Dr. Sullenger began his scientific career at Indiana University where he obtained his bachelor of science in Biology. He received his PhD at Cornell University while studying TAR sequences and the effect of their over-expression on HIV replication. Cell 63, 601-8, 1990.

 

His interests then focused on the potential of RNA as a nucleic acid therapeutic. In 1991, he joined Thomas Cech's lab in Boulder, Colorado as a post-doctoral fellow. He focused on two aspects of RNA biology: ribozymes and RNA ligands (aptamers). His work involving trans-splicing repair of mRNA was published in Nature 317, 619-22, 1994. In his RNA ligand research, Dr. Sullenger isolated an RNA molecule that bound to an autoantigenic epitope of the human insulin receptor. This work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 92, 2355-9, 1995.

 

After his experience in the Cech lab, Dr. Sullenger joined the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. He currently serves as the Joseph and Dorothy Beard Professor of Surgery and as Chief of the Division of Surgical Sciences. He is also Director of the Duke Translational Research Institute. He holds appointments in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and in the University Program of Genetics and Genomics.

 

If you are interested in working in the Sullenger lab, Dr. Sullenger can be reached at bruce.sullenger@duke.edu