Metabolism and Bacterial Pathogenesis

Tyrrell was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and is married for 29 years to Sharri Conway, an elementary school teacher. They have two children. Tyrrell graduated from Oklahoma State University with a doctorate in Microbiology. He held faculty appointments at the University of Florida, University of Nebraska, Ohio State University, the University of Oklahoma, and currently is Professor and Head of Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Oklahoma State University. Amongst several scientific discoveries Tyrrell is the co-inventor of U.S. Patent number 5,000,000 for genetically engineering E. coli to make biofuels and published the first DNA microarray paper on E. coli. He and Paul Cohen were the first scientists to systematically determine what carbon sources are used by E. coli to colonize the animal intestine. Tyrrell is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology. If he had time, he would read more novels and go fishing more often. Paul Cohen was born in Boston, Massachusetts and earned his A.B. in General Science at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA in 1960 and his A.M. in Biology in 1962 and his Ph.D. in Biology in 1964 at Boston University in Boston, MA. He did his Post-Doctoral work at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN from 1964-1966. In 1966 he joined the Department of Bacteriology (now the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology) at the University of Rhode Island and retired this year. From 1964-1978 he studied regulation of RNA and protein synthesis in bacteriophage T4 infected E. coli, from 1978-1983 he studied regulation of RNA and protein synthesis in Vesicular Stomatitis Virus infected Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and from 1983-present, he's studied how E. coli colonizes the large intestines of mice. He's served on the editorial boards of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, The European Journal of Clinical Microbiology, and Infection and Immunity. He spent Sabbaticals at MIT, at Ciba-Geigy in Basel, Switzerland, at The University of Goteborg in Goteborg, Sweden, and at The Danish Technical University in Lyngby, Denmark. He's consulted for Bayer Corp., Wuppertal, Germany, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Inc., Nutley, NJ, Ciba-Geigy Ltd, Basel, Switzerland, and Intervet International, Boxmeer, The Netherlands. He is married to Catherine Trebino, a Research Associate at Brown University and has three children. Recently (2005), he co-edited a book entitled Colonization of Mucosal Surfaces (ASM Press), with James Nataro, Harry Mobley, and Jeffrey Weiser