A brief biography
Dr. Cox was born and raised in the southwest Oklahoma town of Lawton. Those who know him will tell you that means he was born without a quit bone in him. He excelled at science from a young age and received his Bachelors of Science in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma in 1999 while working as a bike shop mechanic to make ends meet. From there he studied in Dr. Michael Gilmore's group, first at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center where he received a Master’s in Microbiology in 2002, then at Harvard University where he conducted his dissertation research and completed his Ph.D. in 2006. The focus of his dissertation was identification and metagenomic analysis of the gut microbiome and establishment of an invertebrate GI tract colonization model using the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This allowed for the first time for detailed molecular investigations into the contribution of bacterial virulence determinants expressed by the multi-drug resistant gastrointestinal pathogen Enterococcus faecalis to gut colonization and disease.
In addition, through the use of mutant knockout flies, Dr. Cox studied the contribution of the innate immune response, and the antimicrobial peptides it controls, on the host response to colonization by pathogenic bacteria. Prior to this work, little was known about how or why some exogenous bacteria entering the GI tract were either eliminated immediately, or were able to invade certain GI tract niches, take up residence, and ultimately bring about overt disease and systemic dissemination outside the confines of the intestinal tract. It turns out that the fly offered a simple enough model in terms of its gut phylogenetic diversity that we were able to fully characterize it, cleanse the fly of its normal flora, and selectively recolonize it with isogenic virulent bacterial strains of our choosing. This novel approach made possible the tractable study of several enterococcal virulence determinants, most notably its two-component cytolysin, which we found allowed E. faecalis, in some cases, to perforate the intestinal wall and escape into the circulatory system. Importantly, this finding was made possible by Dr. Cox's efforts to generate and apply fluorescently labeled anti-E. faecalis antibodies that allowed for confocal laser microscopy-based measurement and visualization of the colonization and infection process.
Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Cox did his postdoctoral training at the Colorado School of Mines with Kent Voorhees with a view towards expanding his expertise into bacterial and viral diagnostic technology and methodology development, and investigating the use of phages and various forms of mass spectrometry and lateral flow technologies for molecular biomarker measurement and bacterial identification.
To date Dr. Cox's main research interests at Mines are focused on the study of bacterial viruses and the exploitation of phage biology to, design, develop, and implement novel bacterial detection and identification technologies. To a lesser extent, this has now expanded into technologies for rapid cancer detection. By focusing on phage protein amplification or bacterial fatty acid biomarker measurement by LFI, MALDI-TOF MS, MOLI-MS, and surface enhanced Raman spectrometry (SERS) and lateral flow capillary concentration (LFCC) (a novel point-of-care technology Dr. Cox invented and patented), he has developed more accurate, user-friendly methodologies with broad commercialization potential.
Dr. Cox has also initiated new lines of independent, but related research focused on the discovery, isolation, and phenotypic, genotypic, and proteomic study of new phages from environmental and clinical reservoirs. The primary objective of this research is to extend our knowledge of basic phage biology, phage-host interactions at the molecular level, and to acquire detailed bioinformatics data in order to better evaluate new candidates for incorporation as natural products into bacterial detection and identification and antibiotic resistance profiling methods and systems.
Away from his research, Chris is an avid, life-long mountain and road cyclist and has completed numerous bicycle tours across the Colorado Rockies and around the world. He is also an ardent alpine and cross country skier, enjoys hiking and camping in the mountains, playing disc golf, and playing the Ukulele.
