W. A. Nagle, Ph.D.

Background Information

Dr. Nagle is a native of Reading (Berks County), Pennsylvania, where he received his undergraduate education. He then began graduate work in the radiological sciences, leading to the Ph.D. degree in radiation biology. Doctoral research was carried out under the direction of Dr. Ron Humphrey, in the Physics Department of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital & Tumor Institute, Houston, Texas.

Following a postdoc at the Shields Warren Radiation Laboratory in Boston, he moved to Little Rock to join colleagues A. J. Moss, G. V. Dalrymple, and M. L. Baker, in the Radiation Research Laboratory at UAMS and the Little Rock Veterans Hospital. The focus of that lab was radiation-induced DNA damage, the mechanisms of radiation cell killing, and basic science studies in experimental radiotherapy. Stimulated by the First International Hyperthermia Conference, the group turned their attention to mild heating, as a potential adjuvant to radiation in cancer therapy, and to investigate the mechanisms of heat-induced cell killing. K. J. Henle later joined the group, bringing expertise in the area of heat protection, and the role of heat-shock proteins (HSPs) in the cellular stress response. The latter studies led directly to the current interest in molecular chaperones, and their role in protein folding, unfolding and (perhaps) misfolding.