Over the last 14 years at UHD I have worked with Prof. Amy Sater (UH, Dept. of Biology & Biochemistry) on the molecular genetic mechanism of neural induction in the African Clawed Frog, Xenopus laevis. In the last couple of years, my attention has focused on the use of bioinformatics to analyze (or generate) new hypotheses on how various genes interact during early Xenopus development. In addition, UHD undergraduate research students and I been involved in the annotation of microbial genomes at the Baylor Human Sequencing Center.

Educational History

Ph.D. in Zoology, University of California at Berkeley, 1983.

M.S. in Environmental Health Science, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 1976.

B.S. in Zoology, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 1975.

Research Interests

My interests in biology include gene regulation, developmental biology, and evolution.

Tecarro, E., Sater, A., Uzman, A. (2009) A simple model of two interacting signaling pathways in embryonic Xenopus laevis. Proceedings for the Seventh AIMS International Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications, May 18-21, 2008, University of Texas-Arlington, American Institute of Mathematical Sciences, AIMS Journals (in press).

Highlander, S.K., Hulten, K., Qin, X., Jiang, H., Yerrapragada, S., Mason, E., Shang, Y. Williams, T., Fortunov, R., Liu, Y., Igboeli, O., Petrosino, J., Tirumalai, M., Uzman, A., Fox, G., Cardenas, A.M., Muzny, D.M., Hemphill, L., ding, Y., Dugan, S., Blyth, P.R., Buhay, C.J., Dinh, H.H., Hawes, A.C., Holder, M., Kovar, C.L., Lee, S.L., Lui, W., Nazareth, L.V., Wang, Q., Zhou, J., Kaplan, S., and Weinstock, G. (2007) Subtle genetic changes enhance virulence of methicillin resistant and sensitive Staphylococcus aureus BMC Microbiol. 7(1): 99 doi:10.1186/1471-2180-7-99.

Gioia, J, Yerrapragada, S, Qin, X, Jiang, H, Igboeli, OC, Muzny, D, Shannon Dugan-Rocha, S, Ding, Y, Hawes, A, Wen Liu, W, Perez, L, Kovar, C, Dinh, H, Lee, S, Nazareth, L, Blyth, P, Holder, M, Buhay, C, Madhan R. Tirumalai, MR, Liu, Y, Dasgupta, I, Bokhetache, L, Fujita, M, Karouia, F, Moorthy, PE, Siefert, J, Uzman, A., Buzumbo, P, Verma, A, Zwiya, H, McWilliams, BD, Olowu, A, Clinkenbeard, KD, Newcombe, D, Golebiewski, L, Petrosino, JF, Nicholson, WL, Fox, GE, Kasthuri Venkateswaran, K, Highlander, SK, and Weinstock, GM (2007) Paradoxical DNA Repair and Peroxide Resistance Gene Conservation in Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032. PLoS ONE 2(9): e928. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000928.

Petrosino, J.F., Xiang, Q., Karpathy, S.E., Huaiyang Jiang, H., Yerrapragada, S., Liu, Y., Gioia, J., Hemphill, L., Gonzalez, A., Raghavan, T.M., Uzman, A., Fox, G.E., Highlander, S., Reichard, M., Morton, R.J., Clinkenbeard K.D., and George M. Weinstock, G.M. (2006) Chromosome Rearrangement and Diversification of Francisella tularensis revealed by the Type B (OSU18) genome sequence. J. Bacteriology, 188(19), 6977-85.

Uzman, A., Eichberg, J., Widger, W., Cornely, K., Voet, D., Voet, J., Pratt, C.W. (2006) Student Companion to Accompany Fundamentals of Biochemistry, 2nd Edition by Voet, Voet, and Pratt. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.

Patil, S.S., Alexander, T.B., Uzman, J.A., and Sater, A.K. (2006) Novel gene ashwin functions in Xenopus cell survival and anteroposterior patterning. Developmental Dynamics.235, 1895-907.

Sater, A.K., El-Hodori, H.M., Goswami, M., Alexander, T.B., Al-Sheikh, O., Etkin, L.D., and Uzman, J.A. (2003) Evidence for antagonism of BMP-4 signals by MAP kinase during Xenoupus laevis axis determination and neural specification. Differentiation 71, 1-11.

Uzman, A. (2001) Biochemistry in one semester. Biochemical and Molecular Biology Education 29, 95-97.

Uzman J.A. et al. (1999) Student Companion to Fundamentals of Biochemistry (by Voet, Voet & Pratt), Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Uzgare, A., Uzman, J.A., and Sater, A.K. (1998) Mitogen – activated protein kinase and neural specification in Xenopus. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA 95, 14833-14838.

Uzman, J. A., Jwala, A., Patil, S., and Sater, A. K. (1998) The role of intracellular alkalinization in the establishment of anterior neural fate in Xenopus. Devel Biol. 193, 10- 20.

Wallingford, J. B., Sater, A. K., Uzman, J. A., and Danilchik, M. V. (1997) Sulfatase inhibits Xenopus gastrulation and truncates the anteroposterior axis. Dev Biol. 187(2), 224-235.

Ramachandran, R.K., Wikramanayake, A.H., Uzman, J.A., Tomlinson, C.R. (1997) Disruption of gastrulation and oral-aboral ectoderm differentiation in the Lytechinus embryo by a dominant/negative human PDGF receptor. Development 124(12), 2355-2364.