KromaTiD Scientific Founders

Susan M. Bailey, Ph.D.

Dr. Bailey received her BS degree in Biology from Colorado State University, and MS and PhD degrees in Biomedical Sciences from the University of New Mexico, School of Medicine. In 2001 she joined the Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University and is now an Associate Professor. Prior to that, she worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bioscience Division, doing research in Molecular Biology and Radiation Cytogenetics, most of which involved development and application of the CO-FISH technique. Her current research program, funded by the NIH and NASA, revolves around what chromosomes – and telomeres – can tell us about cancer and other human disease states. In addition to teaching, Susan serves on the Editorial Board of two scientific journals, is an author on over 50 peer-reviewed publications, 3 book chapters and an inventor on one patent application.

Joel S. Bedford, D. Phil.

Dr. Bedford received his B.A. degree in Chemistry from the University of Colorado, an M.S. degree in Radiology from the University of Colorado Medical School, and D. Phil. degree in Radiobiology from Oxford University. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1966 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1971. In 1975 he moved to Colorado State University. He is Professor in the Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences and holds a joint faculty appointment in the University Graduate Program in Cell and Molecular Biology. His research at Vanderbilt and at Colorado State University has focused principally on radiation cytogenetics, carcinogenesis, genetic factors altering susceptibility to radiation effects and cancer biology. His programs have been funded, without interruption, by NIH, DOE and NASA since 1966. He has served as a regular member and Chairperson of the NIH Radiation Study Section, as a Councilor, Associate Editor, and later as President of the Radiation Research Society. He has received various awards such as the Failla Award and the Excellence in Mentoring Award from the Radiation Research Society. He has been a regular member of the National Academies’ Board on Radiation Effects Research, and then on the National Academies’ Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. He served a 5-year term on the Scientific Council of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan, and is a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. Dr. Bedford has authored 140 peer reviewed articles, including several book chapters, and is an inventor on two patent applications.

Michael Cornforth, Ph.D.

Dr. Cornforth received his doctoral degree at Colorado State University in 1985, and then spent six years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, first as a post-doctoral fellow, and then as a staff scientist, before taking a faculty appointment at UTMB. He is Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas (UTMB). His formal training is in radiation biology with emphasis on the study of chromosome aberrations produced by various forms of ionizing radiation, and how chromosomal rearrangements are affected by changes in ionization density, total dose, and the rate at which total dose is delivered. Current funding includes support from the Department of Energy (DOE), NIH (NIAID) and NASA. Interests include modeling dose response relationships following extremely low doses of gamma radiation, the energy dependence and dose rate effectiveness of high energy protons from solar particle events (solar flares), and the use of chromosome aberrations to estimate physical doses to exposed human populations following various radiological incidents, such as “dirty bomb” scenarios,. Dr. Cornforth has served on the editorial boards of two international journals, as Councilor for Biology for the Radiation Research Society, and currently holds a position on the Scientific Council of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, and has published three book chapters dealing with radiation effects on chromosomes.

Edwin H. Goodwin, Ph.D.

Dr. Goodwin received BS and MS degrees in physics from Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck, NJ) and a Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of California (Berkeley, CA). As a graduate student, he participated in an NIH-funded initiative to evaluate charged-particle radiations as a therapy for cancer. Using the cyclotrons at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Dr. Goodwin analyzed chromosome fragmentation patterns in an effort to understand the biological effects of these exotic radiations. His studies of radiation continued as a postdoctoral associate, and later as a staff member, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in research funded by the Department of Energy’s radon and low-dose radiation risk assessment programs. While at Los Alamos, Dr. Goodwin invented Chromosome Orientation Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (CO-FISH). Application of CO-FISH reveals the orientation of DNA sequences in chromosomes, information that has proven to be useful in studies of repetitive DNA sequences and telomere biology.

Andrew Ray, Ph.D.

Dr. Ray received a BS in Biology from Stetson University, and MS and PhD degrees in Medical Sciences from the School of Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He was a staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1985 until 1994. He was the first Life Scientist to be accepted into an advanced study program at LANL and in which he was awarded his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology in 1991. As a graduate student he published a landmark paper showing that a viral protein was responsible for generating chromosomal instability in human cells enabling subsequent transformation to a tumorigenic phenotype. He did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Harvard University School of Public Health. In 1994, he accepted a position in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at Albany Medical College and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1997. Since 2002, he has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at Colorado State University. He is a contributing author on 40 scientific publications, and an inventor on 2 issued and one pending patents.