Joanne M. Willey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
Education
1988: Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program, Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography - Marine Microbiology.
1981: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. B. A. in Biology, Magna cum laude
Employment and Research Experience
1999-present: Associate Professor, Department of Biology, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
1993-1999: Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
1992-1993: Associates of Cape Cod. Staff Scientist. Optimized overexpression of a heterologous protein expressed in yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia patoris.
1988-1992: Harvard University, The Biological Laboratories, Cambridge, MA. Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Richard Losick; examined thegenetic regulation of Streptomyces coelicolor morphological differentiation.
Professional activities:
Member, Editorial Board, Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Ad hoc reviewer for the journals Journal of Bacteriology, Microbiology, Microbiology Education, and Molecular Microbiology.
Member, Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology
Current and Recent Departmental and University Service
Co-Chair, Biology DPC (2003 – present)
Search Committes (Chair, Genetics, 2002; Member current committee for PA-associated line)
Member, Center for Teaching and Scholarly Excellence (2003-2006)
Member, Task Force for the “new” New College (June 2005 - present)
Participant, Admitted Students’ Day (2004, 2005)
Panel Participant, Spring Open House (2004)
New Faculty Mentor (2004, 2005)
Member, Stessin Prize Committee (2003)
Member, Task Force for the Center for Research Excellence (2001-2002)
Publications
Straight, P.D., J. M. Willey, and R. Kolter. 2006 Interactions between Streptomyces coelicolor
and Bacillus subtilis: The role of surfactants in raising aerial structures. J. Bacteriol. In press.
Willey, J. M., A. Willems, S. Kodani, and J. R. Nodwell. 2006.Morphogenetic surfactants and
their role in the formation of aerial hyphae in Streptomyces coelicolor. Mol. Microbiol. 59: 731-739.
Kodani, S., M. J., Lodato, M. C. Durrant, F. Picart and J. M. Willey. 2005. SapT, a lanthionine-
containing peptide involved in aerial hyphae formation in the streptomycetes. Mol. Microbiol. 58: 1368-1380.
Kodani, S., M. E. Hudson, M. C. Durrant, M. J. Buttner, J. R. Nodwell, and J. M. Willey. 2004.
The SapB morphogen is a lantibiotic-like peptide derived from the product of the
developmental gene ramS in Streptomyces coelicolor.Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., USA. 101:11448–11453.
Nguyen, K. T., J. M. Willey; L.T. Nguyen; P. H. Viollierand Charles J. Thompson.
2002. A central regulator of morphological differentiation in the multicellular
bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. Molecular Microbiol. 46:1223-1238.
Paus, E. J., J. M. Willey, R. Ridge, and P. A. Ketchum. 2002. Production of
recombinant endotoxin neutralizing protein in Pichia pastoris and methods for
its purifaction. Protein Expression and Purification.26:202-210.
Wösten, H. A. B., and J. M. Willey. 2000. Surface-active proteins enable microbial
aerial hyphae to grow into the air. Microbiology.146:767-773.
Wösten, H. A. B., M. Richter, and J. M. Willey. 1999. Structural proteins involved in emergence of a microbial aerial hypha. Fungal Genetics and Biology. 27:153-160.
Richter, M., J. M. Willey, R. Sussmuth, G. Jung, H.-P. Fiedler. 1998. Streptofactin, a novel biosurfactant with aerial mycelium inducing activity from Streptomyces tendae Tü901. FEMS Letts,. 163:165-171.
Tillotson, R. D., H. A. B. Wösten, M. Richter and J. M. Willey. 1998. Surface active proteins capable of extracellular complementation in Streptomyces coelicolor. Molecular Microbiol. 30:595-602.
Willey, J. M., J. Schwedock R. Losick. 1993. Multiple extracellular signals govern the production of a morphogenetic protein involved in aerial mycelium formation by the filamentous bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. Genes and Development. 7:895-903.
Willey, J. M., R. Santamaria, J. Guijarro, M. Geistlich and R. Losick. 1991. Extracellular complementation of a developmental mutation implicates a small sporulation protein in aerial mycelium formation by Streptomyces coelicolor. Cell. 65:641-650.
Willey, J. M. and J. B. Waterbury. 1989. Chemosensory behavior in the motile marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus.Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 55: 1888-1894.
Waterbury, J. B. and J. M. Willey. 1988. Isolation and growth of marine planktonic cyanobacteria. Meth. Enzymol. 167: 100-105.
Willey, J.M., J. B. Waterbury and E. P. Greenberg. 1987. Sodium coupled motility in a swimming cyanobacterium. J. Bacteriol. 169: 3429-3434.
Waterbury, J.B., J. M. Willey, D. G. Franks, F. W. Valois and S. W. Watson. 1985. A cyanobacterium capable of swimming motility. Science. 230: 74-76.
Textbood:
Lead author of Prescott, Harley, and Klein’s Microbiology, 7th edition. McGraw Hill Higher Education. Publication date January 2007.
Recent and Current funding:
National Science Foundation: “RUI* Genetic and biochemical analysis of extracellular complementation in Streptomyces coelicolor.” (PI) *RUI = Research Undergraduate Institution
National Institutes of Health – NIGMS: Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)
“Cell-cell communication in Streptomyces coelicolor” (PI)project period 2/1/04 to 1/31/07
National Science Foundation: Major Research Instrumentation: “Instrumentation for Biology and
Chemistry Research and Education” (Co-PI) project period 10/1/04 to 9/30/07
HCLAS Research and Development Grant 2005-06
Presidential Research Award
Teaching experience
Courses taught since 2000
Bio 3: Biology in Society Laboratory – Spring 2002 (2 credits; Nonmajors)
Bio 25: General Microbiology – Spring 2004, 2005, Summer 2004 (4 credits; Pre-Physician Assistant students)
Bio 136 Genetics Laboratory – Fall 2000, 2002, Spring, 2001, 2002 (3 credits; Majors)
Bio 143 Microbiology – Fall 2000-2005 (4 credits Majors)
Bio 244 Biology of the Cancer Cell – Spring 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 (3 credits; Master’s and advanced undergraduates)
Bio 205 Marine Microbiology – Spring 2000, 2001, Fall 2003 (3 credits; Master’s level and advanced undergraduates)
HUHC 20: The Human Genome – Spring 2003 (3 credits; Nonmajors)
Course developed since 2000:
Bio 25: General Microbiology – developed for the Physician Assistant program
HUHC 20: The Human Genome – developed for nonmajors in the Honor’s college
Research student supervision
Bio 90/91: Independent Research for Undergraduates: 2-3 students per semester
A total of 46 undergraduate students have completed Independent Research in the Willey lab since 1993.
Bio 301/302: Master’s Thesis: 3 students have complete thesis work in the Willey lab since 2000.
Bio 303: Master’s essay: 1-2 students per year
Major Presentations since 2000
2005: Prokaryotic Development meeting sponsored by American Society for Microbiology, Vancouver, Cananda (session chair and invited speaker)
2004: Cell-Cell Communication meeting sponsored by American Society for Microbiology, Banff, Cananda (invited speaker)
2004: Microbial Stress Response Gordon Conference. Mt. Holyoke, MA (invited speaker)
2003: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biology and School of Medicine joint seminar series in prokaryotic biology. Philadelphia, PA (invited speaker)
2002: Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms, Seoul, South Korea (poster coauthor)
2002: Prokaryotic Development meeting sponsored by American Society for Microbiology: Quebec, Canada (invited speaker)
2002: Microbial Stress Response Gordon Conference: Lebanon, New Hampshire
(session chair and invited speaker)
2001: International Symposium on the Biology of the Actinomycetes, Vancouver, Canada (invited speaker)
2000: American Society for Microbiology; General Meeting, Chicago, IL (invited speaker)
2000: Spring Symposium of NVBMB (Netherlands Society for Biology and Molecular Biology). Groningen, The Netherlands (invited speaker)