Teaching Interests
Research Interests
I have always liked diversity, and my
resume reflects this penchant for different types of
research ideas.
My latest effort is in bacterial
source tracking whose intent is to fingerprint organisms
from different animals, to create a library of prints
that can be used to pinpoint the animal of origin of
fecal contamination of water. This effort has ultimately
led to the use of archea as indicators of water
pollution, mainly through the research of Jennifer
Ufnar, Ph.D.
I have researched the tissue culture of penaeid shrimp,
testing traditional as well as molecular procedures to
produce cell cultures capable of subcultivation (two
publications are indicated below), and my students and I
examined the genetics and cell cycle processes that
control shrimp cell replication.
In the mid 1990s I studied the microbial decolorization
of pulp mill wastewater, examining the enzymes of white
rot fungi as alternative methods of wastewater
decolorization and later studied a chemical process to
remove the color. During this period, I also examined
the microbial deterioration of flat, polyethylene
roofing material in an attempt to understand the
"alligatoring" that occurs as the roof material ages.
My laboratory has also examined several aspects of
seafood microbiology. Several publications described the
number and the variety of Staphylococcus species found
in cooked ready-to-eat crabmeat samples collected from
states along the northern Gulf of Mexico. Other research
in this area involved a prospective search for E. coli
O157:H7 in fishery products, and a determination of the
persistence of this organism in various marine
environmental samples.
In the recent past, I developed an interest in the
Microbial Origin of Life and has produced a course BSC
480/L to express my thought on the subject.
As I noted earlier, I prefer diversity both in research
and teaching. I teach using the Internet and one of my
courses, General Virology, can be taken on campus and
over the Net. All of my courses have been placed on
WebCT and I use this technology to teach and to
stimulate student interest.
Graduate Students
Jennifer Ufnar, Ph.D. (graduated in December 2006)
Jason Townsend, M.S. (graduated in December 2006)
Dawn Rebarchik
Levi White (working on M.S. degree)
Jackie Williams (beginning Ph.D. degree in 2007)
Representative Publications
I have authored or co-authored 157
publications, presentations, chapters in books and
patents. For additional information , please refer to
the above linked resume.
Microbial Source Tracking:
Ufnar, D.F., Ufnar, J.A.,
White, T.W., Rebarchik, D., Ellender, R.D. 2006.
Environmental influences on fecal pollution in the
Mississippi Sound, Transaction, Gulf Coast Association
of Geological Societies, 55:835-843.
Hassan, Wail, Shiao Wang and R.D. Ellender.2006 Methods
to increase the fidelity of rep PCR fingerprint based
bacterial source tracking efforts. Appl. Environ.
Microbiol. 71(1): 512-518.
Ufnar, Jennifer A., Shiao Wang, Jessica M. Christiansen,
Helen Yampara-Iquise, C. Andrew Carson,
and R.D. Ellender, 2006. Detection of the nifH
gene of Methanobrevibacter smithii: a
potential tool to identify human sewage pollution in
recreational waters, J. Appl. Microbiol. 101:44-52.
Hassan, W., S. Wang and R.D. Ellender.
2005. Methods to increase the fidelity of rep PCR
fingerprints based bacterial source tracking efforts.
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71(1): 512-518.
Harwood, V.J., B. Wiggins, C.
Hagedorn, R.D. Ellender, J. Gooch, J. Kern, M.
Samadpour, A.C.H. Chapman and B.J. Robinson. 2003.
Phenotypic library-based microbial source tracking
methods: Efficacy in the California Collaborative Study.
J. Water and Health 1: 153-166.
Wail Hassan, Shiao Wang
and R.D. Ellender 2007. Fidelity of Bacterial Source
Tracking: Escherichia coli versus Enterococci spp. and
minimizing assignment of isolates from non library
sources. J. of Applied Microbiology, 102:591-598.
Robinson,
B., K. Ritter and R.D. Ellender. 2007. A statistical
approach of disproportional versus proportional
microbial source tracking libraries. J. Water and Health
(in press, April 2007)
Shrimp Tissue Culure:
Braasch, D., R.D. Ellender and B.L.
Middlebrooks. 1999. Cell cycle components and their
potential impact on the development of continuous in
vitro penaeid cell replication. Methods in Cell Science
21: 255-261.
Ellender, R., A. Najafabadi and B.
Middlebrooks. 1992. Observations on the primary culture
of Penaeus hemocytes. Journal of Crustacean Biology
12(2):178-185.
Environmental Virology:
Ellender, R.D., J.B. Anderson and R.B.
Dunbar. 1987. Role of sediment in the persistence and
transport of enteric viruses in the estuarine
environment. In: Viruses in soils sediments and sludges,
V. Chalapati Rao & J.L. Melnick, (eds.), CRC Press Boca
Raton, FL., pgs. 37-55
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