Ruth Ann Luna, M.S.

Assistant Director of Molecular Pathology
832-824-1894
832-825-1032 (fax)
raluna@texaschildrenshospital.org
Joined Lab: October 2002

Mailing Address:
Texas Children’s Hospital
6621 Fannin Street MC 1-2261
Houston, TX 77030

Research Interests:

I am the Assistant Director of Molecular Pathology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital. Our work consists of research, development, and validation of molecular testing for common pediatric infectious diseases. The technologies we utilize include real-time PCR, real-time sequencing or pyrosequencing, and rep-PCR-based chromosomal DNA profiling by microfluidics.

Education/Background:

B.S. in Genetics, Texas A&M University, 1998

M.S. in Health Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 2003.

Ph.D. student (in progress) in Health Related Sciences-Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Past experience includes positions at Texas A&M, the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, and Dynagene/Dynacare Laboratories.

Publications:

Ruth Ann Luna, Lea R. Fasciano, Shaunte C. Jones, Bobby L. Boyanton, Trang T. Ton Jr., and James Versalovic. 2007. DNA Pyrosequencing-Based Bacterial Pathogen Identification in a Pediatric Hospital Setting J. Clin. Microbiol. 10.1128/JCM.00630-07

Luna RA and Versalovic J. 2007. Bacterial Pathogens In: Molecular Pathology in Clinical Practice. 1st edition (ed. D. Leonard) pp. 471-480. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY.

Goytia VK, Demmler GJ, Pannraj PS, Luna RA, & Versalovic J. 2006. An unusual case of sepsis and meningitis in a neonate. Seminars in Pediatric Infectious Diseases 17: 187, 225-7.

Blakey GL, Luna RA, and Versalovic J. 2005. Infectious Diseases Testing In Current Protocols in Human Genetics (N. C. Dracopoli. J. L. Haines, B. R. Korf, C. C. Morton, C. E. Seidman, J.G. Seidman and D. R. Smith, eds) pp 9.18.1 – 9.18.24. John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken, NJ.

The Genome International Sequencing Consortium. Initial Sequencing and Analysis of the Human Genome. Nature 409, 860-921 (15 February 2001).

Abstracts/Poster Presentations:

Boyanton BL, Luna RA, Jones SC, Ton TT, and Versalovic J. Pathogenic Candida identification by DNA pyrosequencing of intergenic sequences. Texas Society of Pathologists, Fort Worth, Texas, January 2007. Accepted for platform presentation.

Boyanton, BL, Luna RA, Menne K, Ton TT, Jones SC, Versalovic J. Rapid Stool Detection of Clostridium difficile by real-time PCR. Texas Society of Pathologists, Fort Worth, Texas, January 2007. Accepted for platform presentation.

Luna RA, Hilburn JL, Zapalac PK, Jones SC, Ton TT, Starke JR, Hiatt PW, and Versalovic J. Molecular typing of multi-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in children with cystic fibrosis. Association for Molecular Pathology 2006 Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, November 2006.

Luna RA, Jones SC, Ton TT, and Versalovic J. Bacterial pathogen identification by DNA pyrosequencing in a children’s hospital. Association for Molecular Pathology 2006 Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, November 2006.

Boyanton BL, Luna RA, Jones SC, Ton TT, Chen SS, and Versalovic J. Pathogenic Candida identification by DNA pyrosequencing of intergenic sequences. Association for Molecular Pathology 2006 Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, November 2006.

Chen SS, Luna RA, Zapalac PK, and Versalovic J. Modified IDI-MRSATM assay to directly detect MRSA in clinical blood culture specimens positive for gram-positive cocci. Association for Molecular Pathology 2006 Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, November 2006.

Sockrider MM, Hiatt PW, Hilburn JL, Morris LD, Bujan JR, Jones AR, Chong L, Harvey TC, Luna RA, Versalovic J. Implementation of a CF infection control quality improvement program inpatient and outpatient in a large pediatric CF center. North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference, Denver, Colorado, November 2006.

Chen SS, Luna RA, Zapalac P, and Versalovic J. Modified IDI-MRSATM assay to directly detect MRSA in clinical blood culture specimens. 85th Annual Meeting of the Texas Society of Pathologists, Houston, Texas, January 2006.

Luna RA, Jones SC, Ton TT, and Versalovic J. Adaptation of the IDI-MRSA Test on the COBAS TaqMan 48 Platform. Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Scottsdale, Arizona, November 2005.

Boyanton BL, Luna RA, Huang Y, Li SY, and Versalovic J. Pyrosequencing-based Identification and rep-PCR-based Profiling of Lactobacillus Isolates Associated with Pediatric Infections. Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Scottsdale, Arizona, November 2005.

Luna RA, Jones SC, Ton TT, and Versalovic J. Bacterial Pathogen Identification by Real-Time Sequencing of Variable Regions in 16S rDNA. Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, November 2004.

Luna RA, Li SY, Jones SC, Huang Y, and Versalovic J. Real-time Hydrolysis Probe-based Detection of Toxigenic C. difficile. Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, November 2004.

Luna RA, Jones SC, Sponaugle JM, and Versalovic J. Pyrosequencing-based Identification of Bacterial Pathogens using the V1 and V3 Regions of 16S rDNA. American Society for Microbiology 104th General Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 2004.

Luna RA, Jones SC, Starke JR, and Versalovic J. Application of Molecular Typing for Infection Control. Association for Molecular Pathology Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida, November 2003.

Luna RA, Pena JA, Shah K, Healy M, and Versalovic J. Rep-PCR-based DNA Profiling of Murine Intestinal Lactobacillus. 6th International Meeting on Microbial Epidemiological Markers (IMMEM6), Les Diablerets, Switzerland, August 2003.

Luna RA, Wilson PH, and Versalovic J. Rep-PCR-based Identification of Salmonella and Shigella spp. American Society for Microbiology 103rd General Meeting, Washington, DC, May 2003.

Wilson PH, Li SY, Pena JA, Luna RA, Lin YP and Versalovic J. Intestinal Lactobacillus from Healthy and IL-10 Deficient Mice. American Society for Microbiology 103rd General Meeting, Washington, DC, May 2003.

Ward AG, Dunbar SA, Luna RA, Jacobson JW. The Luminex xMap Jewish Heritage Panel: Simultaneous Multiplexed Detection of 19 Mutations Prevalent in the Ashkenazi Jewish Population. American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Fall Conference 2002.

Xue T, Ke-D E, Chen H, Ke E, Lee M, Luna RA, Liu F, and Zhou ZH. Three-Dimensional Structure of Intact Human Cytomegalovirus. Keck Symposium, Houston, TX, October 2000.

Links of Interest:

Texas Children's Hospital http://www.texaschildrenshospital.org

Association for Molecular Pathology: http://www.amp.org