Robert Farrell, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Robert Farrell is a professor of biology at Penn State University. He has forty-one years of hands-on experience with molecular biology and animal tissue culture methods, ranging from the classical to the contemporary. He is a recognized RNA expert, and his research enterprise has focused on transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression in both animal and plant models. He served as an associate editor for Plant Molecular Biology Reporter and is a frequent peer-reviewer for journals within his discipline. In addition to his research, he has been the recipient of two awards for excellence in teaching from Penn State.

Dr. Farrell has consulted extensively within the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and is occasionally called upon as an expert witness. Previously, he served as President and principal investigator at Exon Intron, a biotechnology education and laboratory service firm. His previous clients have included Bayer, Becton Dickinson, Pfizer, Millipore, Abbott Labs, the USDA, PGC Scientifics, Dynal, Polaroid, Roche, Sigma Chemical, Syntex Pharmaceuticals, and several major universities and institutes.

Dr. Farrell has authored six editions of RNA Methodologies: A Laboratory Guide for Isolation and Characterization (Elsevier), the most recent of which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the release of the first edition. He has also written journal articles for such publications as J. Cellular Physiology, Molecular and General Genomics, Clinical Biotechnology, J. American Society for Horticultural Science, Tree Physiology, HortScience, FEMS Yeast Research, FMS Microbiology Ecology, Biology and Fertility of Soils, BMC Plant Biology, Planta, Tree Genetics and Genomes, Mesoamericana, Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, and American Biotechnology Laboratory. 

Dr. Farrell received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Cell and Molecular Biology from The Catholic University of America and his B.S. in Biology from Providence College.