BJU Cancer Research Lab

BJU Biology RIU 2026 officially completed its first week: 4 students, a cancer that has one of the highest worldwide burdens, and the ability to design the most effective diagnostic and therapeutic. It's time to change the clinical diagnostic paradiagm and redefine testing. Time to follow us through the design process...

TRANSITIONS

Well, if you’re still checking out this page, you have probably noticed a remarkable lack of posts for some time now. Let me explain. As the oldest member of our department (Biology) who was of retirement age, with the necessary resources to retire comfortably and no children needing my support, I, as director of the cancer research lab (technically not faculty anyway) was chosen to retire, effective the end of the spring 2025 semester. I am content that this truly was the best option. The biology department is still committed to continuing undergraduate research and the cancer lab will simply be under “new management,” i.e., a very competent Dr. Rebecca Garcia. As soon as I can figure out how to do it, I will turn over the administration of this page to her for future entries.

While I miss my students and colleagues, I have discovered an interesting biblical fact that confirms for me the good providence of this situation. The fact: the number forty appears repeatedly throughout Scripture as a number associated with transitions of various sorts. For example, the flood...forty days and forty nights (Gen 7.12). Moses on Mt. Sinai...forty days and forty nights (Exo 24.18). Of course, there’s Moses with forty years in Egypt, forty years shepherding sheep, and forty years shepherding the children of Israel. King David reigned forty years (2 Sam 5.4), as did King Solomon (1 Kings 11.42). Jesus started His ministry fasting forty days and forty nights (Matt 4.2). Etc., etc.

So I was wondering...let’s see, working backwards chronologically: 12 years ministering at BJU; 26 years working at Abbott Laboratories; 2 years post-doc’ing at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Yep, I’m at forty years since getting my Ph.D., so it is time for God to providentially transition me to something else. I don’t know what exactly yet, but here goes! Truly, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.” (Prov 16.9) Hallelujah!

Now if I can just figure out how to remember what day of the week it is now that I’m not teaching?!?

JEREMIAH'S JOURNEY
Working this summer in the Cancer Research Lab enhanced my scientific thinking and my communication skills. For example, Ivan and I worked together to identify appropriate fluorescent assays for our flow cytometer's capabilities. Researching products and protocols developed my ability to evaluate procedures scientifically. On the other hand, I gained insights regarding my communication when Ivan and I were together assessing the merits and limitations of various techniques. In another instance, I again had the opportunity to practice scientific analysis during the process of eliminating unnecessary controls and establishing effective ones for the experiments. Communication and compromise were key in these discussions because of the limited time to complete all the experiments. Finally, data analysis offered me the greatest challenge. Learning to interpret the graphs presented the greatest growing opportunity, but this process taught me how to examine results and then verbalize conclusions. Although finding positive results was certainly fun, this summer's research brought significant personal development. Thank you for praying for us!

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