PETER J. McCARTHY, Ph.D.

pmccarthy@hboi.edu

Associate Director and Head of Microbiology
Division of Biomedical Marine Research
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, Inc.

(University of Kent at Canterbury (England), Microbiology/Biochemistry, Ph.D. 1983)

Dr. Peter McCarthy was educated in England and received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Kent at Canterbury. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at Smith Kline Beckman working with the Natural Products Discovery group, Dr. McCarthy joined Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in 1985 and is currently the Associate Director of Biomedical Marine Research and Head of Microbiology. Research projects taking place in his lab include the identification of the microbes associated with deep-water marine sponges and the development of novel isolation methods to increase the numbers of microbes that can be cultured. The group also works closely with the Division of Biomedical Marine Research Chemists in the isolation and identification of chemicals produced by the unusual microbes with the ultimate goal of discovering new therapies for diseases such as cancer and infectious diseases. Dr. McCarthy has over 40 publications in the scientific literature and is a former President of the Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology.

Selected Publications:

Gunasekera, S.P., P.J. McCarthy, M. Kelly-Borges, E. Lobkovsky and J. Clardy. Dysidiolide: A novel protein phosphatase inhibitor from the Caribbean sponge Dysidea etheria de Laubenfels. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 118, 8759-8760 (1996).

Wood, R.L., T.K. Miller, A. Wright, P. McCarthy, C.S. Taft, S. Pomponi, and C.P. Selitrennikoff. Characterization and optimization of in vitro assay conditions for (1,3)β-glucan synthase activity from Aspergillus fumigatus and Candida albicans for enzyme inhibition screening. J. Antibiotics 51(7), 665-675 (1998).

Olson, J. B., C.C. Lord and P. McCarthy. Improved recoverability of microbial colonies from marine environmental samples. Microb. Ecol. 40(2) 139-147 (2000).

Olson, J. B., D. K. Harmody, and P. J. McCarthy. Alpha-proteobacteria cultivated from marine sponges display branching rod morphology. FEMS Microbiology Letters. 211(2) 169-173 (2002).

Sfanos, K.A., C.L. Peterson, D.K. Harmody, P.J. McCarthy, S.A. Pomponi and J.V. Lopez. A molecular systematic survey of sponge-derived marine microbes. Systematic Appl. Microbiol. 28:242-264 (2005).