Tracy A. Womble received a B.S. in Biology from Florida A&M University and later returned to complete his Ph.D in Pharmacology/Toxicology. His dissertation was in the area of stroke induced neurodegerative pathways. His dissertation was titeled, "The Involvement of the Lysosomal Proteases Cathepsin B and Cathepsin D during TNF-a Induced Apoptosis. He later completed his postdoctoral work at the University of South Florida, Department of Neurosurgery in the Center for Aging and Brain Repair. There he studied the use of human umbilical cord blood as a neuroprotective agent following middle cerebral artery occlusion. After completion of the postdoctoral training, Dr. Womble returned to Florida A&M University as a research associate supervising the proteomics and imaging facilities within the FAMU RCMI funded Biotechnology Core to provide and train researchers in the use of data acquisition and analysis of fluorescent and photogenic samples, digital imaging and document production for publication. Dr. Womble also serves as the RTRN and eagle-i liason for the FAMU RCMI. In addition, Dr. Womble also teaches central nervous system drug portion of PDA within the FAMU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The potential therapeutic benefits from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases are becoming increasingly recognized. The transplantation of HUCB cells into animal stroke models has resulted in neuroprotection, but to date the mechanism of action has been elusive. Dr. Womble is utilizing proteomic approaches to identify a profile of proteins that will provide a better understanding of this elusive endogenous neuroprotective mechanism.