Corey Rosenberg et al Receive the 2016 Best Paper Award in Insect Molecular Biology from the Royal Entomological Society

Congratulations to Corey, Tom, Ann and Greg for winning the 2016 Award for best article in Insect Molecular Biology published between 2014 and 2016.  Their winning paper is entitled, ‘MicroRNA levels are modulated in Aedes aegypti after exposure to Dengue-2’ published in Insect Molecular Biology 23:132-139.

See more here.

International Impact of MIP Undergraduate Research

Jordan Powers, an MIP undergraduate research fellow performing work in Sue VandeWoude's lab, presented a poster at the International Feline Retrovirus Research Symposium (IFRRS), in Bristol, UK  Oct 16-19th. The title of her project is "Feline Leukemia Virus Ecology in a Domestic Cat- Leopard Cat Colony" 

MIP Majors Selected for CO Bioscience Mentorship Program

Four MIP majors were chosen to participate in the Colorado Bioscience Association Mentorship Program:

Congrats to all!

Jenny and Erica publish one of 2016’s five most read active learning activity articles in JMBE

A recent paper entitled ‘USING MAGNETS AND CLASSROOM FLIPPING TO PROMOTE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND LEARNING ABOUT PROTEIN TRANSLATION IN A LARGE MICROBIOLOGY CLASS’ by Jenny McLean and Erica Suchman was selected for the ASM Education Blog in conjunction with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Active Learning Day.   See the blog here.

West African Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes harbor a taxonomically diverse virome including new insect-specific flaviviruses, mononegaviruses, and totiviruses

Joseph Fauver, Nathan Grubaugh, Benjamin Krajacich, James Weger-Lucarelli, Steven Lakin, Lawrence FakoliIII, Fatorma Bolay, Joseph DiclaroII, Kounbobr Roch Dabiré, Brian Foy, Doug Brackney, Gregory Ebel, Mark Stenglein

Virology 498:  288-299

Ever since Noah (for reasons unbeknownst to us) failed to swat those two mosquitoes on his boat, these annoying flying syringes have served as a means to transmit a variety of parasites, worms, and viruses to people.  In the spirit of ‘what goes around comes, around’, I’m sure that many folks would find solace in learning that mosquitoes get infected by viruses too.  But how many viruses infect our pesky winged friends and how do these insect virus infections affect the biology of the mosquito?   Hmmmm - sounds like a job for the Metagenomics team of Mark Steinglein and the rest of his AIDL amigos.

Gladly rising to the task, the AIDL team got their hands on 389 Anopheles mosquitoes from various sites in West Africa, extracted and pooled RNA from the insects, and turned the dial on the Illumina sequencing machine to ‘overdrive’.  After filtering out mosquito genome-specific reads, they were left with ~300,000 short sequence reads that could represent viruses associated with the pooled mosquitoes.  The group painstakingly assembled and analyzed these reads in search of new and possibly very interesting mosquito-specific viruses.  They found solid evidence for three different families of RNA viruses.  Mosquito-specific flaviviruses, for example Anopheles Flavivirus (AnFV), was found in ~12% of samples from Liberian mosquitoes and also appeared in isolates from Senegal.  Two negative-sense mononegaviruses, BOAV and Gambie viruses, were also readily detected in the pooled mosquito samples.  Finally, members of the dsRNA totivirus family (a group that is generally thought to be associated with plants and fungi), were detected in ~1.3% of Liberian mosquitoes.  These data establish important insights into the ‘virome’ of Anopheles mosquitoes.  Now the key questions that need to be pursued are determining the impact of these viral infections on mosquito biology as well as the ability of the infected insect to serve as an effective vector for virus transmission.  Our crystal ball sees an R01 grant appearing in the not too distant future…..

So why did we choose this paper as our coveted MIPublication of the Month©?  First, it uses cutting-edge technologies to discover new insect viruses that may have significant impact on wild mosquito populations.  Thus the study has huge potential to serve as a foundation for new insights into vector biology and ecology.  Second, the international flavor of the study nicely illustrates the global outreach of the MIP AIDL group.  Finally, recalling the plight of Vice President Dan Quayle and his inadvertent correction of the spelling of ‘potato’ to ‘potatoe’ at a New Jersey spelling bee in the early 90’s, the paper made us wonder what the official plural of ‘mosquito’ should be.  In some places its spelled ‘mosquitoes’ and in other places ‘mosquitos’.  What better forum than the MIPnews to get ‘really important’ issues like this figured out…

MIP Publications November 2016

Rout ED, Avery PR.  Lymphoid Neoplasia: Correlations Between Morphology and Flow Cytometry.  Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2016 Aug 16. pii: S0195-5616(16)30067-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cvsm.2016.07.004.

Bohn AA.  Analysis of Canine Peritoneal Fluid Analysis.  Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2016 Aug 13. pii: S0195-5616(16)30071-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cvsm.2016.07.008.

Dietrich EA, Langevin SA, Huang CY, Maharaj PD, Delorey MJ, Bowen RA, Kinney RM, Brault AC.  West Nile Virus Temperature Sensitivity and Avian Virulence Are Modulated by NS1-2B Polymorphisms.  PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 Aug 22;10(8):e0004938. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004938.

Adney DR, Brown VR, Porter SM, Bielefeldt-Ohmann H, Hartwig AE, Bowen RA.  Inoculation of Goats, Sheep, and Horses with MERS-CoV Does Not Result in Productive Viral Shedding.  Viruses. 2016 Aug 19;8(8). pii: E230. doi: 10.3390/v8080230.

Brennan PJ.  Bacterial evolution: Emergence of virulence in TB.  Nat Microbiol. 2016 Jan 27;1:15031. doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2015.31.

Fauver JR, Grubaugh ND, Krajacich BJ, Weger-Lucarelli J, Lakin SM, Fakoli LS 3rd, Bolay FK, Diclaro JW 2nd, Dabiré KR, Foy BD, Brackney DE, Ebel GD, Stenglein MD.  West African Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes harbor a taxonomically diverse virome including new insect-specific flaviviruses, mononegaviruses, and totiviruses.  Virology. 2016 Nov;498:288-99. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2016.07.031.

Miner JJ, Sene A, Richner JM, Smith AM, Santeford A, Ban N, Weger-Lucarelli J, Manzella F, Rückert C, Govero J, Noguchi KK, Ebel GD, Diamond MS, Apte RS.  Zika Virus Infection in Mice Causes Panuveitis with Shedding of Virus in Tears.  Cell Rep. 2016 Sep 20;16(12):3208-18. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.08.079.

Wang L, Veselinovic M, Yang L, Geiss BJ, Dandy DS, Chen T.  A sensitive DNA capacitive biosensor using interdigitated electrodes.  Biosens Bioelectron. 2016 Sep 2;87:646-653. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.09.006.

Davenport KA, Henderson DM, Mathiason CK, Hoover EA.  Assessment of the PrPc amino-terminal domain in prion species barriers.  J Virol. 2016 Sep 21. pii: JVI.01121-16.

Stenkamp-Strahm C, McCONNEL C, Rao S, Magnuson R, Hyatt DR, Linke L.  Climate, lactation, and treatment factors influence faecal shedding of Escherichia coli O157 pathotypes in dairy cows.  Epidemiol Infect. 2016 Sep 16:1-11.

Zelmer A, Tanner R, Stylianou E, Damelang T, Morris S, Izzo A, Williams A, Sharpe S, Pepponi I, Walker B, Hokey DA, McShane H, Brennan M, Fletcher H.  A new tool for tuberculosis vaccine screening: Ex vivo Mycobacterial Growth Inhibition Assay indicates BCG-mediated protection in a murine model of tuberculosis.  BMC Infect Dis. 2016 Aug 12;16:412. doi: 10.1186/s12879-016-1751-4.

Kading RC, Schountz T.  Flavivirus Infections of Bats: Potential Role in Zika Virus Ecology.  Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2016 Sep 19. pii: 16-0625.

Bartek IL, Reichlen MJ, Honaker RW, Leistikow RL, Clambey ET, Scobey MS, Hinds AB, Born SE, Covey CR, Schurr MJ, Lenaerts AJ, Voskuil MI.  Antibiotic Bactericidal Activity Is Countered by Maintaining pH Homeostasis in Mycobacterium smegmatis.  mSphere. 2016 Aug 24;1(4). pii: e00176-16. doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00176-16

Kinn VG, Hilgenberg VA, MacNeill AL.  Myxoma virus therapy for human embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in a nude mouse model.  Oncolytic Virother. 2016 Aug 8;5:59-71. doi: 10.2147/OV.S108831.

Thompson CA, MacNeill AL.  Common Infectious Organisms.  Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2016 Aug 20. pii: S0195-5616(16)30073-0. doi: 10.1016/j.cvsm.2016.07.010.

Corner S, Walsh T, Padilla L, MacNeill A, Wallig M, Kiupel M, Terio K.  Histologic and Immunohistochemical Characterization of Pheochromocytomas in 20 Clouded Leopards (Neofelis nebulosa).  Vet Pathol. 2016 Aug 19. pii: 0300985816664791.

Holcomb KM, Galloway NL, Mathiason CK, Antolin MF.  Intra-host mathematical model of chronic wasting disease dynamics in deer (Odocoileus).  Prion. 2016 Aug 18:1-14.

Rico AB, Phillips AT, Schountz T, Jarvis DL, Tjalkens RB, Powers AM, Olson KE.  Venezuelan and western equine encephalitis virus E1 liposome antigen nucleic acid complexes protect mice from lethal challenge with multiple alphaviruses.  Virology. 2016 Sep 12;499:30-39.

Radakovich LB, Olver CS.  Pigments: Iron and Friends.  Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2016 Aug 23. pii: S0195-5616(16)30065-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cvsm.2016.07.002.

Stutzman-Rodriguez K, Rovnak J, VandeWoude S, Troyer RM.  Domestic cats seropositive for Felis catus gammaherpesvirus 1 are often qPCR negative.  Virology. 2016 Nov;498:23-30. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2016.07.027.

Moore AR, Coffey E, Leavell SE, Krafsur G, Duncan C, Dowers K, Santangelo KS.  Canine bicavitary carcinomatosis with transient needle tract metastasis diagnosed by multiplex immunocytochemistry.  Vet Clin Pathol. 2016 Sep;45(3):495-500. doi: 10.1111/vcp.12394.

Wang K, Langevin S, O'Hern CS, Shattuck MD, Ogle S, Forero A, Morrison J, Slayden R, Katze MG, Kirby M.  Anomaly Detection in Host Signaling Pathways for the Early Prognosis of Acute Infection.  PLoS One. 2016 Aug 17;11(8):e0160919. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160919.

Spraker TR, White PA.  Shaggy Lame Fox Syndrome in Pribilof Island Arctic Foxes (Alopex lagopus pribilofensis), Alaska.  Vet Pathol. 2016 Aug 19. pii: 0300985816660745.

Vap LM, Shropshire SB.  Urine Cytology: Collection, Film Preparation, and Evaluation.  Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2016 Aug 22. pii: S0195-5616(16)30072-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cvsm.2016.07.009.

 Annual MIP Halloween Party Enough to Scare the Bacteroides Out of You

MIP held its annual Halloween parties. Check out the photos here.

DMC Pumpkin Carving Contest

A Baker’s Dozen of Free Tutors Available for MIP 300, 342 and 450

Need some help with an undergraduate micro class?  Don’t fret – 13 of MIP's finest are here to help.  Here is the list of tutors to see you through to the finish line at the end of the semester.

DMC Microbiology Journal Club

Can’t get enough of that Micro stuff?   Be sure to check out the Microbiology Journal Club held every other Friday at 12PM in DMC 301.  For more info and to get on the email list, contact Anna Fagre.

MIP Leprosy Researchers Invade the Big Apple

A group of researchers recently gathered at the  Heiser Fund of the New York Community Trust in New York City to give an update of their Brazil leprosy research for this year.  Pictured are Patrick Brennan, Annemiek Geluk, John Spencer, Irfan Hasan, Claudio Salgado, and David Scollard. 

Black Squirrel Finishers

Congratulations to a trio of happy (but tired) finishers of the Black Squirrel half marathon run this Fall.  The race is run in Lory State park and includes 2,000ft of vertical gain along the trail.

To Infinity and Beyond……..

Mike Scherman and his trusty telescope captured these out of this world shots of three tough to photograph interstellar ‘clouds’.  For you camera aficionados out there, Mike used Nikon 400mm F2.8 and Nikon 600mm f4 super Telephoto lenses and a Nikon D600. The photos are a stack of multiple images.

M22 star cluster

Lagoon M8 Nebula

NGC2237 and Omega M17 Nebulae

Know Your Committee Reps

Since ‘tis the season when politics rules, we thought you’d like to know who represents your interests on various college committees

Biomedical Curriculum Committee:

Research Council:

Scholarship and Award Committee:

Scholastic Standards Committee:

C. Olver

Special Faculty Advisory Committee:

Veterinary (DVM) Admissions Committee:

Veterinary (DVM) Curriculum Committee:

DVM Steering Committee:

Conflict of Commitment/Conflict of Interest Review Committee:

J.  Wilusz

Foothills Research Advisory Committee:

 K. Olson

DVM/PhD Committee:

VPR Faculty Advisory Committee:

K. Santangelo

Ralph and Janet Smith Go North (Wayyyyy North….)

Janet and Ralph spent 11 days on "The Realm of the Polar Bear" cruise in the far north - at one point, they were less than 500 miles from the North Pole! The photo shows them enjoying a rainy excursion on a remote island.

Artwork from MIProfessor Emeritus Ralph Smith to be presented on Dec. 3rd and 4th

Anne Simpson (Dobos lab) gave birth to
Sigrid Rosemary Simpson. Born 8-8-16. Mom and baby are both doing well!

Life is like a camera. Just focus on what's important, capture the good times, develop from the negatives, and if things don't turn out-take another shot.

–Source Unknown

Choose your Caption

Mark Zabel recently gave a department seminar in support of an upcoming promotion

Alternative Captions:

MIPers find a way to turn mechanical problems into workplace grins and giggles

MIP Micro BS Program alumni Stephanie Lehman and Katie Mladinich worked in the lab of RoxAnn Karkhoff-Schweizer as part of their Honors Thesis project six years ago and laid the groundwork for an interesting project that was recently finished and published.  The paper is by  Stephanie S. Lehman, Katherine M. Mladinich, Angkana Boonyakanog, Takehiko Mima, RoxAnn R. Karkhoff-Schweizer, and Herbert P. Schweizer, entitled ‘Versatile nourseothricin and streptomycin/spectinomycin resistance gene cassettes and their use in chromosome integration vectors’ in the Journal of Microbiological Methods (129:8-13 (2016)). 

Katie Mladinich graduated with her PhD in Microbiology from University of Wisconsin Madison in 2015.   Stephanie is presently at the University of Maryland Baltimore doing her PhD work in the Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology. 

Congrats to all!

New RFA of interest:  Partnerships for Development of Vaccines to Prevent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection and/or Tuberculosis Disease (R01)

The goal of this RFA is to solicit projects focused on establishing proof-of-concept for and/or preclinical development of lead candidate vaccines targeting infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).  Letters of Intent are due Feb 2 and grant applications on March 2.  For more info, check out http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-16-079.html

NIAID expands application due dates for T32 and T35 training grant applications

NIAID will now accept non-AIDS related training grants on January 25 as well as September 25th.  This may help with more timely resubmissions.  Unfortunately however, the budget for these programs is not increasing.

Current Interim NIAID Paylines

R01:  10th percentile (14th percentile for new investigators).

R03 and R21: 26 overall impact/priority score.

New Grant Awards

Mary Ann DeGroote, "Optimization and Lead Selection of Novel Antimycobacterial Agents", Crestone, Inc.

Karen Dobos, "Mycobacterium spp. Research Reagent Replenishment," American Type Culture Collection. "Exosomes as Biomarkers for Tuberculosis", Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Greg Ebel, "GBV-C-Mediated Protection from AIDS in Humans and GBV-C/SIV Co-Infected Macaques," University of Wisconsin.

Brian Foy, "New Approaches for Addressing Outdoor/Residual Malaria Transmission", Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Brian Geiss, "A High-Throughput Screen for Antiviral Inhibitors of the Alphavirus RNA Capping Enzyme", HHS-NIH-NIAID-Allergy and Infect Diseases.

Ed Hoover, "Rapid Amyloid Amplification Assay for Early Detection of TBI and AD", DOD-US Department of Defense.

Izzo Angelo, "Assessment of SigH Vaccine in Guinea Pigs", Aeras.

Mary Jackson, "Optimization and Lead Selection of Novel Antimycobacterial Agents", Crestone, Inc.

Anne Lenaerts, "CPTR Data Support on Sterilizing Mouse Model", Critical Path Institute.

Diane Ordway, "New Therapeutics for Nontuberculosis Mycobacteria", Spero Therapeutics. "The Role of T Regulatory Cells in Cigarette Smoke-Induced Susceptibility to Tuberculosis", Denver Research Institute.

Rick Slayden, "In Vitro Assessment for Antimicrobial Activity - Part A", HHS-NIH-NIAID-Allergy and Infect Diseases.

Jeff Wilusz,"Flavivirus non-coding RNAs and the Host mRNA Decay Machinery", HHS-NIH-NIAID-Allergy and Infect Diseases.

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