James C. Pierce

Associate Professor, Genetics and Biotechnology

Education:

Ph.D, biochemistry, Temple University School of Medicine.

B.A., biology, La Salle University.

Expertise:

Genetic engineering and biotechnology, genomics (focus on marine biology), DNA identification, bioinformatics.

Background:

Dr. Pierce has been an assistant professor of genetics at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia since 1995. Prior to his career in academia, he was a senior scientist at Magainin Pharmaceutical Inc. and a postdoctoral fellow at E.I Dupont Inc and the Dupont-Merck Pharmaceutical Company. He has also been a consultant to Biotechnology and Forensic Companies. He is a member of several organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology.

His research interests revolve around three major areas: Recombinant DNA Methods Development and Bioinformatics, DNA Identification Technology Applied to Medicinal Herbal Compounds, and Genome Analysis of Marine Invertebrates (horseshoe crabs and oysters). He recently developed a series of experimental projects that focus on using DNA sequence information from any type of organism and identifying it using molecular genetic techniques.

He has several patents, including a new positive selection vector for the bacterophage P1 cloning system and a recombinant production of antimicrobial peptides.