B.A., Rhode Island College, 1984
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts-Lowell, 1992

After earning his doctorate, Michael D. Losiewicz, Ph.D., was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the National Cancer Institute, in the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md., from 1992 to 1998. In this position his research focused on cyclin dependant kinases and signal regulated kinases of the MAP family as potential targets for anti-cancer drugs. He routinely presented this research at the annual meetings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Losiewicz also authored several papers on these studies. His research interests remain in the area of cancer drug targeting.

After serving as a guest professor for a year at a small college outside of New York City, Losiewicz joined St. Mary's in August 1999. He teaches several different lecture and laboratory courses in the Department of Chemistry/Biochemistry. Besides his teaching, he is also the faculty advisor to the American Chemical Society of Students (ACSS), the student chemistry organization which welcomes students of all majors.

Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1983

Gary B. Ogden earned his doctorate for his studies on the composition of Simian Virus 40 chromatin. His subsequent postdoctoral work at Tufts Medical School uncovered possible roles for DNA-adenine methylation in the segregation of the E. coli chromosome and the timing of new rounds of DNA replication. In 1987, after joining the research staff in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), he began to study molecular aspects of microbial pathogenesis, using the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi as a model. In 1989 he left the NIH to join the research faculty at Yale University's School of Medicine, where he cloned T. cruzi virulence molecules. Since joining St. Mary's in 1991, he has been able to fulfill his long-standing goal of teaching and mentoring undergraduate students, and has continued to study molecular aspects of microbial pathogenesis. Moreover, as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, he has established collaborative research efforts concerning the development of a genetic vaccine against the protozoan parasite Leishmania.

Ogden's research concerns the study of gene regulation and cell differentiation in Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania. He believes that the classical MAP kinase pathway (see figure), which links extracellular differentiation and growth signals to gene expression, is conserved across the evolutionary gap separating mammalian cells from these protozoa. His interests include the identification of parasite genes used in cell signaling and transcriptional activation. He also has ongoing collaborative studies, funded by the Veterans Administration, developing a genetic vaccine against leishmaniasis, and he is also developing molecular methods to detect and identify Leishmania sp. and trypanosomes.