B.S., University of Florida, 2001
M.S., University of California Irvine, 2003
Ph.D., University of Arkansas, 2008

McCue is comparative physiologist who seeks to understand how animals have become adapted to cope with the unique challenges presented by their respective environments.

As a graduate student McCue was granted a 3 year fellowship by the National Science Foundation to cover bioenergetic costs and benefits associated with venom production by pit-vipers. As a doctoral student he was granted a four-year fellowship allowing him to research the physiological and biochemical strategies that allow some vertebrates to survive years of starvation. After earning his doctorate, McCue spent two years in Israel supported by the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and the Ministry of Education where he mentored undergraduate and graduate students and conducted research to develop novel approaches for using stable isotopes to investigate how animals store and/or breakdown the nutrients in the foods they ingest.

McCue is an active member of the American Physiological Society and the Society for Comparative and Integrative Biology. He teaches general physiology, comparative physiology, and general biology, and is developing a program that will allow St. Mary's students to participate in supervised research in comparative physiology.

Selected Recent Publications

McCue, M.D. 2011. Tracking the oxidative and nonoxidative fates of isotopically labeled nutrients in animals. BioScience. 61(3): 217-230.

McCue, M.D., A. Smith, R. McKinney, B. Rewald, B. Pinshow, S.R. McWilliams. 2011. A mass balance approach to identify and compare differential rounting of 13C-labeled carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins in vivo. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. In press.

McCue, M.D., S.R. McWilliams, B. Pinshow. 2011. Ontogeny and nutritional status influence oxidative kinetics of exogenous nutrients and whole-animal bioenergetics in zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 84(1): 32-42.

McCue, M.D. 2010. Starvation physiology: reviewing the different strategies animals use to survive a common challenge. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 156A: 1-18.

McCue, M.D. 2010. Hyperoxia reduces the costs of digestion in snakes: Investigating the energetic consequences of the paleoatmosphere. Open Access Animal Physiology. 2: 69-79.

McCue, M.D., O. Sivan, S.R. McWilliams, B. Pinshow. 2010. Breath testing reveals the oxidative kinetics of 13C-labeled dietary carbohydrates, amino acids, and fatty acids in house sparrows, Passer domesticus. Journal of Experimental Biology. 213: 782-789.