Our research group is concerned with both the applied and basic research aspects of biochemistry. One of the applied areas of our research is the development of rapid immunological assays for detecting insect contamination in a wide variety of foodstuffs. The amount of insect contamination present in a food sample provides an indication not just of the amount of contamination present at the time of testing, but also gives an estimate of the quality of sanitation to which the material has been subjected during past storage and handling. Insect analysis also serves as a guide to the amount of insect infestation likely to be encountered in further storage and transport. Federal statutes regulate the amount of insect contamination that can be present in a broad range of foods, ranging from grains such as wheat, oats, and barley to spices, nuts, dried fruits, and macaroni. For these reasons it is important to have available test procedures which can reliably and quantitatively estimate the degree of insect contamination of these materials. Present test procedures are different for various commodities and are typically both time-consuming and very expensive. We have set out to develop modern biochemical assays, based on the immunological recognition of insect material in stored products. Our aim is to develop assay procedures that combine an excellent degree of accuracy and repeatability with a high degree of sensitivity. Our plan is to devise tests that can be used with minimal training and which would be of low cost.

Another area of applied research in which we are engaged is the development of immunotoxins for AIDS therapy. In this case, we are taking advantage of the fact that when the AIDS virus infects cells, some of the components of the virus are incorporated into the cell membrane of the infected cell. These virus proteins can serve as a target for immunotoxins. The immunotoxins that we are working with utilize potent plant toxins linked to monoclonal antibodies directed against the virus proteins. The rationale behind this approach is that when the immunotoxin specifically attaches to virus-infected cells and is imported into the cell. There the toxin inactivates protein synthesis, causing cell death.

Our basic research efforts are concerned with understanding the evolution of the oxygen binding properties of hemoglobin. We are engaged in structural and functional characterizations of the multiple hemoglobins of the sea cucumber Caudina arenicola and comparing the properties of these invertebrate pigments with those of their vertebrate counterparts. This work involves protein sequencing, gene cloning and sequencing, and ligand-binding analysis. We are also collaborating with Dr. Marvin Hackert in an X-ray crystallographic examination of these invertebrate respiratory pigments.