• Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1997
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Biotechnology Center, University of Conneticut, 1997-2000.

Research Interests: Endocrinology and Physiology

My research is primarily concerned with the hormonal mechanisms that permit animals to respond to changes in their environment. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how environmental factors (natural and man-made) alter the vertebrate endocrine system and how these alterations influence growth, development, metabolism and life-history in lower vertebrates. My approach is applied and comparative (studies in rainbow trout, tilapia, yellow perch, catfish and amphibians) in nature, and involves the use of traditional methods to characterize the actions of hormones vertebrates. In addition, I place a strong emphasis on the application of molecular approaches to the problems of vertebrate physiology.

In more applied work, we have shown the existence of a new regulatory axis, for growth hormone (GH) secretion, in teleosts. Herein, we determined that novel GH-secretogogues (GHS) stimulated GH release (via the GHS-Receptor) in tilapia, channel catfish and rainbow trout, thus providing the first evidence for the presence of this regulatory axis in teleosts. Recently, “ghrelin”, a novel peptide isolated from the stomach, has been found to be the natural ligand for the GHS-R. In rainbow trout, we have found that ghrelin, and other GHSs (KP-102 and GHRH), stimulate the endocrine growth axis (GH, IGF-I and IGF-binding proteins) and feed intake. It is likely that this work will result in novel ways to promote growth in commercially-important teleosts.

Selected Publications