Feb 2013
Vol. 10 | No. 2

Spotlight
CVMBS Research Day Awards

Congratulations to the following MIP students who receieved awards for their presentations:

Christy Wycoff

Christy Wyckoff
1st Place Poster Presentation
"Bioassay detection of chronic wasting disease prions in soil"

Ashley Neff

Ashley Neff
3rd Place Poster Presentation
"Differential regulation of mRNA stability in human induced pluripotent stem cells"

There were a total of 97 posters and 45 oral presentations.

Check out the rest of the 2013 CVMBS Research Day Photos


In Memory of Dr. Richard Titus
New LAR Director

Congratulations to MIP Assistant Professor, Lon Kendall, for being named the new Director of Colorado State University's Laboratory Animal Resources. Read the entire Today@Colostate Article


New MIP Faculty Lines

MIP Sets Priority Areas for Faculty Hires

After soliciting and carefully considering suggestions from a Department-wide call for proposals, the MIP Advisory Committee and Dr. Dean are proud to announce the five areas of emphasis in future tenure-track faculty hires. They are (in no particular order):

  • Computational Biologist
  • Mammalian/Cancer Geneticist
  • Medical/Veterinary Entomologist
  • MRL Immunologist
  • RNA Molecular Biologist

In the News...

Ian Orme and Anne Lenaerts were highlighted in the January 25, 2012 issue of the Northern Colorado Business Report in the article, "CSU TB lab searching for promising drugs"


pub highlight

Transgene-mediated suppression of the RNAi pathway in Aedes aegypti interferes with gene silencing and enhances Sindbis virus and dengue virus type 2 replication.

Cynthia Khoo, Jeffrey Doty, Monica Heersink, Ken Olson and Alexander Franz

Insect Molecular Biology 22: 104-114 (Feb 2013)

While the majority of the MIP Department peacefully goes about their business of educating or being educated, unbeknownst to some a cadre of wild and crazy arbovirologists are toiling away in the friendly confines of the AIDL building (aka the House that Beaty Built©) creating genetically altered mosquitoes.  Is this some type of Marvel comics-inspired plot by evil scientists to create tough new mosquitoes (e.g. the kind that after you swat them, they slap you back) to take over the world?  Nah – its just Alexander, Ken and the rest of the gang trying to figure out important questions about how viruses interact with their insect vectors.

In this study, Cynthia Khoo spearheaded the experiments to insert a gene encoding a strong suppressor of RNA interference (the Flockhouse virus B2 gene) into the genome of an early stage embryo of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.  This in and of itself is no easy task, as over 1800 embryos were injected and the transformation frequency was a meager ~1%.  The transgenic mosquitoes made B2 protein in their midguts, but for some reason the protein was not easily detectable in other body tissues.  The B2 protein made in mosquito midguts was ~50% effective in reducing the dsRNA-directed RNAi response to a targeted gene, indicating that it was functional.  Challenge of these ‘RNAi-ineffective’ mosquitoes with either Sindbis or dengue viruses showed significantly increased viral growth.  Thus these data support the hypothesis that the mosquito RNAi system plays a major role in metering RNA virus infections and likely contributes to vector competence.

So what were the compelling three reasons behind our choice of this article as our coveted MIPub of the Month®?  First, making transgenic skeeters is just plain cool stuff and illustrates the world-class technologies that we have in the department.  Second, the study provides additional scientific evidence for the idea that RNAi plays a major role in virus-mosquito interactions and is a determinant of vector competence.  (We’ll politely ignore the fact that in essence these studies created a mosquito that was BETTER able to transmit an arboviral disease than the original version – not exactly a step  towards a cure at first glance).  Finally, highlighting this paper is great way to say ‘congratulations and best wishes’ to corresponding author Alexander Franz.  Alexander has recently left CSU to take a faculty position in the Department of Pathobiology, University of Missouri ( Columbia).    So next time you see Alexander, you have MIPnews permission to ask him to ‘Show Me’ some data.


MIP Publications February 2013

Brennan PJ, Brosch R, Birren B, Sobral B.  TBCAP; tuberculosis annotation project.  Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2013 Jan 16. doi:pii: S1472-9792(12)00213-2.

Cardona-Castro N, Beltrán-Alzate JC, Romero-Montoya IM, Li W, Brennan PJ, Vissa V.  Mycobacterium leprae in Colombia described by SNP7614 in gyrA, two minisatellites and geography.  Infect Genet Evol. 2013 Jan 3;14C:375-382. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2012.12.015. [Epub ahead of print]

Machain-Williams C, Reagan K, Wang T, Zeidner NS, Blair CD.  Immunization with Culex tarsalis Mosquito Salivary Gland Extract Modulates West Nile Virus Infection and Disease in Mice.  Viral Immunol. 2013 Feb;26(1):84-92

Amman BR, Manangan AP, Flietstra TD, Calisher CH, Carroll DS, Wagoner KD, Mills JN.  Association between movement and sin nombre virus (bunyaviridae: hantavirus) infection in north american deermice (peromyscus maniculatus) in colorado.  J Wildl Dis. 2013 Jan;49(1):132-42.

Slayden RA, Jackson M, Zucker J, Ramirez MV, Dawson CC, Crew R, Sampson NS, Thomas ST, Jamshidi N, Sisk P, Caspi R, Crick DC, McNeil MR, Pavelka MS, Niederweis M, Siroy A, Dona V, McFadden J, Boshoff H, Lew JM.  Updating and curating metabolic pathways of TB.  Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2013 Jan 31. doi:pii: S1472-9792(12)00201-6. 10.1016/j.tube.2012.11.001.

Lyons MA, Reisfeld B, Yang RS, Lenaerts AJ.  A Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model of Rifampin in Mice.  Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2013 Jan 28. [Epub ahead of print]

Khoo CC, Doty JB, Heersink MS, Olson KE, Franz AW.  Transgene-mediated suppression of the RNA interference pathway in Aedes aegypti interferes with gene silencing and enhances Sindbis virus and dengue virus type 2 replication.  Insect Mol Biol. 2013 Feb;22(1):104-14.

Harris CL, Sanchez-Vargas IJ, Olson KE, Alphey L, Fu G.  Polymerase chain displacement reaction.  Biotechniques. 2013 Feb;54(2):93-7.

McLeland SM, Imhoff DJ, Thomas M, Powers BE, Quimby JM.  Subcutaneous fluid port-associated soft tissue sarcoma in a cat.  J Feline Med Surg. 2013 Feb 14. [Epub ahead of print]

Duncan C, Goldstein T, Hearne C, Gelatt T, Spraker T.  Novel Polyomaviral Infection in the Placenta of a Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus) on the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, USA.  J Wildl Dis. 2013 Jan;49(1):163-7.

de Léséleuc L, Orlova M, Cobat A, Girard M, Huong NT, Ba NN, Van Thuc N, Truman R, Spencer JS, Adams L, Thai VH, Alcais A, Schurr E.  PARK2 Mediates Interleukin 6 and Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein 1 Production by Human Macrophages.  PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013 Jan;7(1):e2015. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002015.

Telling GC.  The importance of prions.  PLoS Pathog. 2013 Jan;9(1):e1003090. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003090

Schoch KM, von Reyn CR, Bian J, Telling GC, Meaney DF, Saatman KE.  Brain injury-induced proteolysis is reduced in a novel calpastatin-overexpressing transgenic mouse.  J Neurochem. 2013 Jan 10. doi: 10.1111/jnc.12144. [Epub ahead of print]

Saxton-Shaw KD, Ledermann JP, Borland EM, Stovall JL, Mossel EC, Singh AJ, Wilusz J, Powers AM.  O'nyong nyong Virus Molecular Determinants of Unique Vector Specificity Reside in Non-Structural Protein 3.  PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013 Jan;7(1):e1931. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001931. Epub 2013 Jan 24.

Wilusz CJ, Wilusz J.  Lsm proteins and Hfq: Life at the 3' end.  RNA Biol. 2013 Feb 7;10(4). [Epub ahead of print]

Vlasova-St Louis I, Dickson AM, Bohjanen PR, Wilusz CJ.  CELFish ways to modulate mRNA decay.  Biochim Biophys Acta. 2013 Jan 15. doi:pii: S1874-9399(13)00005-9. 10.1016/j.bbagrm.2013.01.001. [Epub ahead of print] 

Talwar S, Balasubramanian S, Sundaramurthy S, House R, Wilusz CJ, Kuppuswamy D, D'Silva N, Gillespie M, Hill E, Palanisamy V.  Overexpression of RNA-binding protein CELF1 prevents apoptosis and destabilizes pro-apoptotic mRNAs in oral cancer cells.  RNA Biol. 2013 Jan 16;10(2). [Epub ahead of print]

Happenings

99th Issue

Hard to believe it, but coming next month (March) will be the 100th Issue of the MIPnews!!!!

From its humble beginnings in August 2004, the Dept newsletter has brought you a monthly dose of MIPersonalities, MIPropaganda, MIPublic Service Announcements and, of course, inane MIPuns. We invite you to take a walk down memory lane and revisit any of the 98 earlier issues at MIP Newsletter Archives. If you have any favorite jokes/stories, let us know - next month we’ll be running a feature on some of our favorites over the last 9 years. We’d love to have your input!


RMASM Spring Mtg

Spring meeting at
Colorado State University
Ft. Collins, CO

April 12–13, 2013

Opening Lecture (April 12, 6 pm)

Dr. Mary Jackson
Colorado State University
"Cell Envelope Biogenesis in the Context of Anti-TB Drug Discovery"

Plenary Lecture (April 13, 11 am)

Dr. Joseph Petrosino
Baylor College of Medicine
"The Human Microbiome: Disease Associations Leading Toward Diagnostics and Therapeutics"

FreeFree Meeting registration to all students
Free lunch to all pre-registered meeting attendees
Student Travel Awards Available
$$$ Awards for top student presentations $$$

For information contact Maria.Nagel@ucdenver.edu.
Please write "RMB-ASM" in the subject line.


Stop TB in My Lifetime

The Mycobacterial Research Laboratories (MRL) will commemorate World TB Day (March 24) one day late this year - Monday, March 25th - by hosting 50-70 students from local high schools. Following Opening Remarks by President Tony Frank, Pat Brennan will present a brief history of TB in Colorado as well as the story of TB research in MRL. The students will be visiting several MRL labs on both main campus and foothills campus, where they will be able to "see the MRL in action" and do some hands on activities.


Front Range Mycobacteria Conference

SAVE THE DATE!

The Mycobacteria Research Laboratories will be hosting the very first Front Range Mycobacteria Conference this June at the University Center for the Arts. Stay tuned for more information and check out the newly-redesigned MRL website for a link to online registration.


CMB/MCIN/BMB/MIP Poster Symposium

See you at the Annual Cell & Molecular Biology/Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Neurosciences/Biochemistry & Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Immunology & Pathology poster symposium!

Friday, Feb. 22, 3-6 p.m.
North Ballroom of the Lory Student Center


CRC Call for Proposals

Deadline: March 25 at 5PM

Review the FY13 CRC Call for Proposals and find more information on the CVMBS Employee Resource webpage.


The 19th Annual Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity will be held on April 30th from 11:30-2:30 in the Lory Student Center Theater. Abstracts are due by midnight on March 31. For more information, visit the CURC website


CSEF Logo CSEF Judges Needed

The Colorado Science and Engineering Fair is looking for Judges! Judging will be in the Lory Student center April 11, 10:45am-5:45pm. To volunteer to be a judge please go to the Grand Awards Judges Database Access Page to register. If you have the time team captains judge the winner of the entire fair and this judging goes from 9:30-8am. Undergraduate and graduate students, research associates, post doctoral fellows please consider judging it is a great way to get teaching and service experience to list on your resume/CV. Contact Erica Suchman if you have any questions!


RecycleMania, a nationwide recycling and waste reduction competition among more than 650 universities, kicks off February 3 and continues through March 30. CSU has placed in the top 5 percent each year for the 10 years the university has competed. The competition tracks both overall recycling rates per capita on campus as well as waste reduction efforts. Learn more on the CSU Recycle Mania website.


Welcome New Employees

Collette DeWitt Hello everyone, my name is Collette DeWitt. I’m the new Academic Support Coordinator and will be working with the MS-B program in the Microbiology department. I graduated from CSU in May, 2012 with a degree in journalism. Before joining MIP I worked at CSU’s Registrar’s Office. I enjoy snowboarding and mountain biking on my free time. I have also become newly engaged to my high school sweetheart, so I’m very excited for this big step in my life and for the start of my new career here with MIP! I look forward to meeting and working with all of you!


Heidi RungeCongratulations to Heidi Runge on her new appointment as Academic Support Coordinator for Graduate Studies in MIP. In this position, Heidi will continue spearheading support for the MIP PhD, Masters – Plan A Programs. She’ll be specifically responsible for admissions support, maintenance and analysis of program metrics, and serving as the main point of contact for the research-oriented arm of our Graduate Program.


Baby Congrats

Congratulations to Brian Geiss and his wife Mary-Claire on the birth of their daughter, Ava, born February 4th 2013 at 7 lbs 11 oz. Both Ava and Mary-Claire are doing well, and big brother Owen is already wrapped around Ava's finger.

Ava and Owen Geiss

Congratulations to Ida Tieman on the birth of her second grandchild, Charlie Belle Blackwood. Charlie was born on December 31, 2012 at 10:25am, 7 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches.

Charlie Belle
MIP Bits

Quote of the Month

"If there is a 50-50 chance that something can go wrong, then 9 times out of 10 it will."
~ Paul Harvey



MIP Harlem Shake Challenge

MIP ‘Harlem Shake’ Challenge

Got 31 seconds to kill? You may study mycobacteria or analyze pathology slides for a living, but do you and your lab have what it takes to truly ‘go viral’??? MIPnews is looking for labs (and a few facility offices….) to follow the internet fad that started earlier this month and put together a 31 second dance video featuring an excerpt from the song "Harlem Shake" by Baauer.

What the heck are we talking about? Your video should begin with one person (perhaps costumed) dancing to the song alone for ~15 seconds, surrounded by other people completely ignoring the dancer. Then the video cuts to the entire crowd doing a crazy convulsive dance for the next 15 seconds (not to mention wearing crazy outfits, etc). Check out some examples on The Harlem Shake YouTube. (warning – some of these are ‘R’ rated)

Please submit your videos to Jeff & Erin. We’ll put the best ones we receive in a future MIPnews.


CVMBS Research Day Trophy

One of MIP’s two CVMBS Research Day Trophies

    Alternative Captions
  1. MIP – Where we place the science ahead of the celebrating
  2. Hmm. Not sure which prize is more satisfying…
  3. We bet that engraved pint glasses would make rather coveted CVMBS Research Day Awards
  4. The inspiration behind every good idea
  5. Submit your own

MIPuzzle
Questions for MIPuzzle #83
MIPuzzle #83 Answers
MIPuzzle 83

CSU Sweethearts

The Brennan'sPatrick Brennan and Carol Blair were highlighted in the February edition of CSU Faculty & Staff Life in the article, "CSU sweethearts share on-campus romance"


Alumni Corner

Andrea CooperCongratulations to Dr. Andrea Cooper, formerly of the Orme Laboratory, for being named the inaugural Francis B. Trudeau chair in tuberculosis and related research by the board of trustees of the Trudeau Institute.

Read the entire story in the February 6 edition of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise article, "TB researcher named new Francis B. Trudeau chair"


MIP Travel Grants

A reminder to all faculty, staff and students that the department provides the opportunity for you to apply for travel grants to promote your career development through a presentation of a scientific abstract or through participation in a relevant symposium/workshop. Funding will be provided by the department to offset associated costs.

You may find the "Travel Grant Instructions and Application" posted on the Administrative Resources webpage.


NIH Happenings
  • NIH now grants individual fellowships to dual degree (e.g. MD/PhD) students

    Not 100% sure that DVM-PhD students are included in this RFA, but they might be. Applications are due April 8th. If you’re interested, check it out at the NIH Notice

  • Care to share your thoughts about the use of chimpanzees in research?

    NIH is currently soliciting comments through March 23rd. Check out the NIH Notice

  • Submitting a Project Report on an NIH funded project ? – Don’t forget the enforcement of the new public access policy

    In your progress report, you now have to demonstrate compliance with the policy for all applicable papers by including a PubMed Central identification number (PMCID) at the end of full citations.


New Grant Awards

leftRandall Basaraba, "Immunofluorescent Detection of Glucose and Fatty Acid Transporters", American Diabetes Association, Inc.

Diane Ordway, "Immunologic Analysis of Tuberculosis in the Guinea Pig Natural Infection Model", Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Herbert Schweizer, "Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing with BARDA Burkholderia pseudomallei Reference Panel", Battelle Memorial Institute.

Herbert Schweizer, "Evaluating Antimicrobials Against B. Psudomallei in Vitro and in Vivo", Trius Therapeutics, Inc.

leftHerbert Schweizer, "Mechanisms of Ferritin-iron Acquisition and Burkholderia Pseudomallei Infection", NIH-NIAID


FEBRUARY 2013
Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri
        1
4 5
Grad Seminar
6
Microscopy Seminar
7
Yoga
8
11 12
Grad Seminar
13
Microscopy Seminar
14

Yoga
15
18
Dept Seminar
19
Grad Seminar
20
Microscopy Seminar
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Yoga
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25 26
Grad Seminar
27
Microscopy Seminar
28
Yoga
 

 

MARCH 2013
Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri
        1
4 5
Grad Seminar
6
Microscopy Seminar
7
Yoga
8
11 12
Grad Seminar
13
Microscopy Seminar
14
Yoga
15
18
S
B
19
P
R
20
RI
E
21
N
A
22
G
K
25 26
Grad Seminar
27
Microscopy Seminar
28
Yoga
29

Do you have NEWS or PICTURES you would like to share?

Send In your ideas or newsworthy items. Contributions make the Newsletter better!

MIP Newsletter Volume 10, Issue 2, February 2013
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