Thiel: Biotechnology: DNA to Protein

Teresa Thiel is a Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis and serves as Director of the Biotechnology program. She received a bachelor's degree in biology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Case Western Reserve University. Following post-doctoral research at the Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University, she joined the faculty at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. She directs a laboratory of undergraduate and graduate students who work with her on nitrogen fixation and heterocyst development in filamentous cyanobacteria. She has pub-lished many papers in this field and has funding for her research from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She teaches under-graduate and graduate courses in microbiology, virology, and microbial genetics. In addition to these activities, she directs a program for K-12 teachers and stu-dents called "Science in the Real World-Microbes in Action." This program, sup-ported by the National Science Foundation, serves to educate teachers and stu-dents and promotes an understanding and appreciation of the importance of microorganisms in our world.

Shirley Bissen is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She did postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley. Her research focuses on the control of cell division during early embryonic development. She examines these processes in embryos of small freshwater leeches. Each leech embryo undergoes the same pat-tern of cell divisions, yielding cells that are individually identifiable and whose developmental fates have been characterized extensively. Her research is funded by the National Science Foundation and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in molecular biol-ogy, biotechnology, and developmental biology. Every summer she helps teach a course on the neurobiology and development of leeches at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Eilene Lyons received her B.S. in biology from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, and her M.S. in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she conducted and published research on prokary-otic genetics. She continues to update her biology and biotechnology knowledge and skills at Washington University in St. Louis and by attending NSF-sponsored workshops for community college biotechnology faculty. She taught biology and chemistry at the high-school level, biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and since 1995, biology and biotechnology at St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley, where she is also the Biotechnology Program Coordi-nator. She has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, including Most Dedicated New Faculty, and Outstanding Teacher, presented by students, as well as SLCC Innovator, and Most Outstanding New Teacher of the Year, pre-sented by the faculty.

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