Brian Hooker (bioengineer)

Brian S. Hooker, PhD, PE, is a former bioengineer and the team leader for the High Throughput Biology Team and Operations Manager of the DOE Genomics: Genomes to Life (GTL) Center for Molecular and Cellular Systems at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Hooker also is credited as a co-inventor for five patents. He now works as an associate professor at Simpson University.

Education

In 1985, Dr. Hooker earned his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering, from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California. He earned his master's of science degree in 1988 and his doctorate in 1990, both in biochemical engineering, from Washington State University, in Pullman, Washington.

Research

Hooker formerly managed applied plant and fungal molecular biology research projects, including development of plant-based biosensors and transgenic production systems for human pharmaceutical proteins and industrial enzymes at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where systems biology researchers are focused on understanding gene and protein networks involved in individual cell signaling, communication between cells in communities, and cellular metabolic pathways. Hooker has also been involved in research on microbial kinetics and transport mathematical modeling, design, development, and support for biological destruction of chlorinated organic hydrocarbons, development of tP4 transgenic plant protein production platform technology, and development of the RT3D bioremediation/natural attenuation software package.

He left PNNL in 2009, and was hired as an associate professor at Simpson University where he specializes in biology and chemistry. Simpson University is a private Christian University of liberal arts and professional studies offering undergraduate, graduate and teaching credential programs.

Hooker is known for his anti-vaccine activism and his claims of conflicts of interest within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a board member at Focus Autism,^[1] an organization which believes in the "ongoing cover-up of the vaccine/autism link".^[2]

Recognition and Controversy

Hooker earned the Battelle Entrepreneurial Award in 2001, and a Federal Laboratory Consortium Recognition Award in 1999, for his work on “Reactive Transport in 3-Dimensions.”

In 2014, Hooker had a paper titled "Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young African American boys: a reanalysis of CDC data" retracted from the journal Translational Neurodegeneration. The text of the retraction reads: "The Editor and Publisher regretfully retract the article as there were undeclared competing interests on the part of the author which compromised the peer review process. Furthermore, post-publication peer review raised concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis, therefore the Editors no longer have confidence in the soundness of the findings. We apologise to all affected parties for the inconvenience caused." ^[3]

Selected publications

• Dai Z, BS Hooker, RD Quesenberry, and J Gao. “Expression of Trichoderma reesei exo-cellobiohydrolase I (CBH I) in transgenic tobacco leaves and calli”, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 1999, 77-79(9):689-699
• Dai Z, BS Hooker, DB Anderson, and SR Thomas.“Improved plant-based production of E1 endoglucanase using potato:expression optimization and tissue targeting”, Molecular Breeding, 2000, 6(3):277-285.
• Gao J, BS Hooker, and DB Anderson. 2004. “Expression of Functional Human Coagulation Factor XIII A-domain in Plant Cell Suspensions and Whole Plants.” Protein Expression and Purification 37(1):89-96.
• Hooker, Brian S., Hettich, Robert L., Hurst, Gregory B., Kennel, Stephen J., Lankford, Patricia K., Chiann-Tso Lin, Lye Meng Markillie, Mayer-Clumbridge, M. Uljana, Pelletier, Dale A., Liang, Shi, Squier, Thomas C., Strader, Michael B., VerBerkmoes, Nathan C., "Isolation and Characterization of Protein Complexes from Shewanella oneidensis and Rhodopseudomonas palustris", Genomics: GTL Contractor—Grantee Workshop II, Washington, DC, February 29-March 2, 2004
• Trelka, Jeffrey A., Hooker, Brian S. "Specific Carbohydrate Dietary Trial: Understanding the Effectiveness of a Specific Carbohydrate Dietary Intervention In Autistic Children", 2004
• Markillie LM, CT Lin, JN Adkins, DL Auberry, EA Hill, BS Hooker, PA Moore, RJ Moore, L Shi, HS Wiley, and V Kery, “A simple protein complex purification and identification method for high throughput mapping of protein interaction networks”, Journal of Proteome Research, 2005
• Liang Shi, Jiann-Trzwo Lin, Lye M. Markillie, Thomas C. Squier, and Brian S. Hooker, “Overexpression of multi-heme C-type cytochromes” - Expression of recombinant decaheme cytochrome MtrA in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 by a directional TOPO cloning-based system. BioTechniques, 2005, 38(2):297-9.

References