Research/Teaching Programs

International Programs

The goal of our international program is to facilitate exchange of students and cutting edge research ideas with global leaders in biological engineering and planetary health. International partnerships are critical to developing PhD students with global awareness and the ability to effectively work in teams with partners from different nations and cultural backgrounds. This diversity nurtures research creativity which would otherwise not be realized. Globally-aware students engaged in international research are highly competitive for entering the science and engineering workforce in the United States.

Colombia

Our research efforts in Colombia focus on capacity building and empowerment through the development of planetary health technologies. We regularly collaborate with professors Diana Vanegas and Irene Velez-Torres for developing and applying nanobiosensors and decision support methodologies. The two primary areas of research focus on illegal use of mercury in artisinal small scale gold mining and illegal spraying of herbicides; both projects partner with local Afrodescendent female leadership councils. We also work with displaced communities within Cali, Colombia (Agua Blanca neighborhood). In 2016 Dr. McLamore was a Fulbright Specialist at Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia. Dr. McLamore is a founding member of BioNovo, a research consortium at the Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia)

Products

Abdelbasir, S.M. S.M. El-Sheikh, V.L. Morgan, H. Schmidt, L.M. Casso-Hartmann, D.C. Vanegas, I. Velez-Torres, E.S. McLamore (2018). Graphene-anchored cuprous oxide nanoparticles from waste electric cables for electrochemical sensing. ACS Sustainable Chemical Engineering, 6(9), pp 12176–12186. DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b02510

Vélez-Torres, I., D. Vanegas , E.S. McLamore, D. Hurtado (2018). Unfolding the Impacts of Mercury Usage in Artisanal Gold Mining: Women’s perspective on Environmental Conflicts in Alto Cauca, Colombia. Journal of Environment and Development, In press

Vanegas, D.C., L. Patiño, C. Mendez, D. Alves de Oliveira, A.M. Torres, E.S. McLamore, C. Gomes (2018). Low-Cost Electrochemical Biosensor for Detection of Biogenic Amines in Food Samples. Biosensors Journal, 8(2). DOI: 10.3390/bios8020042.

China

Our research efforts in China focus on applications of biosensor technology for monitoring plant and animal physiology. I work with colleagues at Beijing Forestry University (Prof. Y. Shin) and Chinese Academy of Sciences-Botany (Y. Wan) to measure small molecule transport near plant and animal tissues. My teaching activities involve training workshops for students from Beijing Forestry University, the Beijing Innovation Center, and Chinese Academy of Sciences-Botany. The two main focus areas are i) sensor construction/data analysis and ii) science writing (in English). This includes on site teaching in Beijing, as well as video conferences. Our interdisciplinary research connects biologists from China with engineers from the US for improving our understanding of plant and animal physiology, with a primary focus on improving the management of natural resources in the agriculture-environment-medicine nexus.

Products

Wang, N., E.S. McLamore, Y. Shen. Effect of drought stress on photosynthesis, water use efficiency and stable isotope composition in wild Davidia involucrata Baill seedling leaves, PLoS One, In press.

Yan, S., S. Dong, E.S. McLamore, T. Zhang, N. Wang, H. Yao, Y. Shen (2017) Insect Herbivory Affects the Auxin Flux Along Root Apices in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation. 36(4): 846-854.

McLamore, E.S., D.M. Porterfield, Y. Wan (2017) Chapter 23: Measuring spatial and temporal oxygen flux near plant tissues using a self-referencing optrode. Molecular Biology Methods. (ed: Jadagis Gupta), 267-281.

Wang, J., Y. Huang, K. Li1, Y. Chen, E.S. McLamore, Y. Shen (2016). Leaf Extracts from Lithocarpus polystachyus Rehd. Promote Glycogen Synthesis in T2DM Mice. PLoS One, 0166557.

Deng, W.H., B.Y. Chen, Y.Q. Zhang, S.L. Yan, H.B. Gao, J.Q. Zhang, E.S. McLamore, D.C. Vanegas, Y.B. Shen, B. Wu (2016) Influence of Artemisia ordosica extract on growth of associated plants by regulating the absorption of NH4+ and K+. Allelopathy Journal, 37(2): 175-193.

Yan, S., T. Zhang, S. Dong, E.S. McLamore, N. Wang, X. Shan, Y. Wan, Y. Shen. MeJA affected root growth by modulation of transmembrane auxin flux in transition zone (2015). Journal of Plant Growth Regulation, 35:256–265.

Yan, S., E.S. McLamore, D. Shanshan, H. Gao, M. Taguchi, N. Wang, T. Zhang, X. Su, Y. Shen (2015) The role of plasma membrane H+-ATPase in jasmonate-induced ion fluxes and stomatal closure in Arabidopsis thaliana. The Plant Journal. 83(4): 638-649.

Xin, X., Y. Wan, W. Wang, G. Yin, E.S. McLamore, X. Lu (2013) A real-time, non-invasive, micro-optrode technique for detecting seed viability by using oxygen influx. Nature: Scientific Reports, 3(3057): 1-6.

Wan, Y., E.S. McLamore, L. Fan, H. Hao, D.M. Porterfield , Z. Zhang, W. Wang, Y. Xu, J. Lin (2011). Non-invasive measurement of real-time oxygen flux in plant systems with a self-referencing optrode. Nature Protocol Exchange, doi:10.1038/protex.2011.266.