Marc Slattery
Professor of Pharmacognosy
Phone Number: (662)915-1053
Email: slattery@olemiss.edu
http://www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu/pharmacognosy/slattery.html

Key Words: chemical ecology and natural products chemistry of marine and freshwater bacteria, algae, and invertebrates.

Research Description: Dr. Slattery's research interests include chemical ecology and environmental toxicology of marine and freshwater bacteria, algae, and invertebrates. Specifically, the lab is focused on natural and anthropogenic stressors and their impact on the ecology (e.g., defense and reproduction) and the physiology (e.g., metabolic endpoints) of indicator species. Recently this work has included hybrid soft corals in the Indo-Pacific, and sponges from deep reefs and marine caves collected using technical diving methods. Chemical ecology is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field (due in part to the pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications of this research) focused on the ecological roles of the myriad chemical compounds produced by various organisms. Aquatic habitats (marine and freshwater) account for over 75% of the surface area of the planet and provide diverse ecosystems that can be mediated by chemical signals. For instance, predator-prey interactions, competition, symbioses, reproduction, and larval settling cues often involve novel functionalized metabolites and highly specific target receptor systems. In understanding the ecophysiological factors which effect production of these bioactive compounds, and the costs imposed, we can determine the best ways to assure availability of novel natural products that might prove valuable as biotechnology products (e.g., drugs from the sea).

Dr. Slattery is the Research Coordinator for the Environmental Toxicology Research Program at the University of Mississippi. His work on environmental stressors is primarily aimed at the organismal-, population- and community-level effects, and has addressed: the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on seagrass communities along the northern Gulf of Mexico coastline, the consequences of oil spills in Alaska and the GOM, the effects of wastewater discharge into San Francisco Bay and pesticide run-off into Mississippi wetlands, and the results of disease, invasive species, and thermal stress on coral reefs. Recent work is focused on the effects of an emerging environmental stressor, ocean acidification, on corals and sponges using proteomic applications in order to identify specific resistance pathways.

Honors Theses:

Johnson, Mallory de (2010) "A Chemical Investigation of the Antimalarial Activity of Axinella Proliferans"

Godfrey, Laura Elizabeth (2006) Molecular Evaluation of the Thermal Stress Response in the Caribbean Coral Siderastrea siderea: Significance for Coral Bleaching