Biography

Dr. Bruce E. Blanchard, an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences and Director of the Medical Laboratory Sciences Program, is a certified medical laboratory scientist with a PhD in exercise science and a focus on cardiovascular risk factors. Integrating undergraduate and graduate student research, he offers training and expertise via various collaborative projects involving interdisciplinary teams that expand grant-funded efforts in health promotion. Former students who have worked under Dr. Blanchard’s direction now actively contribute to healthcare and health promotion through clinical practice, research, and leadership. His current research interests and specialties include two main avenues of inquiry. First, research that examines established and emerging risk factors for cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome in healthy and non-healthy populations, focusing on the roles that laboratory biomarkers (e.g. stress, inflammation, and the metabolic syndrome) and interventions/behavioral factors (e.g. diet and physical activity) play in modifying the risk of metabolic syndrome/cardiovascular disease. Secondly, studies involving hematological malignancies and genetic disorders with a focus on diagnosis, customized therapy/treatment, prognosis, and disease progression using numerous laboratory techniques. Dr. Blanchard has been recognized by the University for his outstanding mentorship and dedication to student success. His teaching interests and specialties are in the field of medical laboratory science with an emphasis on hematology, hemostasis, transfusion services, chemistry, and urinalysis/body fluids.