Community Outreach and Education
As Director of Community Outreach & Education Programs of the Department of Environmental Medicine and the Environmental Health Sciences Center, as well as Director of the University of Rochester's Center for Science Education and Outreach,I am responsible for developing and coordinating a wide variety of programs for students (elementary through high school), teachers, and the general community. These include hands-on science programs for local schools, summer science camps, and science teacher workshops, run through our Life Sciences Learning Center. Our community outreach programs coordinated through the Environmental Health Sciences Center include childhood lead poisoning prevention initiatives, a community advisory board, newsletters and community forums.

My science education experiences have included adjunct faculty positions at several colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area. My pre-college science outreach experience included the development of molecular genetics programs through the University of Pennsylvania's successful Penn Summer Science Academy. I have been at the University of Rochester since 1995, first developing science education programs in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology (1995-1998) and, since 1998, in Environmental Medicine.

My research experience includes graduate and postdoctoral work on retroviral gene transfer and gene therapy. While a graduate student at Columbia University, I developed two novel retroviral packaging cell lines that have subsequently been used by hundreds of laboratories worldwide. These two cell lines, GP+E86 and GP+EnvAm12, are currently being licensed through Genetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. I also completed two postdoctoral fellowships--at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

• Pichichero ME, Casey JR, Block SL, Guttendorf R, Flanner H, Markowitz D, Clausen S. Pharmacodynamic analysis and clinical trial of amoxicillin sprinkle administered once daily for 7 days compared to penicillin V potassium administered four times daily for 10 days in the treatment of tonsillopharyngitis due to Streptococcus pyogenes in children. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2008 Jul; 52(7):2512-20.
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• Markowitz DG, DuPré MJ. Graduate Experience in Science Education: the development of a science education course for biomedical science graduate students. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2007; 6(3):233-42.
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• Wolfe JH, Kyle JW, Sands MS, Sly WS, Markowitz DG, Parente MK. High level expression and export of beta-glucuronidase from murine mucopolysaccharidosis VII cells corrected by a double-copy retrovirus vector. Gene Ther. 1995 Jan; 2(1):70-8.
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• Cournoyer D, Scarpa M, Mitani K, Moore KA, Markowitz D, Bank A, Belmont JW, Caskey CT. Gene transfer of adenosine deaminase into primitive human hematopoietic progenitor cells. Hum Gene Ther. 1991; 2(3):203-13.
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• Hesdorffer C, Ward M, Markowitz D, Bank A. Efficient gene transfer in live mice using a unique retroviral packaging line. DNA Cell Biol. 1990 Dec; 9(10):717-23.
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• Markowitz D, Goff S, Bank A. Construction and use of a safe and efficient amphotropic packaging cell line. Virology. 1988 Dec; 167(2):400-6.
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• Markowitz D, Goff S, Bank A. A safe packaging line for gene transfer: separating viral genes on two different plasmids. J Virol. 1988 Apr; 62(4):1120-4.
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• Markowitz DG, Goff SP, Bank A. Safe and efficient ecotropic and amphotropic packaging lines for use in gene transfer experiments. Trans Assoc Am Physicians. 1988; 101:212-8.
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• LaFlamme S, Acuto S, Markowitz D, Vick L, Landschultz W, Bank A. Expression of chimeric human beta- and delta-globin genes during erythroid differentiation. J Biol Chem. 1987 Apr 5; 262(10):4819-26.
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