Several lines of research are currently in progress, which focus on bioremediation (Bioremediation) and novel antibiotics (Antibiotic study). Bioremediation efforts, to date, have focused on identifying microbes that are naturally able to use hydrocarbons from gasoline as food substrates and therefore remove these contaminants from the environment. Currently, field trials are being performed to evaluate their efficacy in different types of environments.

Several antibiotic-producing organisms were isolated from the Great Salt Marsh, DE in early 1998. Subsequently, interest has been focused on the more microbially diverse tropical soil of Jamaica and currently we are in the process of purifying some of the more "exciting" ones.

Previous interests have included determining the risk factors associated with infection by or normal carriage of bacterial species. Two studies were undertaken in this respect. First, an investigation of a potential link between demographic factors and bacterial infection, using fuzzy logic to describe a real medical database obtained from the infectious disease, general and surgical wards of Albert Einstein Medical Center (Bacterial infection). Second, an investigation, again using fuzzy logic programming, of demographic factors the carriage rates of skin staphylococci on neonates within 48 hours of life born in the pediatric wards of Albert Einstein Medical Center (Pediatric study). Other studies have focused on the effects of over-the-counter herbal supplements on "boosting" the immune system. Double-blind studies were completed currently being performed in rats on three commonly used supplements; echinacea, ginseng and St. John's Wort, to evaluate their efficacy (Herbs and rats).

Research publications at Philadelphia University

INVITED PUBLICATIONS

1.       Sztandera L.M. and Cundell D.R. (1999) Using fuzzy logic to correlate gender, race and/or blood type with infectious disease. (Invited Paper) Proceedings of the Eighth International Fuzzy Systems, Association World Congress.

2.       Sztandera L.M., Silibovsky R. S., Sanders R., and. Cundell D.R. (2001) Fuzzy system correlates demographics with bacterial infection, Advances in Fuzzy Systems and Evolutionary Computation, 1:60-64

3.       Cundell D.R., Sztandera L.M., Arbeter A. and Morrone J.M. (2002) Analysis of staphylococci colonization using an artificial neural network-based system. IEEE on Computational Intelligence, p 648-653.

4.       Cundell D.R. and Brendley W.H. (2003) Chapter 8 Microbial Bioremediation of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), Contaminated Soils Volume 8, Edited by Calabrese E.J., Kostecki P.T. and Dragun J., Amherst Publishing, Amherst, MA

PAPERS

1. Cundell D.R., Silibovsky R.S., Sanders R. and Sztandera L.M. (2000) Using intelligent systems in predictions of the bacterial causative agent of an infection. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 1932; Springer Verlag 349-357. Also available online at http://www.springer.de

2.   Cundell D.R., Silibovsky R.S., Sanders R. and Sztandera L.M. (2000) Using fuzzy sets toanalyze putative correlates between age, blood type, gender and/or race with bacterial infection. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Fastschrift Issue) 21(1-3): 235-239

3.    Cundell D.R., Silibovsky R.S., Sanders R. and Sztandera L.M. (2001) Generation of an Intelligent Medical System, using a real database, to diagnose bacterial infection in hospitalized patients. International Journal of Medical Informatics 63: 31-40

4.   Cundell D.R., Sztandera L.M., Arbeter A. and Morrone J.M. (2002) An investigation of differential skin colonization of neonates by staphylococci using an artificial neural network-based system. Advances in Soft Computing: Neural Networks and Soft Computing, Edited by L. Rutkowski and J. Kacprzyk.1934: 468-472.

5.   Cundell D.R., Matrone M.A., Ratajczak P. and Pierce J. (2003) The effect of aerial parts of Echinacea on the circulating white cell levels and selected immune functions of the aging male Sprague-Dawley rat. International Immunopharmacology 3/7: 1041-1048

6.   Pagenkemper J. and Cundell D.R. (2003) Correlation between ergotism and the appearance of witchcraft in Germany in the Middle Ages. Journal Young Investigators (accepted)

7.    Boisvert-Bertrand C., Brendley B.W. and Cundell D.R. (2003) Searching for narrow spectrum antibiotics from microbes in soil from Presque Isle, Pennsylvania. Journal Young Investigators (accepted)

ABSTRACTS

1.    Vilardi A.M., Fonjweng G. and Cundell D.R. (1998) Isolation of antibiotic-producing Actinomycetes from Great Salt Marsh, Delaware. Proc. Am. Soc. Microbiol.: N62

2.   Silibovsky R., Sanders R., Sztandera L and Cundell D. (1999) Blood type as a predictive factor for bacteremia. Clinical Infectious Disease (in press November 1999)

3.   Sztandera L. and Cundell D. (2000) Fuzzy Logic Identification of Risk factors for Infection. Proceedings of the Fifth Joint Conference on Information Sciences, Atlantic City, NJ, Volume I: p108-110

4.   Morrone J.M., Aleti S., Cundell D. and Wilson R. (2000) Differential Skin Carriage of Skin Staphylococci in a College Community. 11^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA: p48.

5.    Matrone M., Ratacjack P., Cameron R., Pierce J.D. and Cundell D.R. (2001) “Echinacea boosts immune system functioning of aged rats”, 12^th Annual Sigma XI   Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA: p41.

6.   Panossian, S., Cundell D.R. (2001) Antimicrobials from Bacillus sphaericus isolated from English boxwood soil”, 12^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA: p56.

7.   Matrone M., Ratajczak P.A. Cundell D.R. and Pierce J. (2001) The effect of St. John’s Wort on immune function of mature, male Sprague-Dawley rats. 4^th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences Proceedings, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, Baltimore, MD: p13.

8.   Ratajczak P.A., Matrone M., Cundell D.R. and Pierce J. (2001) The effect of aerial components of Echinacea on the aging rat immune system. 4^th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences Proceedings, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, Baltimore, MD: p14

9.   Emanuel S., Bunik T., Damico C., Cundell D.R. and Bockarie A. (2001) Antibiotic secreting soil isolates from Jamaican soil. 4^th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences Proceedings, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, Baltimore, MD: p25.

10. Hartz C.B., Vodzak H.D., Cundell D.R. and Brendley W.H. (2002) Algal species as bioremediants of water-soluble heavy metals ions and the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) 13^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA: p 39

11. Emanuel S., Bunik T. Cundell D.R. and Bockarie A. (2002) Jamaican soil as a source of antibiotic-secreting actinomycete and bacillus soil isolates. 13^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA: p 28

12. Bockarie A.H.T., Hoppy D., George B. and Cundell D. (2002) How does poultry feather fabric stand up to coir matting for erosion control? Ecological Society of America National Meeting, Tucson, AZ

13. Cundell D.R. and Brendley W.H. (2002) Microbial Bioremediation of Methyl-tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) 18^th Annual International Conference on Contaminated Soils, Sediments and Water Proceedings, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA: p 205

14. Pagenkemper J. and Cundell D.R. (2003) Correlation between ergotism and the appearance of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. 14^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, April 11^th 2003: p53

15. Hartz C.B., Braz V.A., Cundell D.R., Brendley W.H and Brendley B. (2003) Isolation of a gasoline bioremediant Bacillus licheniformis from methyl tertiary-butyl ether contaminated agar. 14^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, April 11^th 2003: p 27

16. Boisvert-Bertrand C., Brendley B., Brendley W.H., Piechoski M.P. and Cundell D.R. (2003) Searching for novel narrow spectrum antibiotics from microbes in soil from Presque Isle, PA. 14^th Annual Sigma XI Society Proceedings, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, April 11^th 2003: p6

17. Hartz C.B, Willson K., Cundell D.R. and Brendley B.H. (2003) Isolation of a bioremediant Bacillus amyloliquifaciens from methyl tertiary-butyl ether-contaminated agar. Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) Proceedings, San Diego, CA October 18^th 2003: p195