I was born and grew up in the state of Mississippi. Biology was my favorite subject
in high school, so, I decided science would be my career path. I earned an Associate
of Arts degree from Holmes Community College, Bachelors of Science degree in Biology
from Mississippi College, and Doctorate of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology
from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS.
Interestingly, my PhD thesis at UMMC was on unraveling the genomic gene structure
of the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region of the channel catfish. In the
1980s, aquaculture of catfish was beginning to be a major economic program in the
Southern states. As it turns out, the antibody structure of bony fish, like catfish,
is similar to higher vertebrates and there is an evolutionary break between bony fish
and cartilaginous fish in how their immune systems are structured and function. In
my postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Immunology and the Department of
Parasitic Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at
the National Institutes of Health, I studied signal transduction pathways and, then,
I focused on the pathogenesis of the distant fungus microsporidia and how it invades
and reproduces in human cells to cause disease.
In 2002, I came to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Quillen College
of Medicine as an Assistant Professor to continue my studies on the human pathogen
microsporidia. I’ve been successful in being awarded multiple NIH grants for my studies,
which have been published in several medical journals. And, I have mentored multiple
PhD graduate students.
My primary focus at Quillen College of Medicine now is to train and teach medical
students in the basic sciences necessary for clinical service. In the new TRAILS curriculum,
I am the director of the Immunology and Hematology course taught in the Fall semester
of the first year. Also, I am co-director of the Gastrointestinal and Nutrition course
taught at the end of the Spring semester of the first year. In addition to the medical
curriculum, I also teach microbiology and immunology related content for the Biomedical
Sciences Graduate Program courses.
My outside interests include travel with my family, hiking, camping, fly fishing,
and landscape photography: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yazooman/