Education
B.S., University of the West Indies, Jamaica (Biochemistry & Chemistry)
Ph.D., University of the West Indies, Jamaica (Biochemistry)

Research Interests
A central theme of my research is to understand the genetic determinants that contribute to disease risk related to salt-sensitive hypertension and vascular impairment. My attention has focused on selected candidate genes involved in pathways related to oxidative stress and the Nedd4-2 ion channel axis, by analyzing the pattern of genotype frequencies associated with biochemical metabolites, aldosterone levels and vascular endothelial function. Our focus has been on analyzing genetic variants of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, CYBA and Nedd4-2 genes. This project has been developed in collaboration with faculty members of the Clinical Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine, in order to understand the gene-environment interactions in hypertensive African Americans. In a separate project, collaborations with Dr. Mohamed Bayorh involve studies to understand the mechanisms of aldosterone-induced vascular injury in salt sensitive and salt-resistant Dahl rats.

A second research focus is to study the association between genotype variation of selected immune processes and a genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases.

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