WT Godbey, Ph.D.
WT Godbey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tulane University. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University in 1988. After a successful period that involved starting his own software design and development company in Dallas, Texas, he joined the fields of science and engineering and earned his Ph.D. as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow from the Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering at Rice University in 2000. From 2000-2003 he was a postdoctoral fellow at Children’s Hospital, Boston and Harvard Medical School. He joined the Tulane faculty in 2003.
Godbey’s research interests are centered on gene therapy and the manipulation of cells at the genetic level. He has published several papers on the subjects of cellular processing of non-viral gene delivery agents and the use of gene therapy for treatment of bladder cancer. His current research interests include the use of gene therapy for carcinoma treatment, genetic manipulation for bioremediation applications, living fuel cells, controlled release applications for efficient gene delivery, and the use of gene delivery for cellular engineering.
Biowarfare and Bioterrorism
Bioterrorism and biowarfare are not new concepts. An ancient historian of the fifth century B.C.E. described Scythian archers who used arrows dipped in a putrefied solution composed of the decomposed bodies of several venomous adders, human blood and dung, which most certainly contained virulent microorganisms. In the year 1346, when the Tartars attacked the Genoese city of Caffa, they used catapults to lob the infected corpses of plague victims over the walls of Caffa to infect the city with the Black Plague. A similar concept was used in the 1760s on our own homeland when Europeans intentionally gave blankets infected with the smallpox virus to Native Americans in an attempt at annihilation. Such accounts of biowarfare and bioterrorism were not generally perceived as life-altering incidents by the modern public at-large until perhaps three years ago. Now, “anthrax” and “smallpox” are words that many people know and fear. This presentation will cover some candidate microorganisms and products for use in bioterrorism and biological warfare, why some of these candidates do not present huge risks to the general public, and some research motifs that are under investigation for combating the entities that could be legitimate threats.