Welcome to LETGEN, the Laboratory of Ecotoxicology and Comparative Genomics in the Biology Department at Chaminade University. We are interested in how air pollutant gasses and particulates may contribute to development of chronic lung diseases. Our work is primarily with cell lines and involves gene expression profiling. We study the effects of ozone, a common component of urban smog as a model air pollutant, and sulfur dioxide and other components of Hawaii’s VOG on differentiation and proliferation of cells. Ozone is not a pollutant of particular concern here in Hawaii, but because the levels of ozone are typically low we can study effects without the need for elaborate efforts to reduce background levels. We use qPCR and focused pathway microarray approaches in our work and have developed a significant bioinformatics effort as well. Funding for this work has largely been due to generous support from NIH INBRE.
This site includes links to Dr Dohm’s Moodle site for the Natural Sciences at Chaminade University and registered access to protocols and databases in use by our LETGEN staff.
The LETGEN site also includes Dr Dohm’s blog. The blog contains brief articles about Dr Dohm’s research and teaching interests plus technical “how to” odds and ends related to supporting student efforts with their computers in bioinformatics.
Click here to go to Mike’s teaching site
Click here to go to Mike’s research pages