The MIP administrative support staff held its first team training on July 26th. The purpose of the retreat was four fold: (1) for the staff of all four MIP sites to meet and get to know each other; (2) to collectively determine the values and beliefs of the Team; (3) to devise a clear mission statement; and (4) to establish the Team's goals for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

That was a huge charge to accomplish in one afternoon, but through an amazingly display amazed of energy, synergy and enthusiasm - the group did it! And now (a drum roll please...) here are the values, mission statement, and goals for the MIP Administration Support Staff Team:

Our VALUES are our beliefs; they guide how we conduct ourselves and how we conduct business in MIP.

Communication, Professionalism, Leadership Growth & Professional Development Accountability, Trust & Respect Teamwork, Integrity & Honesty

Our MISSION STATEMENT unifies the MIP Administrative Support Team and is the key reference point in performing its business and activities.

Our mission is to work together to provide high quality service and business support to the internal and external community of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology to effectively promote excellence in research education and service while adhering to high ethical standards.

Our GOALS are what we are committed to achieve. Following are FY08 goals:

Cross Train & Training Manuals
Standardize and Streamline Process (SOP'S)
Proactive
Fun
Professional Development

Congratulations Graduates!

• Barbara Biller, PhD, Advisor Dr. Steven Dow
• Heather Blair, MS, Advisor: Dr. Herbert Schweizer
• Melissa Boyne, MS Advisor: Dr. Richard Slayden
• Debra Kamstock, PhD, Advisor: Dr. Steven Dow
• Dennis Pierro, PhD Advisor: Dr. Kenneth Olson
• Laura Thompson, MS, Advisor: Dr. Anne Avery
• Rodman Tompkins, MS Advisor: Dr. Brian Foy

On August 2^nd, a symposium was held to spawn collaborative efforts among Colorado Front Range Researchers involved with Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis.  The symposium was co-sponsored by Colorado State University, the Colorado Center for AIDS Research, the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, and National Jewish Medical and Research Center. A large number of MIP researchers from our Mycobacterial Research Laboratory group participated in the symposium.  Read More > >
Symposium Photo Gallery

Congratulations to McNair Scholar Jeff Teeter who recently won FIRST PLACE for his poster presentation at the 13th annual Southeastern Association of Educational Opportunity Program Personnel (SAEOPP)/University of Tennessee-Knoxville McNair National Scholars Research Conference held in Tennessee on June 28-July 1. Jeff performed his research on deciphering molecular pathways involved in the development of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia in PECAM-deficient mice in the lab of Dr. Alan Schenkel. The annual conference attracts undergraduate and graduate students from all TRIO programs across the country and provides opportunities for young scholars to share their research and provides exposure to the key issues in research / higher education. The McNair program is named in honor of Ronald McNair, a talented physicist who died in the space shuttle Challenger accident in 1986.

"The Man Who Loves Mosquitoes", the title of a recent article in Fort Collins:Now highlighting the career of MIP's Chet Moore. Read the Article.

We are pleased to announce that the MIP Clinical Pathology group has been approved by the CVMBS Capital Equipment Fund to purchase a new coagulation analyzer to replace the outdated model that is currently limping along. The new analyzer will perform activated partial thromboplastin time and one stage prothrombin time assays, as well as a variety of custom applications. Congratulations to Christine Olver and the rest of the Clin Path group for their successful application to secure this important new piece of equipment.

Congratulations to MIP's Summer Staying Alive Program Participants!

• Gopinath Palanisamy ranked as the 4^thbest "Stepper"!
• Victoria Jones ranked as the 7^th top "Stepper"!
• Guadalupe Reyes Solis ranked as the 10^th top "Stepper"!
• Melody Orso ranked 4^th highest in Minutes!
• Mary Sanders ranked the 10^th highest in Minutes!

Motivation In Progress received 2^nd place in Total Team Steps, 1^st place in Total Team Participants, and 1^st place in Total Team Minutes!

Great Job Everyone! And a Big Thanks to Ryan Abbott for coordinating this program for MIP!

MIP Publications Late July-early Aug 2007

• Black WC 4th, Vontas JG. Affordable assays for genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms in insects. Insect Mol Biol. 2007 Aug;16(4):377-87.
• Diresta GR, Aiken SW, Brown HK, Bergman PJ, Hohenhaus A, Ehrhart EJ, Baer K, Healey JH. Use of an artificial lymphatic system during Carboplatin infusion to improve canine osteosarcoma blood flow and clinical response. Ann Surg Oncol. 2007 Aug;14(8):2411-21.
• Hinchey J, Lee S, Jeon BY, Basaraba RJ, Venkataswamy MM, Chen B, Chan J, Braunstein M, Orme IM, Derrick SC, Morris SL, Jacobs WR, Porcelli SA. Enhanced priming of adaptive immunity by a proapoptotic mutant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. J Clin Invest. 2007 Aug 1;117(8):2279-2288.
• Kurosu M, Biswas K, Narayanasamy P, Crick D. Acid- and Base-Stable Esters: A New Protecting Group for Carboxylic Acids. Synthesis 2007 No. 16: 2513-2516.
• Sundaresh S, Randall A, Unal B, Petersen JM, Belisle JT, Gill Hartley M, Duffield M, Titball RW, Davies DH, Felgner PL, Baldi P. From protein microarrays to diagnostic antigen discovery: a study of the pathogen Francisella tularensis. Bioinformatics. 2007 Jul 1;23(13):i508-i518.
• Wang B, Henao-Tamayo M, Harton M, Ordway D, Shanley C, Basaraba RJ, Orme IM. A Toll-like receptor-2-directed fusion protein vaccine against tuberculosis. Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2007 Jul;14(7):902-6.
• Zhang J, Khoo KH, Wu SW, Chatterjee D. Characterization of a Distinct Arabinofuranosyltransferase in Mycobacterium smegmatis. J Am Chem Soc. 2007 Aug 8;129(31):9650-62.

Doctored old movie poster jokes not withstanding, everyone appears to be in the mood for a retreat this summer! The Annual MIP Faculty Retreat is scheduled for Friday, August 17th in the Colorado Room of the Fort Collins Hilton. The retreat will begin at 8:00am with a continental breakfast and will conclude shortly after lunch.

Sept 7 A/Z Lawn Area 4pm-???

Mark yo’ calendars - the Fall Department Picnic is just around the corner. As a special treat this year, the picnic coordinators would like to have a "MIP Student/Staff Talent Show" with prizes to the best act. So if you can dance, sing, play an instrument, do a comedy or magic act - heck anything that you have a special talent for - please contact Lisa McCann to participate. There will be a Karaoke machine available during and after the show - so you may want to bring along some earplugs for the post-show "entertainment".

Joint Meeting of the the Rocky Mountain Virology Club and the Rocky Mountain Branch of the ASM

Save the dates! The annual meeting of the RM ASV/ASM has been planned for Oct 5-7 at the Pingree Park Campus.

As a special treat this year (as if the cuisine in the Pingree cafeteria wasn't enough!), this year's meeting will feature two Keynote Speakers:
• Donald Gilden, M.D, Louise Baum Professor and Chair of Neurology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Aurora: "Neurobiology of Varicella Zoster virus infection"
• Thomas O'Shea, Ph.D. U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins: "An introduction to the bats, with an overview of the ecology of Rabies virus transmission among Big Brown Bats in an attic near you"

More information to follow!

Earlier this month, Robert Ellis (CSU Biosafety Officer and loyal MIP faculty member) hosted the 4th Annual Biosafety and Biosecurity Training Course at the Hilton Hotel for some 50-60 participants. The course covered a host of interesting topics including sessions dedicated to animal and plant biosecurity issues. The speakers were national and local experts including CSU faculty members Bob Ellis, Dave van Metre, Claudia Gentry-Weeks, Howard Schwartz, Ned Tisserat, June Medford and Jan Leach, as well as CSU alumnus, David Neil. If you are interested in future offerings of this course, please visit their website to see when information for 2008 will be posted.

	Karen Boegler graduated from South Dakota State University in 2005 with a BS in Microbiology. She spent the summer following graduation mist-netting bats on Montserrat as part of an ongoing ecological study, and was lucky enough to witness two species formerly thought extinct on the island. Since then, she's worked with an SDSU Immunologist on Chronic Wasting Disease, scrapie, and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy research. She is interested in studying infectious disease ecology at CSU, and is happy to be living in her new home near the mountains.
	David Higgins graduated from Colorado State University in 2006 with a BS in Biochemistry. After graduating he was hired as a Research Associate in the lab of Dr. Ian Orme. His laboratory work has focused on the host immune response to pulmonary infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the effects of immunotherapy with various cytokines and chemokines. He has been developing and improving a delivery method for aerosolized pulmonary delivery of immunomodulators to mice. David plans to attend medical school after finishing his MS degree at CSU. He enjoys medicine and medical research. David enjoys spending time with his wife Kristin in the mountains running, backpacking, hiking and skiing.
	Kevin Kobylinski graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelors in Wildlife Biology and has a Masters degree in Entomology from the University of Florida. His interest in vector biology was sparked while working for the Kansas State West Nile Virus Surveillance Project. He enjoys not only working with mosquitoes, but also hiking, biking, and raising his gecko family.
	Jerome Lee came to CSU last fall from The University of Wisconsin Eau Claire where he graduated with a BS in biochemistry/molecular biology with my girlfriend, who is a MS student in the Nutrition Dept. Once here he began working towards his PhD in the CMB program. He TA'd Chem104, took classes, and began lab rotations. He rotated in Dr. Garrity's (Biology Dept.) and Dr. Zabel's lab before doing my third rotation in and joining The Wilusz Lab. In lab he is working on characterizing some aspects of Myotonic Dystrophy, a disorder which results from defects in RNA metabolism. Some hobbies of his include Nordic skiing (winter) roller skiing (summer) as well as homebrewing, fly fishing, camping, hiking, and cycling.
	Lenden Neeper is originally from San Antonio TX. In 2003 he moved to fort collins to attend CSU and recieved a bachelor's degree in Microbiology in 2007. While at CSU, Lenden worked in the research labs of Dr. David W Grainger and Dr. Erica Suchman. This Summer Lenden earned a research fellowship with the MIP department at CSU. His passions lie in the field of retrovirology (HIV, FIV, SIV) and he looks foward to attending graduate school at CSU.
	Katie Propst is excited to be back in Colorado for graduate school. She grew up in Sterling, CO (a small town located in the Northeast corner of the state) and received a B.S. degree in Microbiology at CSU in 2003. Since then, she married her high school-sweetheart, Adam, and traveled to Omaha, NE. While there, she worked at a pharmaceutical company as a quality control scientist for one year, and later began graduate school at Creighton University. She obtained a M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology in May 2007 from Creighton. In addition to science, she also enjoys playing the piano, water and snow skiing, hiking, golfing, and spending time with family, friends, and her cat, Riley. Her areas of interest include animal models of infectious disease and microbial pathogenesis. Her advisors are Drs. Steven Dow and Herbert Schweizer.
	Ayshea Quintana received her BS in microbiology in the fall of 2006 from New Mexico State University. After graduation she worked as a veterinary technician at a no-kill animal shelter where she met her dog, Hodge. Her research interests include studying the host/virus interactions of arboviruses, vaccine development and transgenic vectors. She hopes to do a lot of traveling during her professional career. Ayshea grew up in a small city outside of Albuquerque and spent many summers on the family farm in southern Colorado. She enjoys playing soccer, horseback riding, camping, hunting, fishing and just spending time with friends.
	Jackie Scapa grew up with her 3 younger sisters in West Bloomfield, Michigan and graduated with her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign in 2007. She began working for the University of Illinois's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory the summer of 2004 and began her research project, an Epidemiological Study of Leptospirosis in Champaign County Canines, in January of 2005, awarding her the title of "Swamp Queen" during her subsequent summer of field work. Last year she also began work at the University's Wildlife Medical Clinic and enjoyed the experience so much, she is now considering applying to veterinary school following her graduate program at CSU. She looks forward to her new life in Colorado and loves her campus view of the Rockies.
	Kali Shaw graduated from the University of Vermont in 2004 with a BS in Microbiology/ Molecular Genetics. She spent the following year as an AmeriCorps VISTA, coordinating a school-based mentoring program for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Montana. From there, she spent a year as an Emerging Infectious Disease fellow at the Wasdworth Center in Albany, NY where she was introduced to mosquito-work. A job at the CDC brought her to Fort Collins, and to CSU to pursue her interest in vector-borne disease. She enjoys travel and speaking Spanish, photography, tubing down the river, hiking and the company of her 15 year old golden retriever, Sassy.

The University has changed afternoon classtimes to now start on the hour instead of 10 minutes past.

This change will affect the start time of Faculty and Graduate Seminars. Faculty Seminars will now begin at 4pm on Monday's and Graduate Seminars will begin at 12:00pm on Tuesday's.

Goodbye Jenny!

Jennifer Mahaffey, Research Associate in the Belisle Laboratory, has left MIP to pursue her Microbiology PhD at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center!

We wish her all the best!

	Susan Gonzalez Administrative Assistant to the Departmental Administrator
	Andrea Guillory Administrative Assistant Pathology Facility
	Teresa Krueger Administrative Assistant Microbiology Facility

When people say "it's always the last place you look". Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you've found it? ~Billy Connolly

MIPnew's best guess for what the mystery sculpture currently being carved in Old Town depicts:

• Randy Basaraba showing off his well developed left bicep
• A tribute to our favorite toy growing up: Rock'em Sock'em Robots
• Like downtown retail stores, even the rocks are starting to run south to Loveland
• MIP Researchers chasin' that elusive grant dollar
• Submit your own

Click Here for the questions to MIPuzzle #21
Click Here for the answers to MIPuzzle #21

Erin becomes part of the magician's act at a recent staff retreat

Alternative Captions:

1. No, please, I'm not the one who writes the bad jokes in MIPnews. Arrggghhh.
2. Not wanting to be outdone by the youngins' in the dept, Erin decides to get the mother of all piercings.
3. In addition to her IT duties, Erin volunteers to become the dept compass.
4. "Your HMO does not allow emergency room visits for minor flesh wounds. Please make an appt with your PCP. Let me show you to the door".
5. True friends stab you in the front.
6. Submit your own.

• The University is currently seeking feedback and would like to be able to implement during the upcoming November open enrollment for effective date Jan 2008.
• Learn about the proposed changes by going to www.hrs.colostate.edu/benefits/afap.html

• The Regulatory Compliance Office changes it's name to Research Integrity & Compliance Review Office.
• The first issue of their new publication, The RICRO Report, can be found at the RICRO Website.
• Please don't confuse RICRO with RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). We have it from a good source that Tony Soprano and the boys have not set up shop at CSU.

Congratulations to the Brian Foy Family on their fourth addition! Rowan Alexander was born on July 10th (same day as his mother), 6 lbs 15oz. He and Mom are in great health, but Mom and Brian are tired....anyone want to teach Brian's class this semester? Pictured above is the Foy Boyz.

• EUREKA - Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration (EUREKA), R01 (RFA). Check out this Funding Opportunity
• RFP-BAA-NIH-NIAID-DMID-08-20, Development of Therapeutic Agents for Select Biodefense Pathogens. Check out this Funding Opportunity

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