The following is a brief description of the background of certain scientists affiliated with Paternity Testing Corporation (PTC) either as a staff scientist or as a member of our Board of Scientific Advisors.

Dimitar Gavrilov, M.D., Ph.D. is PTC’s Laboratory Director. In addition to his medical degree Dr. Gavrilov has a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology. In addition to his duties at PTC, Dr. Gavrilov is in a medical residency program at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. He is also working toward his Board Certification in Medical Genetics. Dr. Gavrilov began publishing articles on his work in DNA human identity testing in the early 1990s. Some of his articles have been presented in many countries.

Karol Elias, Ph.D. is PTC’s Co-Laboratory Director–Forensics. Dr. Elias came to PTC from the Anne Arundel County Police Department Crime Laboratory in Maryland. Dr. Elias has a Ph.D. in biology. When she decided to become involved in human identity testing, she returned to school and obtained a master’s degree in forensic science as well. In addition to her crime laboratory experience, Dr. Elias has also completed a nine-month internship with the United States Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory (AFDIL) in Rockville, Maryland, during which she received training from personnel from AFDIL and from the FBI’s DNA laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. Dr. Elias has the unusual combination of a doctoral degree in biological science plus specific academic training and experience in forensics, including human identity testing.

Christian Carson, Ph.D. is a PTC Co-Laboratory Director. Dr. Carson came to PTC from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Carson's background is in molecular genetics. He received a Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of Florida. Dr. Carson brings to PTC many years of experience in gene mapping and chromosome analysis. He was a Research Associate at the University of Missouri prior to joining PTC in 2003.

Judith Miles, M.D., Ph.D. is on the Board of Scientific Advisors of PTC. In addition to her medical degree Dr. Miles has a Ph.D. in cytogenetics. She is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. Dr. Miles is also Director of the Division of Medical Genetics of the University of Missouri Hospitals and Clinics. Dr. Miles has participated in many professional publications and received multiple honors and awards. She participates on many professional committees at a local, regional and national level. She has been very involved in the American Society of Human Genetics, the American Board of Medical Genetics (past member of Board of Directors), the American College of Medical Genetics, and the Great Plains Clinical Genetics Society (past president).

Dr. Miles has been a genetics consultant to the State of Missouri Department of Health since 1979, and has been Chair of the Missouri Genetics Disease Program Advisory Committee since 1981. In that capacity she has been the top genetics advisor to Missouri Governors for almost twenty years. Dr. Miles' fields of expertise require that she have a strong knowledge of DNA issues. She also has been very involved with consultation and oversight in regard to laboratory procedures and quality control at a local, regional and national level (on the Cytogenetics Committee of the College of American Pathologists). Dr. Miles is a Board Certified medical geneticist and is also Board Certified in pediatrics.

Pui-Yan Kwok, M.D., Ph.D. is on the Board of Scientific Advisors of PTC. Dr. Kwok is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Kwok earned a masters degree in human biology, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and his medical degree at the University of Chicago. Dr. Kwoc has done extensive research in DNA testing techniques, and he is currently developing new technology in this area. He is a member of the editorial board of Genome Research and is a reviewer for that publication as well as for BioTechniques. He has received many invitations to write or lecture on various DNA testing techniques and issues. He co-authored an article on a high throughput homogeneous DNA diagnostic method (Nucleic Acids Research, 1997, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 347-353). The article describes a technology developed by Dr. Kwoc and Dr. Chen at Washington University, which technology is one of several promising candidates to replace current DNA testing methods for paternity. He has also published several articles more recently on Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) technology.

Charlotte Phillips, Ph.D. is on the PTC Board of Scientific Advisors. Dr. Phillips is Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Child Health, Division of Medical Genetics, University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Phillips is Board Certified in clinical molecular genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics (few paternity testing laboratories have board certified geneticists–PTC has both Dr. Phillips and Dr. Miles–this rigorous test provides professionally accepted recognition of their expertise in the area of human DNA). Dr. Phillips was previously assistant research professor in the Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, and she was a participating lecturer in the Human Genetics Lecture Series, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Genetics and Metabolism, Duke University Medical Center. Among her professional memberships are the American Society of Human Genetics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Abraham Eisenstark, Ph.D. is on the Board of Scientific Advisors of PTC. Dr. Eisenstark is a past director of the Cancer Research Center in Columbia, Missouri. Dr. Eisenstark is also Professor Emeritus and past director of the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is past Program Director and Section Head of the Molecular Biology Section of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Eisenstark is a recognized expert with over 40 years of experience in the field of genetics. He has participated in over 95 publications and has numerous honors and awards. He has presented seminars and papers all over the world.

Ramaiah Nagaraja, Ph.D. is on the Board of Scientific Advisors of PTC. Since 1997 Dr. Nagaraja has been a Staff Scientist in the Laboratory of Genetics at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

Prior to his position at NIH, Dr. Nagaraja was a Research Instructor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine. In that capacity he worked in two laboratories on the Human Genome Project, supervising post-doctoral associates and lab technicians in DNA research. The Human Genome Project is a major international research effort to "map" the location of each segment of DNA on human chromosomes. Dr. Nagaraja worked on this project for seven years.

For the preceding three years Dr. Nagaraja was a research fellow in the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at the National Institutes of Health. From 1977 to 1986 he performed research in molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1986. For the past twenty years Dr. Nagaraja has performed DNA research at some of the best scientific research institutions in the country, giving him an uncommon depth of expertise on the leading edge of human DNA research.

Dennis Lubahn, Ph.D. is on the Board of Scientific Advisors of PTC. Dr. Lubahn is Associate Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Child Health of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Lubahn has a background in chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology from Duke University. He has done extensive work in genetics and DNA in the area of human disease. His work has included the performance of population genetic analysis of DNA polymorphisms, the discipline that is used to establish percentages of exclusion or inclusion in paternity testing.

Donna Becherer, M.S. is on the PTC Board of Scientific Advisors. She is a forensic scientist with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Ms. Becherer has been a forensic scientist for the SLMPD for 25 years. She implemented the forensic DNA identification program for the SLMPD in 1991 and has been in charge of that program since then. The SLMPD was one of the first crime labs in the country to implement a DNA program and continues to be at the forefront of DNA testing.