Dr. Lisa K. Lyford is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, earning a B.S. in Biochemistry with minors in Chemistry and Music Performance. After advanced study in Microbiology and Immunology and employment in a cellular immunology lab, she turned her attention to pharmacology. Her research focused on the electrophysiological properties of a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in the brain. She earned her doctorate in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999, and continued her research on the structure and function of nicotinic receptors as a postdoctoral associate. She has also taught courses in Mutagenesis and Biotechnology in the Biotechnology Education Facility at North Carolina State University as a postdoctoral teaching associate. Dr. Lyford joined the biology faculty at the University of the Cumberlands in August, 2005.

Dr. Lyford is a member of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Microbiology, and the Kentucky/Tennessee Branch of ASM.

Courses Currently Teaching:

BIOL 112 Introduction to Cellular Biology Laboratory

BIOL 132 Introduction to Cellular Biology

BIOL 130 General Biology

BIOL 345 Microbiology

Publications, Presentations, and Research:

Poster presentation: American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators, Atlanta, GA, 2005. Lyford, L.K. and Key, S.C.S. “A laboratory course module for teaching mutagenesis and gene knockout technology in microorganisms.”

Poster presentation: Association for Biology Laboratory Education Annual Meeting, Blacksburg , VA , 2005. Lyford, L.K. and Key, S.C.S. “Mutagenesis: A laboratory course module for site-directed mutagenesis and gene knockout technology.”

Lyford, L.K., Sproul, A.D., Eddins, D., McLaughlin, J.T., and Rosenberg, R.L. (2003) Agonist induced conformational changes in the extracellular domain of a 7 nicotinic ACh receptors. Molec. Pharmacol. 64:650-658.

Invited book chapter: Lyford, L.K. and Rosenberg, R.L. “Reconstitution in planar lipid bilayers of ion channels synthesized in ovo and in vitro.” In: Planar Lipid Bilayers (BLMs) and Their Applications. Tien, H.T. and Ottova, A., editors. Elsevier, 2003.

Poster Abstract: Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 2003. Lyford, L.K., Sproul, A.D., Eddins, D., McLaughlin, J.T., and Rosenberg, R.L. (2003) Agonist-induced conformational changes in the vestibule of a 7 nicotinic ACh receptors. Biophys J. 84 (2): 229A-229A Part 2 Suppl .

Eddins, D., Sproul, A.D., Lyford, L.K., McLaughlin, J.T., and Rosenberg, R.L. (2002) Glutamate 172, essential for modulation of L 247T a 7 ACh receptors by Ca 2+, lines the extracellular vestibule. Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiol.) 283:C1454-1460.

Lyford, L.K., Lee, J.W., and Rosenberg, R.L. (2002) Low affinity Ca 2+ and Ba 2+ binding sites in the pore of a 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1559:69-78.

Eddins, D., Lyford, L.K., Lee, J.W., Desai, S.A., and Rosenberg, R.L. (2002) Permeant but not impermeant divalent cations enhance the activation of non-desensitizing a 7 nicotinic receptors. Am. J. Physiol. (Cell Physiol.) 282:C796-804.

Poster abstract: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 2000. Eddins, D., Lyford, L.K., Tanguay, S.E., and Rosenberg, R.L. Permeant divalent cations augment pharmacological responses of nondesensitizing a 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, but impermeant cations do not. Soc. Neurosci. Abst. (2000) 26:72.

Lyford, L.K. and Rosenberg, R.L. (1999) Cell-free expression and functional reconstitution of homo-oligomeric a 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors into planar lipid bilayers. J. Biol. Chem. 274:25675-25681.

Poster presentation: Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Miami Beach, FL, 1999. Lyford, L.K., Eddins, D., Lee, J.W., and Rosenberg, R.L. “Extracellular calcium modulates the responses of pore mutant a 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors to antagonists.” Soc. Neurosci. Abstr., (1999) 25:240.

Poster presentation: Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, 1997 and the North Carolina Society for Neuroscience, Duke University, NC, 1997. Lyford, L.K., Lee, J.W., Desai, S., Labarca, C., and Rosenberg, R.L. “ ‘Revertant’ pharmacology of a non-desensitizing a 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor mutant expressed in Xenopus oocytes.” Biophys. J. (1997) 72:A149.

Poster presentation: Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, 1996. Lyford, L.K. and Rosenberg, R.L. “Cell-free expression and reconstitution of a neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor.” Biophys. J. (1996) 70:A200.

Washington , O.R., Deslauriers, M., Stevens, D.P., Lyford, L.K., Haque, S., Yan, Y., and Flood, P.M. (1993) Generation and purification of recombinant fimbrillin from Porphyromonas (Bacteroides) gingivalis 381. Infection & Immunity, 61:1040-1047.

Kent-Braun, J.A., Lyford, L.K., Gross, D.J., and Westhead, E.W. (1991) Effects of substance P on secretion of catecholamines from populations of bovine chromaffin cells and on calcium transients in individual cells. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 632:241-248.

Lyford, L.K., Kent-Braun, J.A., and Westhead, E.W. (1990) Substance P enhances desensitization of the nicotinic response in bovine adrenal chromaffin cells but enhances secretion upon removal. J. Neurochem. 55:1960-1965.

Dr. Lisa Lyford
Phone: 606.539.4281
Email: llyford@ucumberlands.edu