Department
Biology

Office Location
Hall Memorial Building (HMB)  W411B

Email Address
derek.braun@gallaudet.edu

Derek C. Braun, Ph.D. began teaching at Gallaudet in 1995 as a laboratory instructor and has been faculty since 2000.

His graduate research at the University of Maryland was on the bacterium responsible for the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae. As a graduate student, he investigated and published on the genetics of its lipooligosaccharide antigenic variation, which facilitates its pathogenesis, at least partially by enabling the bacterium to defeat the patient's immune system.

After graduation from the University of Maryland, Dr. Braun worked at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, from 2002 through 2006, where he studied signal transduction pathways important in cancer and pain. Dr. Braun was awarded a provisional patent for developing a fluorescent tool for high-throughput screening of potential anticancer drugs.

In 2006, Dr. Braun was selected to direct the Molecular Genetics Laboratory, a new research initiative on Gallaudet campus. The new laboratory will be established on renovated space on the 4th floor of the Hall Memorial Building (HMB). The laboratory will be staffed by 2-3 principal investigators and up to eight students or fellows.

Dr. Braun has taught a variety of courses at Gallaudet, including Human Anatomy & Physiology, Microbiology, Genetics, and Research Methods in Biology. He has taught a Honors seminar in Bioterrorism as well as an Honors interdisciplinary course on nutrition science.