Published Research

Below is a partial list of our published scientific experimental findings, discussion, and interpretation, of thiol/disulfide interchange (redox) electrochemical transduction of messenger chemical groups and energy states into information which enables the ordering necessary in biological systems.

Selected References To Pertinent Published Research:

  1. Norris, D. M. 1969. Transduction mechanism in olfaction and gustation. Nature 222: 1253-1254.
  2. Gilbert, B. L., and Norris, D. M. 1968. A chemical basis for bark beetle (Scolytus) distinction between host and non-host trees. J. Insect Physiol. 14: 1063-1068.
  3. Norris, D. M., Ferkovich, S. M., Baker, J. E., Rozental, J. M., Borg, T. K. 1970. Energy transduction: inhibition of cockroach feeding by naphthoquinones. Science 170: 754-755.
  4. Norris, D. M. 1971. A hypothesized unifying mechanism in neural function. Experientia. 27: 531-532.
  5. Rozental, J. M., Norris, D. M. 1973. Chemosensory mechanism in American cockroach olfaction and gustation. Nature 244: 370-371.
  6. Singer, G., Rozental, J. M., Norris, D. M. 1975. Sulphydryl groups and the quinone receptor in insect olfaction and gustation. Nature 256:222-223.
  7. Norris, D. M. A molecular and submolecular mechanism of insect perception of certain information in their environment. Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, No. 265, Comportement des Insectes et Milieu Trophique, edited by Labeyrie, V. Paris: Editions du C. N. R. S., 1977, pp.81-102.
  8. Norris, D. M. 1985. Electrochemical parameters of energy transduction between repellent naphthoquinones and lipoprotein receptors in insect neurons. Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics. 14: 449-456.
  9. Norris, D. M. 1988. Periplaneta americana perception of phytochemical naphthoquinones as allelochemicals. J. Chem. Ecol. 14:1807-1819.
  10. Norris, D. M. (ed.). 1981. Perception of Behavioral Chemicals. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, p. 328.
  11. Norris, D. M.1986.Anti-feeding compounds, pp.97-146, In: Haug, G., and Hoffmann, H. (eds.) Chemistry of Plant Protection. 1. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
  12. Neupane, F. P., Norris, D. M.. 1992. Antioxidant alteration of Glycine max (Fabaceae) defensive chemistry: analogy to herbivory elicitation. Chemoecology 3: 25-32.
  13. Markovic, I., Hanstad, J. O., Norris, D. M. 1993. Chemical correlates of alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) altered Malacosoma disstria herbivory in Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. subintegerrinia, green ash. J. Chem. Ecology 19: 1205-1217.
  14. Norris, D. M., Markovic, I. 2003. Tritrophic interactions: the inducible defenses of plants., pp. 87-137, In: Koul, O. and Dhaliwal, G. S. (eds.) Predators And Parasitoids. Taylor and Francis, London.
  15. Markovic, I., Stantchev, T. S., Fields, K. H., Tiffany, L. J., Tomic, M., Weiss, C. D., Broder, C. C., Strebel, K., Clouse, K. A. Thiol/disulfide exchange is a prerequisite for CXCR4-trophic HIV-1 envelope-mediated T-cell fusion during viral entry. BLOOD 103: 1586-1594, 2004.
  16. Norris, D. M. 1994. A redox-based mechanism by which environmental stresses elicit change in plant-defensive chemistry, pp. 46-57.In: Mattson, W. J., Niemela, P., Rousi, M. eds., Dynamics of Forest Herbivory: Quest for Pattern and Principle, USDA, General Technical Report NC-183,Maui, HI.
  17. Markovic I. Advances in HIV-1 entry inhibitors: strategies to interfere with receptor and coreceptor engagement. Curr. Pharmaceut. Design, In Press, 2005.
  18. New Horizons In Electrochemical Science And Technology, Publication NMAB 438-1, National Academy Press, Washington, D. C., 1986. (D. M. Norris is cited, by U. S. Academy of Sciences selected Board of Experts, as the first scientist to successfully experimentally study the electrochemistry of life processes utilizing whole natural biological systems).
  19. Norris, D. M. 2010. Symbiotic Xyleborus system: An ideal extreme biofacies, p.30. The 7th Okazaki Biology Conference, The Evolution of Symbiotic Systems, Kakegawa, Japan.
  20. Ji Y-B et al. Juglone-induced apoptosis in human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells via the mitochondrial pathway. Exp Toxicol Pathol (2009), doi: 10.1016 / j. etp. 2009.09.010.
  21. Liu, S., Norris, D. M., Hartwig, E. E., Xu, M. 1992. Inducible phytoalexins in juvenile soybean genotypes predict soybean looper resistance in the fully developed plants. Plant Physiol. 100: 1479-1485.
  22. Kafatos, FC, Eisner, T. Unification in the century of biology. Science 303: 1257, 2004.

As shown so conclusively by Dr. Ingrid Markovic (15, 17), her learned understanding of the TDtriple E Code's central role in life processes during her PhD thesis and Post-Doc research in our laboratories enabled her to subsequently conduct, at NIH, Bethesda, MD, breakthrough research to clarify the thiol/disulfide exchange chemistry and biophysics essential for HIV-1, and other viral, infections of host cells. This new fundamental understanding has opened tremendous avenues for pertinent protein therapeutic advances for coping with such viruses.

During our 50+ years of published research on plant epigenetics involving more than 40 diverse plant species, varieties, etc., our chosen central experimental plant has been soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. Our choice of soybean was based on it being a major crop plant throughout much of the world; and the availability of extensive genotypes (e. g., E. E. Hartwig et al., U.S.D.A., A.R.S., Mid South Area, Soybean Production Research, Stoneville, MS 38776). Our major emphasis on soybeans began in the early 1980's; and progressed so well that by the early 1990's we asked Dr. Hartwig (an internationally acclaimed soybean geneticist and plant breeder) to send us six genotypes that he knew very well regarding their respective resistance to the full spectrum of pests, pathogens and other major environmental stresses. He agreed to do this, and to only identify each genotype to us by a number (i. e., 1-6). His choices were based on his world-leading accumulated knowledge during his 40-year career of selection and breeding soybeans. Based on our ~10-year study of soybean epigenetics, and resistance to environmental stresses, Unifinium scientists hypothesized that we could match, or exceed, Dr. Hartwig's rankings of the six genotypes, within 14 days, based on our developed soybean hypocotyl-based laboratory assay employing a sulfhydryl-binding reagent. We simply put our TDtriple E Code-based understanding to a major test. Starting from seeds, we sent our findings to Dr.Hartwig within 14 days; and our ranking of the coded six genotypes matched his rankings (21).

Many other research projects throughout the world, that knowingly or unknowingly involve the TDtriple E Code, are experiencing never-before degrees and/or rates of success in developing new entities and strategies for treating stresses and many diseases, especially cancers.

A really tremendous importance of the discovery of the TDtriple E Code is that it demonstrates that stresses and diseases involve fundamentally common thiol (-SH)/disulfide (-S-S-) redox (exchange)-protein causative mechanisms.

This unifying level of causative understanding thus allows each such-based research effort to contribute very meaningfully to developing effective strategies for treatment, or even cures, of not just one, but of numerous, stresses and diseases.

The TDtriple E Code further allows effective unification of research formerly dogmatically pigeon-holed in artifactual disciplines such as human medicine, veterinary medicine, invertebrate zoology, botany, agronomy, horticulture, forestry, ecology, bacteriology, virology, biochemistry, genetics, etc.