Dr. Tyrrell Conway

Director and Principal Investigator, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Dr. Conway has over three decades of experience mentoring students, postdocs, staff, and faculty, leading large research projects, and administering a large academic department. He is a Regents Professor and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He previously served as Department Head of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. NIH has funded his laboratory since 2000. His group focuses on mechanisms of nutrient acquisition by Escherichia coli in a mouse model of intestinal colonization. Dr. Conway prioritizes mentoring of the students and postdocs who do the work, including more than 150 undergraduate research assistants, 14 Master degree graduates, and 12 Doctoral recipients. Of the doctoral students, six are professors, five are scientific group leaders in the biotechnology industry, and one is a physician. A Diversity Supplement to his R01 award supported his most recent postdoc, who now holds a tenure-track position in academia. Dr. Conway's publication record includes 120 papers and book chapters describing the colonized state of E. coli, functional genomic analyses, and many aspects of bacterial metabolism. He was also a Project Leader on the first NIH-COBRE awarded to Oklahoma in 2000 and oversaw the first Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN) award to Oklahoma. He co-wrote an NSF-EPSCoR proposal (2002) that created a transcriptomics core shared by five institutions across the state. Thus, the PI has decades of experience leading large Institutional Development Awards (IDeA). During his time as Department Head Dr. Conway hired seven Assistant Professors who were either promoted and tenured or are making excellent progress toward tenure. He also guided three Associate Professors through promotion to full Professor. Mentoring faculty members is Dr. Conway’s top priority, and he is fully committed to the success of these new investigators.