Faculty and Staff Biography

Rodriguez-Juan

Juan Rodriguez

Chair, Basic Sciences & Professor, Physics
Basic Sciences

Education

Postdoctoral fellow, Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis (1986-1990)

Ph.D., Physics, University of Arkansas Fayetteville (1986)

B.S., Physics, Centenary College of Louisiana (1980)

Additional training:

Sabbatical leave, Physiology, LSU Health Sciences Center (2001-2002)

Specialty

Quantum Optics, Laser Physics, Chemical Physics, Biophysics, Biomedical Optics, Nitric Oxide Biology, Mass Spectrometry, Physics Education

Current Research

My research focuses on detecting biologically-relevant gases, including oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitric oxide. My lab has developed apparatus and techniques that quantify: oxygen content in vivo using diffuse optical tomography; nitric oxide related products in aortic tissue using smooth-muscle relaxation action spectra with correction for tissue scattering and absorption; imaging of nitric oxide in aortic tissue using fluorescent probes; imaging of oxygen in living retinas; and absolute gas content in blood and in resuscitation fluids using mass spectrometry.  We are currently developing methods for scaling down our mass spectrometric method towards the detection of gases from cultured cells.

Vita Highlights

Positions held:

Associate Professor of Physics, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, since 2014
Keen Professor of Physics, 2007-2014
Professor of Physics, Centenary College, 2003-2014.
Adjunct Professor of Physiology, LSU Health Sciences Center, 1997-2014.
Associate Professor of Physics, Centenary College, 1996-2003.
Assistant Professor of Physics, Centenary College of Louisiana, 1990-1996.

Recent publications:

  1. Spitznagel B*, Pritchett P*, Messina T, Goadrich M, and Rodriguez J, "An undergraduate laboratory activity on molecular dynamics simulations", Biochem. Mol. Biol. Ed., In press (2016).
  2. Butcher, G.. Rodriguez, J. And Chirhart, S. 2014. "Modeling Diffusion", in Tested Studies for Laboratory Teaching, Volume 36 . Proceedings of the 36th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), (2015).
  3. Armbruster M*, Grimley E*, Rodriguez J, Nacionales D, Efron P, Moldawer L, Papadopoulos K, Ungaro R, Cuenca A, Simpkins C.  “Soybean oil: a potentially new intravascular perfusate.” Perfusion. Mar;28(2):160-6 (2013).
  4. Milsom AB, Fernandez BO, Garcia-Saura MF, Rodriguez J, Feelisch M. “Contributions of nitric oxide synthases, dietary nitrite/nitrate, and other sources to the formation of NO signaling products.”Antioxid Redox Signal. Aug 1;17(3):422-32. (2012).
  5. Garcia-Saura MF, Saijo F, Bryan NS, Bauer S, Rodriguez J, Feelisch M.”Nitroso-redox status and vascular function in marginal and severe ascorbate deficiency.”Antioxid Redox Signal. Oct 1;17(7):937-50. (2012).
  6. Grimley E*, Turner N*, Newell C*, Simpkins C, Rodriguez J. “Quantitation of dissolved gas content in emulsions and in blood using mass spectrometric detection”, J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci. 879(19):1513-8 (2011).
  7. Dyson A, Bryan NS, Fernandez BO, Garcia-Saura MF, Saijo F, Mongardon N, Rodriguez J, Singer M, Feelisch M.  “An integrated approach to assessing nitroso-redox balance in systemic inflammation”, Free Radic Biol Med. 2011 Sep 15;51(6):1137-45 (2011).
  8. Saijo F, Milsom AB, Bryan NS, Bauer SM, Vowinkel T, Ivanovic M, Andry C, Granger DN, Rodriguez J, Feelisch M. “On the dynamics of nitrite, nitrate and other biomarkers of nitric oxide production in inflammatory bowel disease”, Nitric Oxide. 22(2):155-67 (2010).
  9. Cornelius J*, Tran T*, Turner N*, Piazza A*, Mills L*, Slack R*, Hauser S*, Alexander JS, Grisham MB, Feelisch M, Rodriguez J. “Isotope tracing enhancement of chemiluminescence assays for nitric oxide research” Biol Chem. Feb;390(2):181-9 (2009).
  10. Feelisch M, Fernandez BO, Bryan NS, Garcia-Saura MF, Bauer S, Whitlock DR, Ford PC, Janero DR, Rodriguez J, Ashrafian H. “Tissue processing of nitrite in hypoxia: an intricate interplay of nitric oxide-generating and -scavenging systems”, J Biol Chem. Dec 5;283(49):33927-34 (2008).
  11. Edward Kelly, Jeffrey Mathew, Amy Blass, Juan Rodriguez, David I. Soybel, Cuthbert O. Simpkins, “Reperfusion Does not Correct Acute Heat Deficit in Short Term Intestinal Ischemia”, J. Surg. Res., 144, 423-424 (2008).
  12. Jeffrey Mathew, Amy Blass, Juan Rodriguez, David I. Soybel, Edward Kelly, Cuthbert O. Simpkins, “Infrared Emission As a Monitor of Metabolism in Hemorrhagic Shock” , J. Surg. Res., 144, 430-431 (2008).
  13. Vital, S.A., Fowler, R.W., Virgen, A., Gossett, D.R., Banks, S.W., Rodriguez, J. “Opposing Roles for Superoxide and Nitric Oxide in the NaCl-Induced Up-Regulation  of Antioxidant Enzyme Activity In Cotton Callus Tissue.” Environ Exp Bot 62: 60-68 (2008).
  14. Wang X, Bryan NS, MacArthur PH, Rodriguez J, Gladwin MT, Feelisch M. “Measurement of nitric oxide levels in the red cell: validation of tri-iodide-based chemiluminescence with acid-sulfanilamide pretreatment.” J Biol Chem. Sep 15;281(37):26994-7002 (2006).
  15. NS Bryan, BO Fernandez, SM Bauer, MF Garcia-Saura, AB Milson, T Rassaf, RE Maloney, A Bharti, JR Rodriguez, and M Feelisch, , “Nitrite is a signaling molecule and a regulator of gene expression in mammalian tissues”, Nat Chem Biol, 1, 290-297 (2005).
  16. Rodriguez J, Specian V, Maloney R, Jourd'heuil D, Feelisch M. “Performance of diamino fluorophores for the localization of sources and targets of nitric oxide” Free Radic Biol Med. 38, :356-68 (2005).  
  17. Xiao F, Rodriguez J, Arnold TC, Zhang S, Ferrara D*, Ewing J*, Alexander JS, Carden DL, Conrad SA. Near-infrared spectroscopy: a tool to monitor cerebral hemodynamic and metabolic changes after cardiac arrest in rats. Resuscitation. 2004 63(2), 213-20 (2004).
  18. Bryan NS, Rassaf T, Rodriguez J, Feelisch M. Bound NO in human red blood cells: fact or artifact? Nitric Oxide. 10, 221-8 (2004).
  19. Bryan NS, Rassaf T, Maloney RE, Rodriguez CM, Saijo F, Rodriguez JR, Feelisch M.  Cellular targets and mechanisms of nitros(yl)ation: an insight into their nature and kinetics in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 101, 4308-13 (2004).
  20. Dejam A, Kleinbongard P, Rassaf T, Hamada S, Gharini P, Rodriguez J, Feelisch M, Kelm M. Thiols enhance NO formation from nitrate photolysis. Free Radic Biol Med. 35, 1551-9 (2003).
  21. Juan Rodriguez and Martin Feelisch. “Optical methods for the detection of nitric oxide”, Saratov Fall Meeting 2003: Optical Technologies in Biophysics and Medicine V. Edited by Tuchin, Valery V. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 5474, pp. 154-161 (2004).
  22. Rassaf T, Bryan NS, Maloney RE, Specian V, Kelm M, Kalyanaraman B, Rodriguez J, Feelisch M. “NO adducts in mammalian red blood cells: too much or too little?” Nature Med. May;9(5):481-3 (2003).
  23. J. Rodriguez and M. Feelish,” Functional spectroscopy approach to the assessment of nitric oxide storage in vascular tissues” Saratov Fall Meeting 2002: Optical Technologies in Biophysics and Medicine IV, SPIE Proceedings 5068, V.V. Tuchin ed., 149-154 (2003).
  24. J. Rodriguez, R. Maloney, T. Rassaf, N. Bryan, and M. Feelisch, “Chemical nature of nitric oxide storage forms in rat vascular tissue.”Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 100(1):336-41 (2003).
  25. C. Delaney* and J. Rodriguez, “A simple medical physics experiment based on a laser pointer,” Amer. J. Phys. 70, 1068-1070 (2002).

* Undergraduate students

Recent grants:

CREATIVE TEACHING FUND (PI)
Molecular Dynamics: A Pharmacy Related Laboratory for the New Physics Curriculum
July 2015 – July 2016

LSUHSC CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING CENTER – PAC SEED PROGRAM (PI)
3D microscopy of tissue oxygenation
January 2014 – July 2015.

NSF-EPSCOR Supervised Undergraduate student Experiences (PI)
Real-time Detection of Molecular Products Released from Cell Cultur