• BIOCHEMISTRY
• DIABETES MELLITUS
• ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, COMPOSITION/BEHAVIOR OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTION BYPRODUCTS
• FENCING
• GERONTOLOGY, ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND RELATED DEMENTIAS
• NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES OF THE AGED
• PHARMACOLOGY

John C. Matthews is professor of Pharmacology, department graduate programs coordinator and director of graduate programs planning. Dr. Matthews received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Georgia in 1977, did postdoctoral work in Pharmacology at the University of Maryland Medical School, and joined the faculty at Ole Miss in 1980 as an assistant professor. Dr. Matthews authored the book Fundamentals of Receptor, Enzyme, and Transport Kinetics, CRC press, 1993. Dr. Matthews dissertation research was the isolation and characterization of luciferase, the enzyme now widely used as a reporter gene, he also discovered, and did initial isolation and characterization work on green flourescent protein, now also widely used as a reporter gene. Dr. Matthews was the first person to isolate and characterize calmodulin from an invertebrate. His current research efforts are oriented around the identification of the genes and gene products responsible for conferring enhanced age-related, and/or stress-related sensitivity to neurotoxicants with the goal of understanding the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's diseases, and of aging-related neurodegeneration. Dr. Matthews also has research interests in environmental toxicology, and has a patent for a process for the solubilization and disposal of solid radioactive waste from oil and gas production.