community College Education Foundation Board. Dr. Ouellette received a BS in biology from the University of Montreal, a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Ottawa, and a Masters of Business Administration from the New York Institute of Technology. At UMUC, he teaches Commercializing Biotech in Early Stage Ventures and the Capstone classes.
Nadim Alkharouf currently works as a bioinformatics research associate with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Dr. Alkharouf received his PhD from George Mason University in the field of computational sciences and informatics, specializing in bioinformatics. His areas of research include biological database modeling and design, specifically microarray gene expression databases, the development of online tools and applications for biological data mining and analysis, and the analysis of genomic and EST sequence data. He has extensive bioinformatics research experience working with the U.S. government and academic institutions around the Washington D.C., metropolitan area. Dr. Alkharouf has had extensive teaching experience; he has taught at George Mason University and universities abroad. He teaches the Introduction to Bioinformatics and Advanced Bioinformatics courses.
Hassan M. E. Azzazy, is an associate professor of chemistry at the American University in Cairo (AUC), Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Azzazy received his BSc and post-graduate diploma both in biochemistry from Alexandria University, Egypt. In 1994, Dr. Azzazy received his PhD, with honors, from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Prior to joining AUC, Dr. Azzazy was a faculty member at the departments of Pathology and Medical & Research Technology, University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore (1997-2002). He is a diplomate of the American Board for Clinical Chemistry and a fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry. Dr. Azzazy is a member of the Globalization Committee of the Board of Registry, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) in Chicago. He has American board certifications in both clinical chemistry and molecular diagnostics and has published extensively in internationally recognized journals. He has lectured at several international conferences in the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Japan. In 2002, Dr. Azzazy was recognized as an outstanding educator by Who's Who Among America's Teachers. He teaches the Societal Issues in Biotechnology course.
David Carlson is currently working as a toxicologist for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington, D.C. He received a BS in zoology from Duke University and a PhD in toxicology from Oregon State University. His biology interests and experience range from environmental toxicology, carcinogenesis, endocrine disruption to cell signaling, and xenobiotic cross-talk. Dr. Carlson works in the Office of Food Additive Safety at the FDA, reviewing toxicology information related to potential new food and color additives. He teaches the Biotechnology and the Regulatory Environment course.
Kai Chang is a specialist in molecular biology, tumor pathology, and immunology with an MD and postdoctoral training at National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. Professor Chang has been working for many research institutions of academia, industry, and government in multiple fields and disciplines from oncology, immunology, and cell biology, to genetic engineering, biochemistry, and bio-pharmacology, and, more recently, protein interaction and trafficking. As an author and reviewer for numerous professional journals, he also holds two biotechnology related patents that are now widely used in cancer diagnosis and biotherapy. Dr. Chang teaches Molecular Biology for Business Managers and Techniques of Biotechnology, as well as Virology Lab in the School of Undergraduate Studies.
Hoa Cost received her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her dissertation was on the link between cell adhesion and cell migration using the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum as a study model. Currently, Dr. Cost is an adjunct faculty member at Montgomery College teaching for the Chemistry department. Prior to this, she was a research scientist/postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), investigating approaches for automated detection of biological agents using microarray technology. While the time at APL was extremely rewarding, she decided to devote her efforts to teaching, which she has always enormously enjoyed. Dr. Cost has a number of professional publications in different major scientific journals. She teaches Societal Issues in Biotechnology.
Anthony Cristillo obtained his BS and PhD degrees in molecular biology/biochemistry from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. His doctoral work included characterization of immediate-early genes involved in T cell activation in response to host infection by viral pathogens. His thesis also involved bioinformatic analyses of different viral genomes (DNA and RNA structures) in order to identify mechanisms of viral latency. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular and cellular immunology at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland and studied regulation of the principle Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-1 co-receptor on T lymphocytes, CXCR4, as well as T cell signaling pathways. Dr. Cristillo earned a Master of Science degree in information systems technology from George Washington University and continued his research on T cell signaling pathways using bioinformatics in conjunction with cDNA microarray analysis. He is currently a senior staff scientist at Advanced BioScience Laboratories in Kensington, Maryland working in the field of HIV-1 vaccine and pathogenesis research. He has taught undergraduate biochemistry and life science laboratory courses and his academic/scientific interests include molecular biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and immunology. Dr. Cristillo teaches Molecular Biology for Business Managers.
Gennady Denisov received his PhD in physics and mathematics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He is currently working for the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland. Prior to this, he worked as project leader for Paracel, a business unit of Celera Genomics based in Pasadena, California. At Paracel, he was the key developer of TraceTuner, the DNA sequencing quality value and base calling software which was used by Celera in the sequencing of the Human Genome. Prior to joining Paracel, Dr. Denisov conducted research on mathematical modeling in biology and chemical engineering at several leading American universities, including Cornell and M.I.T. Before moving to the United States in 1994, he worked as senior research scientist in the Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology of the Scientific Center for Biological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Pushchino, Moscow. He teaches Introduction to Bioinformatics.
Shaojian "James" Gao is a principal system architect at Digicon Corporation. He currently works on a contractual bioinformatics project at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to that, he worked for MIMC International Consultant. He is an Oracle certified DBA for Oracle 8i/9i and Sun certified System Administrator for Solaris 8. In addition, he has worked on various database management systems for the past several years. At UMUC, he has been teaching the Introduction to Visual Basic undergraduate course since 1999. He teaches Introduction to Bioinformatics.
Beatrice Grabowski holds a BA and an MA in anthropology and a PhD in plant biology. Her research in anthropology was on the archaeology of the early inhabitants of the Brazilian Amazon Basin. Later, she worked as a technical editor in medical and science publishing and returned to academia to complete a PhD in plant biology, specifically on the molecular mechanisms of photosynthesis. She focused on studying of structural proteins of the antenna complexes in algae properties. Her postdoctoral research was on the initiation of DNA replication in Archaea. Dr. Grabowski teaches undergraduate biology at Montgomery College and Societal Issues in Biotechnology at UMUC.
Joshua Gray is a research scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, working in the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. He received his PhD in pathobiology (toxicology) and a BS in biochemistry from Penn State. Dr. Gray currently works on the role of reactive oxygen intermediates in mediating the toxicity of various compounds, including paraquat (a pesticide), adriamycin (an anti-cancer drug), and tannic acid (a dietary component).
Stuart B. Hardy is a consultant living in Rhode Island. Prior to 1999, he served as senior manager of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., where he directed the Chamber's energy, food, and natural resources section. Prior to that, he served on the staff of former Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) and on the staff of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Environmental Law Journal, among others. Dr. Hardy teaches Selection & Evaluation of Biotechnology Projects.
Richard Conroy is currently a NIH/NIST research fellow at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, studying the mechanisms that give rise to triplet repeat diseases. He has diverse research interests, which have taken him from his PhD work on laser design, through high resolution spectroscopy, ultracold atoms and microfluidics to his current interests in single molecule biophysics. Dr. Conroy teaches Commercializing Biotechnology in Early-Stage Ventures.
Howard Krivan is currently the president and chief scientist of a private biotechnology company located in Northern Nevada. The company specializes in developing technologies and pharmaceutical products to prevent STDs and infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. He was the founder and an executive officer of a development-stage infectious diseases biotechnology company where he also played a major role in leading the company to an IPO. A former staff fellow at NIH, Dr. Krivan holds 18 U.S. patents and many additional pending patent applications in such fields as anti-infective drugs, vaccines, and carbohydrate receptor, and lectin technologies. He has authored many peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters. Trained as a microbiologist, Dr. Krivan received BS and MS degrees from the University of New Mexico and a PhD from Virginia Tech. He currently teaches Bioterrorism and Biosecurity and Advanced Topics in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism.
Aiguo Li received her PhD in molecular biology from University of Idaho. She is currently working as a bioinformatics scientist at the Neuro-Oncology Branch of National Cancer Institute in NIH. Her project is focused on multiple high throughput approaches in solving the molecular networks or signatures related to gliomas classifications and clinical diagnostics. At Informax Inc., she designed PathBlazer software for analyzing biological pathways and molecular interactions networks. At USDA, she extensively used statistics and non-linear simulations in studying “greenhouse effect” on the crop growth and development. She teaches Introduction to Bioinformatics at UMUC.
Jamie Love is the director of Business Development and Marketing for a biotech company (producing and servicing microarrays) in the San Francisco Bay area. He has done research in oncology, genetics, immunology, transgenics, evolution, and virology in government, private, and university laboratories in the U.S. and England. Dr. Love earned his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans. In 1990, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, for his postdoctoral studies. During a ten-year period, he completed two post-doctoral degrees, became a biotech consultant, taught Medical Genetics and earned his MBA from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Meanwhile, Dr. Love spent several years studying the Open University's distance learning methods, produced several distance learning "hypertextbooks" and was a Learning/Production Editor for distance learning at Dundee College, Dundee Scotland. He joined the faculty at Napier University (Edinburgh) teaching genetics and coordinating their distance learning program. One month after Dr. Love was awarded tenure, his wife was offered a post with a small biotech start-up, so they resigned their permanent posts and entered the U.S. biotech "community of companies." At UMUC, Dr. Love teaches Selection & Evaluation of Biotechnology Projects.
Gennady Merkulov earned a doctorate degree in biochemistry, cell, and molecular biology from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He also studied microbiology and immunology at the University of Illinois and computer science at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. He conducted research in B-cell maturation at the University of Illinois and yeast transposable elements at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He's been published in the fields of immunology, virology, molecular genetics, and genomics. He also contributed to the study of the human genome during his years at Celera as a senior scientist in bioinformatics. His most recent experience was with the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. As a graduate student, he taught medical microbiology, and developed class materials for the University of Illinois School of Medicine. At UMUC, he designs and teaches courses in biotechnology and related statistics. He joined the UMUC faculty in August 2006.
Suchira Pande holds a BS from Delhi University, a MS in genetics from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, and a PhD in genetics from University of Alberta, Canada. Since arriving in the U.S. as a postdoctoral fellow in Yale University, she has had opportunities to work in various research universities and National Institutes of Health, all located on the East Coast. Dr. Pande also worked at University of Maryland at Baltimore County and Strasbourg in France. Currently, she works for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce in Maryland. Dr. Pande has taught genetics and molecular biology from the most basic to most advanced levels. She is teaching Biotechnology Practicum.
Dr. Lee Pierce's background is mostly in medicine and genetics. She holds a BA, an MS, and a PhD from the University of Rochester. Dr. Pierce continued her post-doctoral research with the Atomic Energy Commission. She also has a second bachelor's degree in Asian studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, which she earned in 1987. Her family lived in Tokyo from 1972 until 2002, when they moved back to the states. Dr. Pierce has been teaching for the Asian division since 1977, and is now teaching for Adelphi as well. In addition to teaching, she does a lot of scientific and medical editing. Dr. Pierce teaches Societal Issues in Biotechnology.
Wolfgang Rumpf obtained his PhD in molecular biology from Ohio State University in 1997, where he studied evolutionary questions using molecular phylogenetic techniques. Following his post-doctoral work at the Ohio State University College of Dentistry, where he used the same skills and techniques to help identify dental pathogens involved in periodontitis, he ran into some former acquaintances who were starting up a company (LabBook Inc.) that writes knowledge management software for scientists. He rapidly became entrenched in the corporate world. When LabBook Inc. crashed and burned in the biotech/dotcom bust of 2000, Wolfgang and several of the key players of LabBook became the founding members of a new company, Rescentris Ltd., where he helps design, sell, and support electronic laboratory notebook software for the life sciences.
Wolfgang is married to his high school sweetheart and is the father of three boys. His hobbies include collecting antique technology (specializing in 8-bit Atari computers), rebuilding and hotrodding Macintosh computers, and playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Dr. Rumphf teaches Introduction to Bioinformatics.
Peter Salmon obtained a BSc in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1980. After several years in the mines, he left Africa in 1982 to attend graduate school. He completed an MS and a PhD in biochemical engineering at Stanford University and an MSc in structural biology at the University of London (Birkbeck College). Dr. Salmon has worked in the research division of a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey since 1989. Currently, he is a senior director of Biologics Cell Culture Development, and leads a group of 25 people who work on the development and characterization of cell lines and processes to manufacture biological products (e.g., vaccines and monoclonal antibodies). In addition to teaching at UMUC, he has completed Web-supported courses at Columbia University, UC San Diego, Jones International University, and the University of Southern Queensland (where he earned a graduate diploma in information technology). Dr. Salmon teaches Societal Issues in Biotechnology.
Hugues Sicotte received his PhD in theoretical physics from Princeton. He was fascinated by the origins of life, the problems of DNA regulation, DNA replication, and protein folding. During his post-doctoral fellowship in France (1995-1996), Dr. Sicotte taught biophysics to undergraduate students while working on Markov models for DNA analysis. He switched to bioinformatics in January 1997. After a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at NCBI, he was offered a permanent staff-scientist position to work on human genome analysis. Currently, he is leading a genetics LIMS bioinformatics project for the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He has taught since 1992, and has taught bioinformatics since 1998. Dr. Sicotte teaches Statistical Processes in Biotechnology.
Appavu Sundaram received his PhD from Ohio State University. His studies were focused on the studying the interactions between retinoic acid and beta-lactoglobulin B as the model using various spectroscopic methods to understand the interactions. He has significant experience in the field of spectroscopy particularly UV-visible spectroscopy, IR spectrometry, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). He did his post-doctoral work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at the FDA. He currently works as a research scientist in a private biotechnology firm at Rockville, Maryland. His research interests include understanding the mechanism of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and bioassay optimization with an ultimate goal of developing biosensors to detect pathogens and toxins in food, water, and environmental samples. He has been studying the biochemical properties of microbial enzymes involved in biosynthesis of virulence factors, and using his skills in organic synthesis by preparing substrate analogs and labeled substrates to study the enzyme catalyzed reaction mechanisms. He has taught courses in biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and bio-analytical chemistry (laboratory) to undergraduate students. Dr. Sundaram teaches Molecular Biology for Business Managers.
Dr. Joseph Vockley received his BS degree in microbiology from Pennsylvania State University. He was awarded a PhD in molecular genetics from University of Delaware, after which he completed a clinical genetics residency and a post-doctoral fellowship at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Vockley is currently the laboratory/business director for the Biological and Chemical Defense Division of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). His work focuses on the development of bioinformatic software and a microarray-based detection system for the simultaneous identification and characterization of microbial threat agents, emerging threats, and genetically engineered microorganisms. Prior to working for SAIC, Dr. Vockley was vice president of genomics at Gene Logic, Inc., where he directed the construction of a large-scale gene expression microarray database. Previously, he was a senior scientist at SmithKline Pharmaceuticals where he worked on the discovery of diagnostic and therapeutic targets for cancer. Dr. Vockley is currently a member of the American Society of Human Genetics, the Society of Inherited Metabolic Disorders, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Vockley discovered two novel metabolic genes and numerous cancer diagnostic gene markers. He is an inventor on four issued patents and five published patent applications and has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in the fields of genetics, metabolic genetics, genomics, and cancer research. Dr. Vockley has taught undergraduate, graduate and medical school courses in Genetics, Microbiology, Biology, Botany, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Medical Genetics. Dr. Vockley teaches Introduction to Bioinformatics.
Staff
Mary A. Murrel is the academic coordinator for the biotechnology program. She advises students, assists in faculty staffing, and provides administrative support. Prior to that, she worked as the scheduling coordinator in the School of Undergraduate Studies at UMUC. Ms. Murrel holds a Master of Science degree in health care administration from UMUC. She plans to pursue a doctoral degree in gerontology.
Fran Rogalski is the executive administrative assistant for the biotechnology program and several others. She enjoys serving the faculty and students.