Bert C. Lampson

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EDUCATION

B.S. (1977) in biology, Delaware Valley College;

M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1986) in Medical Microbiology, University of Missouri-Medical School

COURSES TAUGHT

• Intro to Microbiology (HSCI 2230),
• Pathogenic Microbiology (HSCI 3510),
• Senior Honors Thesis (HSCI 4018)
• Microbial Genetics (HSCI 4730),
• Graduate Pathogenic Microbiology (HSCI 5100)

RESEARCH FOCUS

My general area of research is the study of bacteria.  More specifically, we are investigating secondary metabolism in a soil bacterium called Rhodococcus.  This includes the production of siderophore compounds to acquire iron from the environment for growth.  We are also beginning a project to look for potential antibiotics produced by this group of bacteria that are of growing importance to the chemical and biotech industries.  A second area of study are the reverse transcriptases of bacteria.  An emerging group of enzymes important in genetics.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Lampson, B. Is the inhibitory activity from the bacterium BTHX2 an antibiotic?  RDC, 2010-2011.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Vellore, J., Moretz, S. E., and Lampson, B. C. (2004) A group II intron-type open reading frame from the thermophile Bacillus (Geobacillus) stearothermophilus encodes a heat-stable reverse transcriptase.  Appl. Env. Microbiol.  70:7140-7147.

Lampson, B. C., Inouye, M., and Inouye, S. (2005) Retrons, msDNA and the bacterial genome.  Cytogenet. Genome Res.  110:491-499.

Lampson, B.C. (2007) Prokaryotic Reverse Transcriptases.  In "Industrial enzymes:  structure, function, and applications."  p. 401-418.   J. Polaina and A.P. MacCabe (eds.).  Springer

PRESENTATIONS

Lampson, B.  Characterization of a mutant strain of Rhodococcus erythropolis that over produces siderophore.  Appalachian Student Research Forum, 2008.

PERSONAL INTERESTS

My children 
Baseball 
Tennis (anyone?!) 
Hiking 
Reading (I'm a NY Times newspaper junkie)