UTPB professor awarded $209,995 research
Grant to study bacteria in blood

The National Institutes of Health announced Monday that Douglas P. Henderson, Ph.D., will receive a grant of $209,995 to support his research on “Bacterial heme transport and heomoglobin expression.” The Associate Professor of Science and Math has taught and at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin for nearly 10 years. For several years he has conducted research into using information from bacterial heme to develop a blood substitute and has collaborated with Dr. John Olson of Rice University.

Henderson has worked with undergraduate students and graduate students in his lab. Now he will have an opportunity to upgrade microbiology supplies and equipment. “This is just wonderful,” the professor said. “I have always had undergraduate students in my lab and wrote the grant to include them. We have been working on this project for a couple of years on the transport systems and how heme is transported to hemoglobin.”

Henderson earned his doctorate in microbiology from The University of Texas at Austin in 1993. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in pharmacy at UT and has taught courses at UTPB in human genetics, molecular genetics, immunology, and microbiology.