Jose L. McFaline

Technical Staff

At MIT I work as a technical assistant for the Dedon Lab in the area quantitation of DNA and RNA damage adducts by the use of tandem mass spectrometry using our triple quadrupole mass analyzer. The focus of this work is mainly to find suitable biomarkers for the prevention and monitoring of disease and inflammation. We study these compounds from a large array of cell lines and tissues from different model organisms exposed to different kinds of damge inducing methods such as high energy irradiation and exposure to damaging agents such as nitric oxide (NO).

My previous research experience also encompasses a lot of protein work done mainly at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Joseph Bonaventura. Our main topic of interest was nitric oxide (NO.) transport in vivo and in vitro by transnytrosation of cysteine residues on the proteins (nitrosothiol formation), focusing mainly on globular heme proteins such as peroxidases, myoglobin and hemoglobin of creatures that had cysteine residues with the ability to S-nitrosilate. At the same time measuring the amount of transport by NO and free radical analyzers andchecking for allosteric modificatios that may have been made during S-nitrosation through X-ray diffraction of the crystallized protein.

At Puerto Rico I also had the opportunity to work on plant in vitro studies to maximize yield of natural disease fighting agents by the use of different growth conditions and hormone addition. These compounds of interest helped in the reduction of kidney stone formation and other disorders mostly of the urinary tract.

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Curriculum Vitae