Biography

Robert K. Bright is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Advisor for the Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas. Dr. Bright graduated from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho with a B.S. degree in Bacteriology (emphasis biochemistry) in 1987. After some time on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army he was hired as a Research Associate at the SW Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, TX. Dr. Bright enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio in the fall of 1989. He was recalled to active duty in the U.S. Army in the fall of 1990 and served until June of 1991 in the combat zone in support of Operation Desert Storm. Returning to graduate studies in the fall of 1991 Dr. Bright earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio in 1994. Upon completion of his doctoral studies Dr. Bright moved to Bethesda, Maryland where he was awarded an Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship to study tumor immunology in the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health. In late 1996 he was recruited to the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Department of Surgery at the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan where he assumed a position of Assistant Professor. Two years later Dr. Bright was recruited to the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute and the Robert Franz Cancer Center at the Providence Portland Medical Center in Portland, Oregon where he served as Chief of Prostate Cancer Biology until February of 2002. In 2002 Dr. Bright was recruited as an Associated Professor to the Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Dr. Bright has received several honors and awards to include the University of Texas Health Sciences Center Armand J. Guarino Award for Academic Excellence in Doctoral Studies (top graduate student), the National Institutes of Health Fellows Award for Research Excellence (top 10% of postdoctoral fellows), a Research Scholars Award from the American Cancer Society and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Outstanding Teacher and Student Advocate Award, 2006. He was recognized, in 2011, by the DOD Prostate Cancer Research Program as an Innovative Mind in Prostate Cancer Research for his work on cancer vaccines. Dr. Bright has served and currently serves on numerous national grant review committees to include the American Cancer Society, the DOD/ Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, NASA and the National Institutes of Health. He has also served as Chair for several grant review committees. Dr. Bright also serves as an expert reviewer for several scientific journals including the Journal of Immunology, Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy, the Journal of Immunotherapy, Vaccine, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for the journal ISRN Immunology. His research focuses on tumor immunity with emphasis on the development of vaccines against cancer and has been funded by the National Cancer Institute/NIH, the American Cancer Society and the DOD CDMRP Prostate Cancer Research Program. Dr. Bright has published over 50 manuscripts and several book chapters and reviews on tumor immunology and cancer vaccines.

 

ROBERT K. BRIGHT

Professor

 

  • : (806) 743-4592
    Fax: (806) 743-2334

  • DEPARTMENTDepartment of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology
    Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
  • COUNTRYUSA