Eugene Dunkley

Biology Department Chair and Associate Professor of Biology

Year Started at Greenville College: 2001
Office: Synder Hall
Phone: (618) 664-6543
Email: eugene.dunkley@greenville.edu

What's your favorite thing about working at Greenville College?

I love teaching at Greenville College because the philosophy of education is to form relationships in the community and to share knowledge and experiences which help us in our personal and spiritual growth. My life has been greatly enriched by those that I have met, taught, and worked with, and for that I am grateful to God.

What attracted you to Biology, and how do you use it outside of the classroom?

Biology has been an interest of mine since I was in junior high, and I have found great usefulness in knowing how biology relates to personal and community health. Because of this, we have been able to travel to countries like Malawi, Rwanda, and Guatemala and worked to provided better health to communities by providing clean drinking water, etc. This integration is the heart of Wesleyan ministry and gives purpose and meaning to what I do.

Education

PhD in Biomedical Sciences

Professional Affiliations

Characterization of rho protein and protonophore resistance in Bacillus
American Society of Microbiology
Illinois State Academy of Science

Recent Presentations and Publications

Quirk PG, Dunkley EA, Identification of a putative Bacillus subtilis rho gene J Bacteriol 175(24), 8053, 1993

Quirk PG, Dunkley EA, Identification of a putative Bacillus subtilis rho gene J Bacteriol 175(3), 647-654 (1993)

Dunkley EA, Guffanti AA, Clejan S, and Krulwich TA, Mutants of Bacillus species isolated on the basis of protonophore resistance are deficient in fatty acid desaturase activity J Bacteriol 173(24), 7750-7755 (1991)

Dunkley EA, Guffanti AA, Clejan S, and Krulwich TA, Facultative alkaliphiles lack fatty acid desaturase activity and lose the ability to grow at near-neutral pH when supplemented with an unsaturated fatty acid J Bacteriol 173(3), 1331-1334 (1991)

Dunkley EA, Guffanti AA, and Krulwich TA, Large decreases in membrane phosphatidylethanolamine and diphosphatidylglycerol upon mutation to duramycin resistance do not change the protonophore resistance of Bacillus subtilis Biochim Biophy Acta 943(1), 13-18 (1988)

Research Interests
Little work has been done in the investigation of natural killer T-cell lymphomas. We are using RT-PCR and differential display technology to ascertain the differences in genetic expression in non-transformed and transformed natural killer T-lymphocytes. This will be useful in the study of changes involved in the onset of T-cell lymphomas.

I have collaboration with Dr. S. Czerwinski using differential display of cultured mouse and chicken cells to study the genes involved in muscle development.

A future study is of the possible role of apoptosis in the conversion of cartilage to bone. There is literature evidence that certain TGFs may induce apoptosis. We have an attractive hypothesis that some hypertrophic chondrocytes are converted to osteoblasts whereas others closer to the proliferating further from the invading vascular front are induced to undergo apoptosis. This will be tested experimentally using polymers to grow the chondrocytes to establish a 3D matrix for the chondrocytes and visualization by confocal microscopy and scanning tunnel electron microscopy.

We are also starting a project to generate spontaneous mutants of Serratia with multiple antibiotic resistances to study the possibility of mechanisms for directed mutations in prokaryotes.

Related Experiences

Eight years genetic engineering in Oxford, U