David Michael Payne received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of North Texas (B.S., Biology & Biochemistry; Ph.D., Molecular Biology & Biochemistry).  He then completed five years of postdoctoral training at the Cancer Center, University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine.  As a senior postdoc/assistant professor at UVA, Michael led the research team that discovered the identity of pp42 as MAP kinase and the mechanism for its regulated activation in mammalian signal transduction.  He also led another research team that discovered a mechanism for malignant transformation of cells by the src-oncogene tyrosine kinase, involving novel “unscheduled” phosphorylation and activation of growth factor receptors (i.e., activation of receptor signaling in the absence of growth factor binding to receptors).  During his career in the USA, Michael was a faculty member at four major universities plus the National Institutes of Health.  He established a record of excellence in teaching and mentoring students, competed successfully at the national level for grant funding (National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and American Cancer Society), and published consistently in the top 10% of peer-reviewed journals in molecular/cell biology and biochemistry.  He has been an international faculty member here at MDCU since 2015 (Feb), originally helping the director (Dr. Trairak Pisitkun) of the new CU Center of Excellence in Systems Biology to develop and lead that state-of-the-art biotechnology research facility (2015–2018).  Since then, Michael has been leading an international collaboration in a translational research project to develop a ‘Next-Gen’ immunotherapy for treatment of snakebite envenoming (which creates more than 2 million victims annually, resulting in more than 400,000 disabilities and 100,000 deaths every year).