Department of Pathology

University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Biography:

Dr. Shanklin received his medical degree from State University of New York, Syracuse, after a double major in chemistry and philosophy at Syracuse University. During medical school he was a research associate at Marine Biological Laboratory, studying functional integration in teleost embryos. He interned in pathology and obstetrics at Duke University Hospital before serving in the U.S. Navy as an obstetrician-gynecologist. Following military duty he resumed residency training in pathology and joined the faculty of the University of Florida. A recognized international authority in developmental pathology and neuropathology, he is a founder of the Society for Pediatric Pathology. He was awarded fellowship status with the Royal Society of Medicine, London, in 1992, in both pathology and obstetrics. He was pathologist-in-chief at Chicago Lying-In Hospital for eleven years and later joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1983. For the past 15 years he had broadened his fields of inquiry into basic processes of immunopathology and developmental nutrition. 

Dr. Shanklin  is an active member of the editorial board of Experimental and Molecular Pathology in immunological and development pathology and an active member in the Memphis Section of the American Chemical Society.  He remains active at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.  He is also a life member of the Mathematical Association of America and the New York Academy of Science.  In May 2002, Dr. Shanklin was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award by the College of Graduate Medical Sciences of the University of Tennessee.

Research/Teaching Interests:

Current active research covers three fields. The first is topographic analysis of perinatal brain hemorrhages and vascular malformations, using a database now in excess of 1,000 cases. The objective is to describe developmental time vectors for lesion preconditions. The second is the completion of a 30 year effort on pulmonary oxygen toxicity which identified a nitrogen:oxygen receptor mechanism in the lung. The third is investigation of how alien materials affect wound healing and the consequences of this for long term cellular immune memory, in collaboration with Professor David L. Smalley of the department.  This work on cellular immunity has now been extended to the immunological effects of selected botanicals under a major grant from the Innovations Council of the Baptist Healthcare Foundation.

Selected Publications:

Biesiada, E., P.M. Adams, Shanklin, D.R., G.S. Bloom, and S.A. Stein: Biology of the congenitally hypothyroid hyt/hyt mouse. Advances in Neuroimmunology 6:309-346, 1996.

Shanklin, D.R. and D.L. Smalley: Dynamics of wound healing after silicone device implantation. Exper. Molec. Pathol. 66:26-39, 1999.

Shanklin, D.R.: Maternal nutrition and child health, Second edition, 2000, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL., 298 pp., ISBN #9-398-07074-1.

Shanklin, D.R., M.V. Stevens, M.F. Hall, and D.L. Smalley: Environmental immunogens and T cell mediated responses in fibromyalgia: Evidence for immune dysregulation and determinants of granuloma formation. Exper. Molec. Pathol. 69:102-118, 2000.

Shanklin, D.R. and Smalley, D.L.  Pathogenetic and diagnostic aspects of siliconosis. Rev. Environ. Health 17:85-105, 2002 (An invited paper).