Clarkson University President Tony Collins has announced that Kenneth Wallace has been promoted from associate professor to full professor of biology in the School of Arts & Sciences. Promotion to professor is considered to be virtually the highest honor that a university can bestow upon its faculty.
Wallace’s research focuses on the development of the digestive system and effects of nanoparticles exposure. Wallace uses zebrafish, which are an excellent model research organism, with extensive similarities to the genetics and physiology of human organ development with broad implications for human development and disease states.
The intestinal epithelium continuously replaces cells that undergo apoptosis. Cells proliferate in the crypts at the base of the villi to replace lost epithelial cells. While there is intense investigation into the signals controlling proliferation of crypt epithelial cells, little is known about the formation of the developing stem cell niche. Wallace is investigating epithelial cells that play a role in regulation proliferation of the developing stem cell niche using zebrafish as a model system.
Wallace’s research also investigates the effects of nanoparticle exposure using the zebrafish model system in collaboration with Chemistry Professor Silvana Andreescu. Developmental defects and physiological changes are assessed following exposure to nanoparticles with different physiochemical properties. Electrochemical sensors developed in Dr. Andreescu’s lab are used to detect nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species following exposure.
Wallace has published numerous highly cited papers and has delivered presentations at many international conferences. He is currently funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health. He was previously funded by the National Institute if Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases as well as the NSF. He was inducted to the million dollar club in 2019 (Clarkson). Wallace has mentored 12 graduate students and 50 undergraduates in research.
Wallace has been a faculty member in the Department of Biology at Clarkson since 2004. Prior to that he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Medicine.
He received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Ohio State University and his bachelor of science degree in molecular genetics from the University of Rochester.
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