Molecular Biologist
Dr. Roland A. Owens is Assistant Director of the NIH Office of Intramural Research and Chief of the Molecular Biology Section in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at NIH.
He received his bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in 1979. He earned his Ph.D. in biology from The Johns Hopkins University in 1985. His dissertation work with Dr. Philip Hartman involved studies of glutathione in bacteria.
Dr. Owens began his career at the NIH as a National Research Service Award Fellow in the Laboratory of Developmental Pharmacology in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with Dr. Daniel Nebert, studying Cytochrome P450 induction. In 1988 he received an Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to work with Dr. Barrie Carter.
He became an independent researcher in 1992, was officially placed on the NIH intramural tenure-track in 1994 and was tenured in 1998. Dr. Owens' current research focuses on adeno-associated virus type-2, a virus that is being developed as a vehicle for human gene therapy to treat diabetes and other diseases. His group's identification of the DNA sequence bound by the replication proteins of adeno-associated virus has led to the current models for integration and gene regulation mediated by these proteins.
Dr. Owens is a co-inventor on two patents involving AAV gene therapy applications. Dr. Owens served on the editorial board of Journal of Virology from 1997 to 2002. He has been very active in the mentoring of minority scientists and in 2002 was selected as Mentor of the Year by the UMBC Meyerhoff Scholarship Program. In 2008 he was appointed to the position of Assistant Director of the NIH Office of Intramural Research, where he is very active in the recruitment of research scientists to the NIH.
Related links:
NIH
NIDDK
Black Scientists Association (NIHBSA)
