Byron L. Barksdale, M.D.

Byron L. Barksdale, M.D. is a native of Georgia. He graduated with a B.A.in Pharmacology from the University of Kentucky. He then pursued a combined M.D.-Ph.D. course of study at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. At that time, the University of Kentucky was a well known center of knowledge concerning the neuro-pharmacology of narcotics and controlled substances. The Department of Community Medicine was under the Chairmanship of Abram S. Benenson M.D., the editor-in-chief (1970 to 1995) for the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual of the American Public Health Association. William S. Jordan, M.D. was the Dean of the U.K. College of Medicine. Many people have stated of Dr. Jordan that "no one has been more devoted and contributed more to the cause of prevention and control of infectious diseases in the U.S. military services than Dr. Jordan". Lexington was also the home of Thomas Hunt Morgan who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1933 for his pioneering work in genetics with Drosophilia fruit flies.

While at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Barksdale worked in the laboratory of James Flesher, Ph.D. who induced tumors in mammals by hypermethylating recipient DNA and other cellular components with benzpyrine and 7,12-DMBA, carcinogens in tobacco. After completing all doctoral coursework requirements for a Ph.D. in Pharmacology, he decided to pursue private clinical medicine rather than an academic career in Clinical Pharmacology. He received his M.D. from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine at the age of 23. He successfullly completed a rotating internship at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. For two years, he had a general practice and worked as an Emergency Room physician at Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Barksdale chose pathology as his clinical medicine specialty. He completed a four year (anatomic and clinical) pathology residency in Texas and successfully passed the American Board of Pathology certification examinations. Dr. Barksdale has licenses to practice medicine in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Hawaii.

Dr. Barksdale is a Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine, a Fellow and Lab Inspector of the College of American Pathologists. He also has been actively involved in the CUBA AIDS PROJECT.

Dr. Barksdale volunteers, as the lead physician, in health fairs to screen for the early detection of malignant melanoma while also educating citizens about primary and secondary measures to decrease morbidity and mortality attributable to the increasing prevalence of malignant melanoma in the USA today. Dr. Barksdale may be contacted by telephone: (308)-530-3759 or email: CubaAIDS@aol.com