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Courses:
Cell and Molecular Biology (BIO 214)
Research Interests: Mechanisms of repair during wound healing and tissue regeneration.
My lab is interested in understanding how the wound healing process
influences tissue regeneration. We employ two different model
systems (cornea tissue and cartilage tissue) to investigate how changes
in cell phenotype during wound healing can modulate tissue
regeneration. In either model system, wound healing processes
involving the innate immune system, pro-inflammatory responses, and
tissue remodeling enzymes, influence the quality and integrity of the
regenerated tissue. In the cornea model system my lab is
collaborating with Professor Elizabeth Orwin (Harvey Mudd College,
Claremont, CA), an expert in tissue engineering, to develop a viable,
transparent corneal tissue that can serve as replacement tissue for
diseased or damaged human corneas. An artificially created transparent
cornea can address the need for corneal tissue transplants due to donor
shortages, and would provide a model in which to study the effects of
new ophthalmic drugs and laser treatments for vision correction.
Building upon my prior research interests involving virus: host cell
interactions, and the cartilage (chondrocyte) model system, my lab has
recently begun another collaboration into the role of dengue virus in
generating the severe arthralgia associated with dengue fever, which is
known as “Breakbone Fever”. This collaboration with
Professor Amanda Biesecker (JMU) seeks to understand how dengue virus
contributes to this severe arthralgia.
Selected
Publications:
Bechtel, M. K., and B. Bonavida. 2001.
Inhibitory effects of 17β-Estradiol and progesterone on ovarian
carcinoma cell proliferation: a potential role for inducible nitric
oxide synthase. Gynecol. Oncol. 82: 127-138.
Bechtel, M. K., L. E. Mathes, K. A. Hayes, R. Pandey, and P.
Roy-Burman. 1999. Recombinant feline lukemia Virus (FeLV) variants
establish a limited infection with altered cell tropism in specific
pathogen-free cats in the absence of FeLV subgroup A helper virus. Vet.
Pathol. 36: 91-99.
Bechtel, M. K., L. E. Mathes, K. A. Hayes, A. Phipps, and P.
Roy-Burman. 1998. In vivo evolution and selection of recombinant feline
leukemia virus species. Virus Res. 54: 71-86.
Chen, H., M. K. Bechtel, Y. Shi, A. Phipps, L. E. Mathes, K. A. Hayes,
and P. Roy-Burman. 1998. Pathogenicity induced by feline leukemia
virus, Rickard strain, subgroup A plasmid DNA (pFRA). J. Virol. 72(9):
7048-7056.
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