Faculty

Tenure/Tenure Track | Non-Tenure Track | Research | Emeritus

Tenure/Tenure Track

Alfonso Apicella
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-4543
Email: alfonso.apicella@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cortical microcircuit physiology

Deborah L. Armstrong
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7557
Email: deborah.armstrong@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Hippocampal pyramidal and granule cell synaptic plasticity

Bernard Arulanandam
Professor and Interim Vice President for Research

Phone: (210) 458-5492
Email: bernard.arulanandam@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cellular immunology
» Microbial pathogenesis
» Mucosal immunity

Edwin J. Barea-Rodriguez
Professor and Associate Dean for Student Success and Instructional Innovation

Phone: (210) 458-4511
Email: edwin.barea@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Learning and memory
» Neuroscience
» Science education

Astrid E. Cardona
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5071
Email: astrid.cardona@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Immune-modulation during neurocysticercosis
» Immunopathogenesis of neuronal damage in multiple sclerosis
» Neuroinflammation, chemokines, and microglial function

J. Aaron Cassill
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5491
Email: aaron.cassill@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Student success in STEM

James P. Chambers
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5477
Email: james.chambers@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Acinetobaster baumannii enzymology
» Biosensor sensing element development
» Francisella tularensis enzymology
» Glycoconjugate isolation/characterization
» Influenza nucleic acid based detection

Jurgen Engelberth
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7831
Email: jurgen.engelberth@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Metabolic analysis of signaling compounds
» Regulation pathway leading to jasmonic acid production

Mark Eppinger
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-6276
Email: mark.eppinger@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Bioinformatics
» Infectious diseases
» Microbial genomics

Thomas G. Forsthuber
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5760
Email: thomas.forsthuber@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Mechanisms promoting autoimmune diseases
» Translational research that can be directly applied

Gary Gaufo
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7196
Email:gary.gaufo@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Molecular and cellular approaches in neural development

M. Neal Guentzel
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-4473
Email: neal.guentzel@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Acinetobacter baumanii
» Chlamydia trachomatis
» Francisella tularensis
» Microbial pathogenesis
» Microscopy
» Vaccines

Kirsten Hanson
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5904
Email: kirsten.hanson@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Antimalarial drug discovery
» Automated high content imaging
» Host-parasite interactions
» Plasmodium cell and developmental biology

Luis S. Haro
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5484
Email: luis.haro@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Biochemistry
» Endocrinology
» Molecular biology

Hans W. Heidner
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5767
Email: hans.heidner@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Alphavirus-based vectors for cell targeting and vaccine applications and development
» Replication of alphaviruses

Brian P. Hermann
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-8047
Email: brian.hermann@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Male infertility and fertility preservation
» Single-cell gene expression
» Spermatogonial stem cells

Jenny Hsieh
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-4707
Email: jenny.hsieh@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Epilepsy
» Neurogenesis
» Stem cells

Chiung-Yu Hung
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7018
Email: chiungyu.hung@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Flow cytometry
» Host-pathogen interaction
» Medical mycology
» Vaccine development against microbial infections

David B. Jaffe
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5843
Email: david.jaffe@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Epilepsy
» Hippocampal function and Alzheimer’s disease
» Post-traumatic stress disorder
» Synaptic and axonal signal integration

Karl E. Klose
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-6140
Email: karl.klose@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Bacterial pathogenesis
» Francisella tularensis
» Vibrio cholerae

Richard LeBaron
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5841
Email: richard.lebaron@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cell adhesion; cell biology
» Disorders of the temporomandibular joint
» Extracellular matrix molecules in cancers and in diabetes complications
» Regenerative medicine; tissue regeneration

Hyoung-gon Lee
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5088
Email: hyoung-gon.lee@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Alzheimer disease
» Neurobiology
» Neurodegeneration

Soo Chan Lee
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5398
Email: soochan.lee@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Fungal morphogenesis
» Host-pathogen interactions
» Medical mycology
» Mucormycosis
» Mycobiome

Chin-Hsing Annie Lin
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-8534
Email: annie.lin@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Functional genomics
» Stem cell and cancer biology

Jose L. Lopez-Ribot
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7022
Email: jose.lopezribot@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Antifungal drug development
» High throughput screening
» Immunopathogenesis of fungal infections
» Medical mycology
» Microbial biofilms

Martha J. Lundell
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5769
Email: martha.lundell@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Drosophila molecular genetics
» Specification of neuronal cell fate

Lindsey Macpherson
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7845
Email: lindsey.macpherson@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Circuit mapping
» Functional imaging techniques
» Sensory neuroscience

Asif Mirza Maroof
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7950
Email: asif.maroof@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Neurobiology and development
» Pathophysiology in neurological disease
» Stem cell differentiation and patterning

John R. McCarrey
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-4507
Email: john.mccarrey@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Epigenetic regulation of cell functions
» Mammalian germ cells and stem cells

Isabel A. Muzzio
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-4810
Email: isabel.muzzio@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Aging
» Animal cognition
» Learning and memory
» Sleep and memory
» Spatial navigation

Carlos A. Paladini
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-4474
Email: carlos.paladini@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Dopaminergic neuron physiology

George Perry
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-8660
Email: george.perry@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Alzheimer's disease
» Neurobiology
» Oxidative stress

Clyde F. Phelix
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5495
Email: clyde.phelix@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes mellitus
» Computational biology
» Intellectual property, biotechnology, commercialization
» Predictive biosimulations
» Translational sciences

Robert D. Renthal
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5452
Email: robert.renthal@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Biochemistry and biophysics of cell membranes
» Insect chemical communication
» Lanthanide tags in live bacterial cells

Fidel Santamaria
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-6910
Email: fidel.santamaria@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Computational neuroscience
» Experiments and modeling of cerebellar function
» Learning and memory
» Modeling power-law behavior from molecules to behavior

Stephen P. Saville
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7023
Email: stephen.saville@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Genetic regulation of Candida albicans cell shape
» Role of morphogenetic and associated changes in Candida albicans virulence

David M. Senseman
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5485
Email: david.senseman@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Visualization and modeling of cortical network activity

Janakiram Seshu
Professor and Associate Dean of the Graduate School

Phone: (210) 458-6578
Email: j.seshu@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Lyme Disease
» Q-fever

Valerie Sponsel
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5929
Email: valerie.sponsel@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Medicinal plants
» Plant growth and development
» Plant hormones

Garry Sunter
Professor and Department Chair

Phone: (210) 458-5479
Email: garry.sunter@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Epigenetics
» Molecular and cellular biology
» Plant virology
» Transcription

Kelly J. Suter
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7243
Email: kelly.suter@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Neural oscillator control of sexual reproduction

Todd W. Troyer
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5487
Email: todd.troyer@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Behavioral and neural dynamics
» Computational neuroscience
» Noise and sychnronization in neural circuits
» Songbird learning

Matthew Wanat
Assistant Professor

Phone: (210) 458-6684
Email: matthew.wanat@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Drug addiction
» Learning and memory
» Neurobiology of motivated behavior
» Stress

Yufeng Wang
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-6492
Email: yufeng.wang@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Bioinformatics and computational biology
» Comparative genomics
» Molecular evolution and population genetics
» Systems biology

Nicole Y. Wicha
Associate Professor

Phone: (210) 458-7013
Email: nicole.wicha@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Bilingual brain
» Human electrophysiology
» Language and math cognition
» Neurobiology of human language

Charles J. Wilson
Professor

Phone: (210) 458-5654
Email: charles.wilson@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Brain stimulation as a treatment for neurological disease
» Computational function of neuron
» Ionic mechanisms of autonomous brain activity
» Structure and functions of the basal ganglia
» Synaptic integration and neuronal information processin

Floyd L. Wormley Jr.
Professor and Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies

Phone: (210) 458-6635
Email: floyd.wormley@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Host-pathogen interactions
» Medical mycology
» Microbial pathogenesis

Non-Tenure Track

Kristabel Aguero
Lecturer II

Phone: (210) 458-4482
Email: kristabel.aguero@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Biosciences II laboratories
» Contemporary Biology I

Emmanuel Akwar
Lecturer III

Phone: (210) 458-7899
Email: emmanuel.akwar@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Biochemistry
» General Physiology

Susan Dalterio
Senior Lecturer

Phone: (210) 458-5924
Email: susan.dalterio@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Drugs & Society
» Introductory Biology
» Pharmacology and Toxicology

Donna Degen
Lecturer I, Lab Coordinator

Phone: (210) 458-6260
Email: donna.degen@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Microbiology

Rachel Grotte
Lecturer I, Lab Coordinator

Phone: (210) 458-7414
Email: rachel.grotte@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Ecology
» Entomology
» Microbiology

Michael Hanna
Lecturer II

Phone: (210) 458-5439
Email: michael.hanna@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cell and Molecular Biology
» Immunology
» Neuroscience

Eddie Hernandez
Lecturer III

Phone: (210) 458-7899
Email: hector.hernandez@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Diabetes mellitus and renal disease
» Epidemiology
» Human Physiology
» Physiology

Amy Jones
Lecturer I

Phone: (210) 458-5156
Email: amy.jones.utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Genetics

Craig Jordan
Senior Lecturer, Senior Associate Dean-College of Sciences, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs (Undergraduate Studies)

Phone: (210) 458-5926
Email: craig.jordan@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Evolutionary Biology
» Population Biology

Dawn Lovelace
Lecturer II

Phone: (210) 458-3931
Email: dawn.lovelace@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cell Biology

Lucero Martinez Delgado
Lecturer II

Phone: (210) 458-7496
Email: lucero.martinezdelgado@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Human Anatomy
» Human Physiology

Anita Moss
Senior Lecturer

Phone: (210) 458-5923
Email: anita.moss@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Human Anatomy
» Human Physiology

Richard Nuckels
Lecturer II, Lab Coordinator

Phone: (210) 458-7206
Email: richard.nuckels@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Genetics
» Molecular evolution

William Ramos
Lecturer III

Phone: (210) 458-6235
Email: william.ramos@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cell Biology lab coordinator
» Hazardous materials authorized shipper
» RISE training specialist

James Allen Rogers
Lecturer I

Phone: (210) 458-3990
Email: james.rogers3@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Biosciences II laboratories

Nazan Saygin
Lecturer II

Phone: (210) 458-6297
Email: nazan.saygin@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cell and Molecular Biology
» Periodontal soft and hard tissue regeneration and regenerative techniques
» Teaching and learning strategies

Matthew Spottswood
Lecturer II

Phone: (210) 458-5156
Email: matthew.spottswood@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Genetics labs

Research

Hong Cai
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-6493
Email: hong.cai@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Bioinformatics
» Genomic signal processing
» Systems biology

Ashok Chaturvedi
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-7023
Email: ashok.chaturvedi@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Fungal biofilm
» Fungal proteomics
» Immunology

Rishein Gupta
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-5210
Email: rishein.gupta@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Host-pathogen crosstalk
» Multi-omics approaches for identifying immune regulators
» Small RNA mediated immune modulation

Matthew Higgs
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-4511
Email: matthew.higgs@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Neural oscillations
» Synaptic integration

Zane Lybrand
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-4711
Email: zane.lybrand@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Mechanisms of epilepsy
» Neural circuits
» Neural physiology
» Regenerative medicine

Christopher Navara
Associate Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-6497
Email: christopher.navara@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Cell cycle regulation in stem cells
» Human and non-human primate pluripotent stem cells
» Mesenchymal stem cell growth & differentiation
» Neuronal differentiation of pluripotent stem cell

Salma Quraishi
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-7493
Email: salma.quraishi@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Neuroscience

Jieh-Juen Yu
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-5210
Email: jiehjuen.yu@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Mucosal immunity
» Vaccine development against bacterial infection

Xhavit Zogaj
Assistant Professor of Research

Phone: (210) 458-7033
Email: xhavit.zogaj@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Bacterial biofilms
» Vaccine development against tularemia

Emeritus

Judy M. Teale
Professor Emeritus

Phone: (210) 458-7024
Email: judy.teale@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Neurocysticercosis

Oscar W. Van Auken
Professor Emeritus

Phone: (210) 458-5489
Email: oscar.vanauken@utsa.edu

Areas of Specialization
» Physiological plant ecology

Department of Biology

Faculty

Tenure/Tenure Track

Alfonso Apicella Assistant Professor

Deborah L. Armstrong Professor

Bernard Arulanandam Professor and Interim Vice President for Research

Edwin J. Barea-Rodriguez Professor and Associate Dean for Student Success and Instructional Innovation

Astrid E. Cardona Associate Professor

J. Aaron Cassill Professor

James P. Chambers Professor

Jurgen Engelberth Associate Professor

Mark Eppinger Associate Professor

Thomas G. Forsthuber Professor

Gary Gaufo Associate Professor

M. Neal Guentzel Professor

Kirsten Hanson Assistant Professor

Luis S. Haro Professor

Hans W. Heidner Professor

Brian P. Hermann Associate Professor

Jenny Hsieh Professor

Chiung-Yu Hung Assistant Professor

David B. Jaffe Professor

Karl E. Klose Professor

Richard LeBaron Professor

Hyoung-gon Lee Associate Professor

Soo Chan Lee Assistant Professor

Chin-Hsing Annie Lin Associate Professor

Jose L. Lopez-Ribot Professor

Martha J. Lundell Professor

Lindsey Macpherson Assistant Professor

Asif Mirza Maroof Assistant Professor

John R. McCarrey Professor

Isabel A. Muzzio Associate Professor

Carlos A. Paladini Professor

George Perry Professor

Clyde F. Phelix Professor

Robert D. Renthal Professor

Fidel Santamaria Associate Professor

Stephen P. Saville Associate Professor

David M. Senseman Associate Professor

Janakiram Seshu Professor and Associate Dean of the Graduate School

Valerie Sponsel Professor

Garry Sunter Professor and Department Chair

Kelly J. Suter Associate Professor

Todd W. Troyer Associate Professor

Matthew Wanat Assistant Professor

Yufeng Wang Professor

Nicole Y. Wicha Associate Professor

Charles J. Wilson Professor

Floyd L. Wormley Jr. Professor and Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies