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James Park

After completing his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell in 2003, James began working in the pharmaceutical industry spending ~7yrs with Merck & Co., Inc. There he worked in the vaccine manufacturing division and R&D (Cell culture and fermentation) divisions. In 2009, James obtained his M.Eng. degree from Lehigh University. James likes to maintain an active lifestyle and enjoys participating in intramurals with his fellow classmates and in other activities such as weight lifting, basketball, running (a necessary evil) and rock climbing, when time permits. He is always interested in learning new life skills and is open to new and unique experiences whether be it learning to home brew beer or cook a mean steak (work in progress). Prior to returning to graduate school at Delaware, James travelled around the world to cities such as New Delhi, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney, and Auckland among other places. Traveling is major interest that he shares and is always eager to talk about other peoples' travel experiences. Some people say it’s not so much the destination, but the journey that really matters. James hopes that the same will apply to his graduate school experience and that this journey will be as memorable as his travels around the world.

Research Description

James is currently working to understand the molecular mechanisms that drive neuronal adaptation associated with hypertension. His work focuses on understanding the role neuroinflammation plays in long term neuronal adaptation. A combination of experimental and computational work will be utilized to model the gene regulatory network that subtends the response of the A2 neuron in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) animal model. Through the use of a high throughput qRT-PCR platform, expression of various genes involved in the inflammatory response will be measured to identify genes involved in A2 neuronal response to neuroinflammation that is occurring over the course of hypertension development in the SHR. Once the genes underlying the transcriptional behavior of A2 neurons has been identified a dynamic model will be developed to characterize the behavior of the gene regulatory network driving A2 neuronal response and identify potential genes related to signaling and neuronal functions that contribute to long term adaptation of these neurons.

Research Interests


Thesis Advisors

Babatunde A. Ogunnaike and Dr. James Schwaber (Thomas Jefferson University)