MIP Graduate Students who will receive their Degrees on December 18th...

Jen Higgens, PhD

MIP Undergraduate Students who will receive their B.S. Degrees on December 19th...

Graduate Student Showcase Awards

Great Minds in Research Awards: 
-Kristen Davenport (mentor: Edward Hoover), DVM-PhD Program
-Lauren Radakovich: (mentors: Christine Olver and Kelly Santangelo) Combined Clinical Pathology Residency PhD Program

College of Business Sustainability Award:
-Paige Charlins (mentor: Ramesh Akkina), CMB Program

Graduate Student Council-First Year Graduate Student Award:
-Nora Jean Nealon (mentor: Elizabeth Ryan), DVM-PhD Program

Top Scholars for University-Wide Graduate Programs:
-Sarah Kane (mentor: Mark Zabel), CMB Program

CVMBS Awards:              

Best Poster by a PhD or MS-Thesis Researcher:
-Luisa Nieto-Ramirez (mentor: Karen Dobos), MIP PhD Program     

Best Poster by a CVMBS Student in a Non-thesis Project:
-Phillip Knabenbauer (mentor: Karen Dobos) MIP MS Program

Meet the First Group of MIP Undergraduate Research Fellows

2015 MIP Employee Recognition Awards

Behind-the-Scenes Wonder: Barb Andre

Larger-than-Life Pathology: Ida Tieman

Rookie of the Year: Madelein Lopez

Larger-than-Life South Campus: Sarah Leavell

Larger-than-Life Microbiology: Janine Crick

Marvelous Multitasker: Becky Trentlage

Outside-the-Box Thinker: Audrey Oberlin

Dazzling Department Decorator: Heidi Runge

Larger-than-Life Foothills: Greg Ebel

Employee Morale Booster: Gregg Dean

Congratulations to all!

Estimation of D-arabinose by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry as Surrogate for Mycobacterial Lipoarabinomannan in Human Urine

Prithwiraj De, Anita Amin, Eloise Valli, Mark Perkins, Mike McNeil and Dephi Chatterjee
PLoS ONE     December 2015 
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144088

The good news from a WHO report issued this Fall is that tuberculosis (TB) interventions have saved approximately 43 million lives this century.  The bad news, however, is that TB now rivals – and arguably has surpassed – HIV/AIDS as the leading cause of death from infectious disease around the globe.  Someone better tell this to US government, as they currently spend ~8X more money on HIV programs compared to TB. 

One thing which is sorely needed in the fight against TB is an accurate point-of-care diagnostic test for rapid monitoring of a patient’s response to therapy and to serve as a prognostic indicator.  To develop this, we need to identify a good, TB-specific biomarker.  The most promising TB biomarker to date is lipoarabinomannan (LAM), a lipoglycan found on the outside of the mycobacterium.  LAM is actively secreted from infected alveolar macrophages into the blood.  LAM gets filtered by the kidney and then secreted in the urine.  Many of the approaches to detect LAM in patient urine developed to date are labor-intensive and/or lack sensitivity.  Hence Delphi, Mike, Anita and Prithwiraj decided to put on their carbohydrate biochemistry thinking caps (which actually look like Santa hats folded in a ‘chair’ conformation…) and apply their expertise to this problem.

These crack MRL biochemists realized that instead of detecting intact, rather heterogeneous LAM molecules, it might be easier to use acid hydrolysis to break LAM up into its constituent D-mannose and D-arabinose sugars and detect one of those.  While D-mannose is highly abundant in our urine, our pee only contains traces of D-arabinose from glycans in the fruits and veggies that we eat.  Luckily, these endogenous urine glycans can be purified away from LAM by a simple HIC column.  The Chatterjee team then esterified the LAM-derived D-arabinose in the urine fractions and analyzed it by GC/MS.  To their credit, they were able to quantitatively detect D-arabinose in very small (0.7ml) urine samples.  Testing almost 200 de-identified clinical samples indicated an over 90% detection rate in known TB positive samples. Combining their test with a GC/MS test for another LAM component named tuberculosteric acid (TBSA), they were able to conclude that D-arabinose was a solid surrogate biomarker of urinary LAM.

So why did we chose this study as our last MIPublication of the Month® for 2015?  First, this is a terrific piece of analytical carbohydrate biochemistry that adds to the growing TB biomarker literature.  To date, most approaches to detect LAM in urine have relied on antibodies.  The alternative chemical detection approach pioneered here by the Chatterjee/McNeil clan may have significant utility in the field and is definitely worth following up on.  Second, we encourage all of our students who just finished taking organic chemistry to read this paper so they can see their ‘favorite’ subject in action (rather than only as head-scratching multiple choice questions on an exam…..).  Finally, we'd like to use this interesting MRL study to start a petition to ask CSU to consider renaming its beloved mascot as ‘LAM the Ram’ for World TB Day (March 24th).  R U with us?

Best Wishes to All for a Happy Holiday Season from the MIPnews Staff

MIP Publications December 2015

Troyer RM, Lee JS, Vuyisich M, Chain P, Lo CC, Kronmiller B, Bracha S, Avery AC, VandeWoude S.  First Complete Genome Sequence of Felis catus Gammaherpesvirus 1.  Genome Announc. 2015 Nov 5;3(6). pii: e01192-15. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.01192-15.

Kiran D, Podell BK, Chambers M, Basaraba RJ.  Host-directed therapy targeting the Mycobacterium tuberculosis granuloma: a review.  Semin Immunopathol. 2015 Oct 28. [Epub ahead of print]

Hmelo LR, Borlee BR, Almblad H, Love ME, Randall TE, Tseng BS, Lin C, Irie Y, Storek KM, Yang JJ, Siehnel RJ, Howell PL, Singh PK, Tolker-Nielsen T, Parsek MR, Schweizer HP, Harrison JJ.  Precision-engineering the Pseudomonas aeruginosa genome with two-step allelic exchange.  Nat Protoc. 2015 Nov;10(11):1820-41. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2015.115.

De P, Amin AG, Valli E, Perkins MD, McNeil M, Chatterjee D.  Estimation of D-Arabinose by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry as Surrogate for Mycobacterial Lipoarabinomannan in Human Urine.  PLoS One. 2015 Dec 3;10(12):e0144088. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144088.

Méndez-López MR, Attoui H, Florin D, Calisher CH, Florian-Carrillo JC, Montero S.  Association of vectors and environmental conditions during the emergence of Peruvian horse sickness orbivirus and Yunnan orbivirus in northern Peru.  J Vector Ecol. 2015 Dec;40(2):355-63.

Moratelli R, Calisher CH.  Bats and zoonotic viruses: can we confidently link bats with emerging deadly viruses?  Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2015 Feb;110(1):1-22.

Calisher, C.H.  Rabies: Low Probability, Not Low Risk. Bat Res. News. 56:15-17, 2015.

Calisher, C.H. (2015) Viruses in bats: a historic review. In Bats and Viruses: from Pathogen Discovery to Host Genomics?, (eds.) L.-F. Wang and C. Cowled, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; pp. 23-45, 2015.

Kajikawa A, Zhang L, LaVoy A, Bumgardner S, Klaenhammer TR, Dean GA.  Mucosal Immunogenicity of Genetically Modified Lactobacillus acidophilus Expressing an HIV-1 Epitope within the Surface Layer Protein.  PLoS One. 2015 Oct 28;10(10):e0141713. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141713.

Goenaga S, Kenney JL, Duggal NK, Delorey M, Ebel GD, Zhang B, Levis SC, Enria DA, Brault AC.  Potential for Co-Infection of a Mosquito-Specific Flavivirus, Nhumirim Virus, to Block West Nile Virus Transmission in Mosquitoes.  Viruses. 2015 Nov 11;7(11):5801-12.

Selariu A, Powers JG, Nalls A, Brandhuber M, Mayfield A, Fullaway S, Wyckoff CA, Goldmann W, Zabel MM, Wild MA, Hoover EA, Mathiason CK.  In utero transmission and tissue distribution of chronic wasting disease-associated prions in free-ranging Rocky Mountain elk.  J Gen Virol. 2015 Nov;96(11):3444-55.

Henao-Tamayo MI, Obregón-Henao A, Arnett K, Shanley CA, Podell B, Orme IM, Ordway DJ.  Effect of bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination on CD4+Foxp3+ T cells during acquired immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.  J Leukoc Biol. 2015 Nov 20. pii: jlb.4A0614-308RR. [Epub ahead of print]

Olson KE, Blair CD.  Arbovirus-mosquito interactions: RNAi pathway.  Curr Opin Virol. 2015 Nov 26;15:119-126. doi: 10.1016/j.coviro.2015.10.001. [Epub ahead of print]

Maclachlan NJ, Mayo CE, Daniels PW, Savini G, Zientara S, Gibbs EP.  Bluetongue.  Rev Sci Tech. 2015 Aug;34(2):329-40.

Henderson HH, Timberlake KB, Austin ZA, Badani H, Sanford B, Tremblay K, Baird NL, Jones K, Rovnak J, Frietze S, Gilden D, Cohrs RJ.  Occupancy of RNA Polymerase II (S5P) and RNA Polymerase II (S2P) on VZV Genes 9, 51 and 66 is Independent of Transcript Abundance and Polymerase Location within the Gene.  J Virol. 2015 Nov 11. pii: JVI.02617-15. [Epub ahead of print]

Barreto JG, Bisanzio D, Frade MA, Moraes TM, Gobbo AR, de Souza Guimarães L, da Silva MB, Vazquez-Prokopec GM, Spencer JS, Kitron U, Salgado CG.  Spatial epidemiology and serologic cohorts increase the early detection of leprosy.  BMC Infect Dis. 2015 Nov 16;15(1):527. doi: 10.1186/s12879-015-1254-8

Khadge S, Banu S, Bobosha K, van der Ploeg-van Schip JJ, Goulart IM, Thapa P, Kunwar CB, van Meijgaarden KE, van den Eeden SJ, Wilson L, Kabir S, Dey H, Goulart LR, Lobato J, Carvalho W, Bekele Y, Franken KL, Aseffa A, Spencer JS, Oskam L, Otttenhoff TH, Hagge DA, Geluk A.  Longitudinal immune profiles in type 1 leprosy reactions in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia and Nepal.  BMC Infect Dis. 2015 Oct 28;15:477. doi: 10.1186/s12879-015-1128-0.

Nichols TA, Fischer JW, Spraker TR, Kong Q, VerCauteren KC.  CWD Prions Remain Infectious after Passage Through the Digestive System of Coyotes (Canis latrans).  Prion. 2015 Dec 4:0. [Epub ahead of print]

Lewis JS, Logan KA, Alldredge MW, Bailey LL, VandeWoude S, Crooks KR.  The effects of urbanization on population density, occupancy, and detection probability of wild felids.  Ecol Appl. 2015 Oct;25(7):1880-95.

Check out the photos from the 2015 DMIP Employee Recognition Event

2015 DMIP Employee Recognition Event

Check out the photos from the 2015 Thanksgiving Potluck

2015 Thanksgiving Potluck

Dobos Lab Continues to Go Above and Beyond the Call in Our Community

File this story under ‘Impressive’.  You may remember from an earlier edition of the MIPnews that the Dobos lab this Spring did a huge landscaping and porch building project with the Larimer County CASA organization at the historic Harmony House. Well this Fall, the gang volunteered once again and did some deep cleaning/handyman work at the house.  Last month the Dobos lab helped CASA out once again on a variety of projects, including painting, hanging an artwork display system and raking leaves.  Kudos to the Dobos Lab for volunteering your time and making a difference.

Click here to see more photos

Thank you to everyone who donated to our MIP Adopt a Family! This is the eighth year in a row that the Department has banded together to help area families in need during the holiday season. 

Dr. Tony Frank meets with the Student Chapter of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists

On November 30th, the CSU Student Chapter of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists hosted an ‘Afternoon with Dr. Tony Frank’. Not only is Tony a world-renowned Cubs fan (and president of CSU), he’s also a veterinarian and toxicological pathologist. Tony focused on how his life choices brought him to his current position. His humor shone through several times, from his brief time spent as a large animal veterinarian to his experiences as a researcher in reproductive toxicology. His talk clearly struck a chord with the audience of veterinary students and aspiring pathologists.  The take home message was to consider every new opportunity that life presents. Say “yes” to those opportunities, you never know where they’ll take you!

Zika Virus Feature

The ‘09/’10 adventures of MIP’s own Brian Foy and Kevin Kobylinski are extensively mentioned in the attached news piece on Zika virus that appeared in the Nov. 27 issue of Science.

Check it out

Dow and Zabel Labs Survive a Paintball Challenge

United in Orange

Jeff and Evan Wilusz (with 75,000 of their friends) set a new Guinness World Record Nov. 30th at the Broncos-Patriots game. For more info on the world record, check out:

Most people wearing false moustaches-Broncos break Guinness World Record

MS-B Students Tour New Belgium Brewing Facilities

It's no coincidence that a picture taken by a student at a brewery would be a bit blurry...

Spencer is Back in Town

John Spencer just returned from his trip to Brazil after his first two month stint on his Fullbright Scholar Award. Here he is during a leprosy survey at a local school.

17th Annual CVMBS Research Day is Coming!

The 17th Annual CVMBS Research Day will be held on January 30th at the Hilton (425 W. Prospect Road). Dr. Sheryl Magzamen, the 2016 Zoetis Veterinary Research Excellence Awardee, will kick things off with the keynote speech at high noon. In addition to showcasing our College’s cutting-edge research , the event is also an excellent opportunity for local researchers and scientists to connect. All members of the MIP community are encouraged to participate in this free event!

 Read more about 2015's Annual Research Day Symposium.

Digital Measures

Just a reminder...January 6th is the deadline for 2015 information.

Since we know how much fun faculty will be having entering this information during Winter Break, Digital Measures will now be open to faculty year-round so you will be able to edit and add information all year long.

ASM Fellowship Program Opportunities

ASM Undergraduate Research Capstone Program

To enhance the professional development skills of students after their research experiences and provide the resources to transition to disciplinary scientific meetings.
Deadline: January 20, 2016
Eligible candidates: underrepresented minority undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students

• Receive up to $1,500 in travel support to the ASM Research Capstone Institute and ASM Microbe Meeting (if abstract is accepted)
• Participate in the ASM Research Capstone Institute (professional development and presentation techniques training) prior to presenting research at the ASM Microbe Meeting
• Present research at the ASM Microbe Meeting
• Receive recognition in ASM publications

IMPORTANT: There are two components of the application – 1) to complete the Capstone application and 2) to submit an abstract directly to the ASM.
*Abstract submission is due January 12, 2016 (5:00 p.m. ET).Click here to learn more about the abstract submission process.

ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program

To provide undergraduate students (pursuing graduate careers in microbiology) the opportunity to conduct full time research at their home institutions w/ an ASM member and present research results at the ASM Microbe Meeting the following year.
Deadline: February 1, 2016
Eligible candidates: undergraduate students only.
o   Note – Seniors may apply if they are not graduating in May/June 2016. If they are completing their studies throughout the fall semester, they are eligible.
As long as the student is classified as an undergraduate student during the summer months, they are qualified.

• Earn up to $4,000 in student stipend
• Receive up to $1,000 in travel support to the ASM Microbe Meeting (if abstract is accepted)
• Participate in the ASM Research Capstone Institute (professional development and presentation techniques training) prior to presenting research at the ASM Microbe Meeting
• Present research at the ASM Microbe Meeting
• Receive recognition in ASM publications

NEW! While faculty mentors are required to be ASM members, there is a new criteria for applicants. This year that each applicant must be an ASM member to qualify for the award. Please know that your student may apply for membership while completing the application. So long as they are a member prior to starting the program, candidates will be eligible.

·        For students who are non-members: To apply for membership ($22), please click here.
·        For faculty members who are non-members: To apply for membership, click here.

"I asked Santa for a research grant."
"You still believe in research grants?"

From: The upturnedmicroscope.com

Alternative captions

1. How to be well-prepared for living right in the middle of the Central Migratory Bird Flyway

2. See what happens when you talk smack to the Dow lab...

3. Fed up with all of the Star Wars hype, a local goose tries to take out young Darth Vader

4. Submit your own

1. 2015 saw a horse with a misspelled last name (American Pharoah) win the Triple Crown.  MIP researchers published ~149 papers with nary a spelling mistake (we hope….) and received well over 9000 citations for their work this year.  According to an early December visit to the Web of Science, an impressive 13 MIP faculty amassed over 250 citations each this past year for their collective publications, led by Drs. Orme (>750), Belisle, Basaraba and Jackson.  When considering citations of papers published since 2012 to estimate the impact of recent MIP publications, Anne Lenaerts (>150 citations) leads an impressive pack of researchers followed by the Jackson, Orme and Wilusz labs.  Finally ~35% of the papers that were published in 2015 had multiple MIP faculty on the author line – a strong indication that the synergy that makes MIP great is alive and well.
2. California was in a massive drought this year, but the MIP research enterprise did more than keep its head above water.  MIP researchers amassed $22,421,303 dollars of extramural funding during the recent CSU fiscal year.  The Department has 330 active grant-funded projects for a total net value of over $156 million. 
3. While the New Horizon’s mission was sending back the first pictures of Pluto (the planet, not the Disney character…) this summer, MIP faculty and staff were putting on some out-of-this-world performances of their own.  Four MIP faculty (Blair –ATMH; Powers – AAVLD; Hoover – ACVP; and Ellis – ABSA) received major awards from scientific societies in 2015.  MIP staff members also received their share of major bling in 2015, including Edit Szalai (CVMBS Overall LOV Award), Lisa McCann (CSU’s Cernak Advising Award), and Jenny Harding (AP Star). Nine CVMBS ‘Spot Awards’ were earned by MIP staff for their service above and beyond the call of duty.
4. While the ‘Force Awakened’ on December 18th to rave reviews, Fall 2015 marked a new dawn on the MIP administrative front.  Sandy Quackenbush moved to the Dean’s Office to assume the position of Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs.  Four new Associate Department Heads were named:  Erica Suchman (Undergrad Ed); Mark Zabel (Grad Ed); Kristy Pabilonia (DVM Affairs and Clinical Service) and John Belisle (Research).  Finally, we ‘mourned’ the passing of the faculty ‘FAS’ system (I don’t know about you but I still tear up thinking about it…) and welcomed the arrival of Digital Measures.  Not sure why, but we can’t help thinking about the last line of that old Who song ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’……
5. While the US welcomed Pope Francis to its shores, MIP welcomed 5 new faculty members to its hallowed halls in 2015 – Bruno Sobral, Zaid Abdo, Rebekah Kading, Paula Schaffer and Medora Huseby.  While the MIP staff lost a ‘champion’ (aka Dan), we did add Madelein Lopez and Lauren Kozar. 
6. Just like the Duke Men’s Basketball team in the Final Four, the MIP student population definitely shined in 2015.  The MIP Residency Program celebrated the exam success of three new ACVP Diplomates and residents garnered an amazing nine different awards/fellowships throughout the year.  Not to be outdone, MIP graduate students obtained a whopping 9 awards for their presentations in 2015.  Finally, Micro Undergrads received (you guessed it) 9 different awards/fellowships during the year.  There is no doubt that our students and residents will be knocking on the door of a ‘triple double’ (pardon the basketball lingo) for 2016.
7. Meetings were a big thing in the MIP world in 2015 (and no, we’re not talking about those ‘exciting’ committee gatherings that we all know and love).  The Prion Research Center hosted the major ‘Prion 2015’ Conference on campus in the Summer, Jeff Wilusz organized the ‘RNA Stability 2015’ conference at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Joel Rovnak organized the 15th annual Rocky Mountain Virology Club weekend in Pingree Park, and the ‘Science on Tap’ series at Pateros Creek Brewing was initiated.  The trend of hosting meetings is sure continue in the future as the Colorado Mycobacteria Conference is set for the summer of 2016 and the American Society for Virology will return to CSU in 2020 for its 39th Annual Meeting.
8. Finally, ‘groundbreaking’ was a term not limited to MIP research findings in 2015.  Construction was a major player on campus in 2015 as major projects got underway including a new stadium as well as new Chemistry and Biology buildings on the MIP side of campus.  Internal to MIP, we remodeled a third floor lab in the Micro Bldg to support MRL research in the Lenaerts group as well as performed an extensive remodel of the 2nd floor of the Pathology Bldg to support the Prion Research Center.

Best wishes to all for a Sweet ’16!

MIP Alumna Dawn Comstock, PhD was featured on NBC Nightly News talking about problems associated with brain injuries to young soccer players. Dawn is currently an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. 

Additionally, she was recently part of a panel discussing youth sports-related concussions on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS.  Here is the link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-12-01/the-charlie-rose-brain-series-year-three-charlie-rose 

Updated application guides for grants due on/after January 25th

NIH has posted updated FORMS-C application guides SF 424 (R&R) Application and Electronic Submission Information). These new guides must be used when completing applications with due dates on or after January 25, 2016.  Changes you should definitely pay attention to are the new ‘Rigor and Reproducibility’ guidelines (http://grants.nih.gov/reproducibility/index.htm) as well as some changes to the Vertebrate Animal section. (http://grants.nih.gov)

Changes to the way NIH grant supplements are paid

Instead of issuing grant supplements to the same account as the parent award, NIH is moving away from this pooled account system and will issue supplement funds via a Payment Management System subaccount (http://www.dpm.psc.gov/)

K99/R00 eligibility clarified

NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) applicants cannot have more than four years of postdoctoral research experience as of the relevant application due date, regardless of whether the application is new or a resubmission.

New RFA of possible interest to the MRL Community

Check out the new Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (Mtb) Quality Assessment Program (TBQA) here: www.fbo.gov

New Grant Awards

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

Hannah Romo, "Molecular Analysis of the Genetic Determinants that Contribute to Virulence in West Nile Virus", HHS-NIH-NIAID-Allergy & Infect Diseases.

John Belisle, "BMAC CSU Core Facility Mass Spectrometry Services ", HHS-CDC-Centers for Disease Control.

Susan VandeWoude, "Application of Genomic Technologies for Feline Pathogen Detection and Discovery", Morris Animal Foundation.

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