MIP Graduate Students that will participate in the May 15th Ph.D. Graduation Ceremony...

Scott Bernhardt
Nicole Garneau
Jesse Thompson

MIP Graduate Students that will participate in the May 15th M.S. Graduation Ceremony...

Amy Miller
Katrina Quinn
Matt Rosenbaum
Kali Shaw
Airn Tolnay

MIP Undergraduates that will participate in the May 15th B.S. Graduation Ceremony...

Alicia Alberico
Aaron Barczewski
Justin Bohn
Jacquelyn Brown
Daniel Brown
Misty Carman
Tanja Cowan
Kelly Dalgetty
Brittany Davis
Amy Eash
Whitney Edinger
Jamie Everman
Emily Farnsworth
Ashley Friedrich
Peter Garza
Petra Gest
John Gilchrist
Shirstine Gorton
Tirrel Grovenstein
Katrina Hernandez
Brandon Horst
John Hoxmeier
Zach Jayson
Omar Jimenez
Theodore Johnson
Kelly Keil
Natalie Kirk
Phillip Knabenbauer
Amy Leach
Hallie Lee
Angela Lufkin
Lauren Marchand
Rachel Mazza
Gwynnevere Milner
Laura Nelson
Monica Nelson
Joseph Nicholl
Lacey Nickell
Brent Nolan
Sarah O'Neil
Melissa Po
Natalia Reim
Ryan Ross
Shawn Sandvig
Karen Satchwell
Sydney Schaeffer
Franciszka Schneider
Kristin Spencer
Stephanie Sunshine
Kelsey Thornburg
Tiffany Tweedy
Therese Weiderspon
Joseph Westrich
Gregory Zimpfer

• Kali Shaw presented her final seminar on March 31, entitled, "O'nyong-nyong Virus: Molecular Determinants of Unique Vector Specificity" preceding her MS defense. Her advisors are Dr. Ann Powers (of the CDC) and Drs. Jeff and Carol Wilusz.
• Nicole Garneau presented her final seminar and PhD defense on April 3, entitled, "The Contribution of Cellular RNA Decay to Sindbis Virus Growth and Stability". Her advisors are Dr. Jeff Wilusz and Dr. Carol Wilusz
• Eric Lee presented his Masters defense on April 3 entitled, "The Effects of Mannose Capped Lipoarabinomannan on Dendritic Cell Function". His advisor is Dr. Mercedes Gonzalez-Juarerro
• Katrina Quinn presented her Masters/Plan B defense on April 6 entitled, "A Review of the Changes in Bluetongue Epidemiology Resulting From Global Climate Change and the Factors Involved". Her advisor is Ms. Susan Deines
• Amy Miller, DVM, presented her final seminar on April 7 entitled, "Detection of Antiphospholipid Antibodies in Dogs with Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia and Spontaneous Thrombosis" preceding her MS defense. Her advisor is Dr. Christine Olver.

Congratulations to Robert Jones on his election to Faculty Council as the MIP Department Representative for a three year term starting July 1.

Congratulations to Mark Zabel on his appointment as a CVMBS Representative on the Faculty Council Standing Committee on Scholarship, Research And Graduate Education for a three year term starting July 1.

As always, a big thanks to all of these MIPers who make valuable contributions to the shared governance of our institution.

Detection of CWD Prions in Urine and Saliva of Deer by Transgenic Mouse Bioassay

Nicholas Haley, Davis Seelig, Mark Zabel, Glenn Telling and Ed Hoover
PLoS ONE Volume 4 e4848, March 2009

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a neurological disease caused by infectious proteins called prions, is very prevalent in Colorado cervids. That means that up to 30% of deer and elk can be affected by the disease in our neck of the woods (and that Walden CO might also be called the CWD-affected moose viewing capital). The high incidence of the disease implies that it is readily transmitted between animals - but precisely how this transmission occurs is unclear. In a high profile Science paper in 2006, the Hoover lab and collaborators showed by oral inoculation in deer that saliva and blood of affected animals contained infectious CWD prions. To date, however, there has been no evidence for CWD prions in the major animal byproducts, namely urine or feces. That's where this study comes in.

Nick, Davis, Mark and Ed dove head first into this excrement (figuratively speaking of course) to search for evidence for CWD prions. Instead of the more cumbersome oral inoculation in deer assay that was used in the 2006 study, they used direct intracerebral inoculations into transgenic mice that were specifically engineered to contain the cervid precursor protein (called PrP) so that they would be susceptible to the disease. The idea was that this assay may very well be faster and more sensitive. Concentrated urine and saliva samples were inoculated and one year (yes a full 13 full moons) later, the animals were checked for disease. Not surprisingly based on previous results, none of the control came down with disease and 8/9 saliva-inoculated animals showed clear evidence of CWD. What makes this study very significant is that when the urine samples were tested, ~ one third of the animals were positive for CWD - the first evidence ever reported for CWD prions in the urine of white tailed deer.

So why did we choose this manuscript to highlight this month. First and foremost, it obviously adds a very important clue to unraveling the puzzle of CWD transmissibility by finding evidence for prions in deer urine. Second, the study establishes the value of the mouse bioassay as well as a test tube-based amplification technique for detecting what are likely low concentrations of CWD prions in biological samples. This increase in assay speed and sensitivity should prove very useful in future studies. Finally, the article uses one of our favorite words, 'portend', in the abstract - which is clearly a harbinger of more good things to come..

MIP Publications Late March - Early April 2009

• Beaty BJ, Prager DJ, James AA, Jacobs-Lorena M, Miller LH, Law JH, Collins FH, Kafatos FC. From tucson to genomics and transgenics: the vector biology network and the emergence of modern vector biology. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2009;3(3):e343.
• Dhiman RK, Mahapatra S, Slayden RA, Boyne ME, Lenaerts A, Hinshaw JC, Angala SK, Chatterjee D, Biswas K, Narayanasamy P, Kurosu M, Crick DC. Menaquinone synthesis is critical for maintaining mycobacterial viability during exponential growth and recovery from non-replicating persistence. Mol Microbiol. 2009 Apr;72(1):85-97.
• Haley NJ, Seelig DM, Zabel MD, Telling GC, Hoover EA. Detection of CWD prions in urine and saliva of deer by transgenic mouse bioassay. PLoS ONE. 2009;4(3):e4848.
• Henao-Tamayo M, Palaniswamy GS, Smith EE, Shanley CA, Wang B, Orme IM, Basaraba RJ, DuTeau NM, Ordway D. Post-exposure vaccination against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2009 Mar;89(2):142-8.
• Higgins DM, Sanchez-Campillo J, Rosas-Taraco AG, Lee EJ, Orme IM, Gonzalez-Juarrero M. Lack of IL-10 alters inflammatory and immune responses during pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2009 Mar;89(2):149-57.
• Kurosu M, Crick DC. MenA Is a Promising Drug Target for Developing Novel Lead Molecules to Combat Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Med Chem. 2009 Mar;5(2):197-207.
• Lehman TL, O'Halloran KP, Fallon SA, Habermann LM, Campbell JA, Nordone S, Dean GA, Hoover EA, Avery PR. Altered bone marrow dendritic cell cytokine production to toll-like receptor and CD40 ligation during chronic feline immunodeficiency virus infection. Immunology. 2009 Mar;126(3):405-12.
• Lovullo ED, Molins-Schneekloth CR, Schweizer HP, Pavelka MS Jr. Single-copy chromosomal integration systems for Francisella tularensis. Microbiology. 2009 Apr;155(Pt 4):1152-63.
• Lu H, England K, am Ende C, Truglio JJ, Luckner S, Reddy BG, Marlenee NL, Knudson SE, Knudson DL, Bowen RA, Kisker C, Slayden RA, Tonge PJ. Slow-onset inhibition of the FabI enoyl reductase from francisella tularensis: residence time and in vivo activity. ACS Chem Biol. 2009 Mar 20;4(3):221-31.
• Quackenbush SL, Linton A, Brewster CD, Rovnak J. Walleye dermal sarcoma virus rv-cyclin inhibits NF-kappaB-dependent transcription. Virology. 2009 Mar 30;386(1):55-60.
• Schroeder W, Mitrescu L, Hart M, Unnithan R, Gilchrist J, Smith E, Shanley C, Benedict K, Taraba L, Volckens J, Basaraba R, Schenkel A. Flexible low-cost system for small animal aerosol inhalation exposure to drugs, proteins, inflammatory agents, and infectious agents. Biotechniques. 2009 Mar;46(3):Piii-Pviii.

Graduation Ceremony Information

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Undergraduate:
Friday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Ballroom of the Lory Student Center

Graduate:
Friday, May 15 at 3:00pm in Moby Arena

PVM:
Friday, May 15 at 8:00am in Moby Arena

Fall Semester MIP Topics (MIP700)

Title: Biological Alchemy: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Instructor: Jeff Wilusz

The Fall 2009 iteration of our MIP700 Topics course will be at the cutting-edge of cell biology (and [given the interests of the instructor] surprisingly will have nothing to do with RNA biology!). Using a very simple cocktail of four transcription factors, dramatic advances have recently been made in cellular reprogramming. In this form of cell biology ‘alchemy’, fully differentiated mature cells can be de-differentiated back into stem cells – which can then (in theory anyway) be differentiated into any cell type you desire. This groundbreaking technology (Science magazine named it as the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ for 2008) has the potential to develop new tools to study disease, create designer cell lines to treat/cure diseases using a patient’s own cells, provide dramatic new insights into the processes underlying cellular development and fate determination, etc., etc. etc.

In February, Pathology Veterinary Residents had dinner with Veterinary Students of the Pathology Club. The students were able to discuss their interests, how to get into a residency program and what it was like being a resident at CSU. It was well attended by both the residents and the vet student club members and a lot of valuable information was shared.

See the Photo Gallery from the dinner.

MIP Takes You Out to the Ballgame

MIP has reserved a block of tickets in section 117 to see the Colorado Rockies take on the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, August 8th at 6:10PM at Coors Field in Denver. The price per ticket is $40 – a $10 savings over the face value. All members of the MIP family are invited - so bring the spouse, bring the kiddies, etc. Tickets are going fast - so please email Jeff Wilusz ASAP if you'd like to reserve some tickets to this ‘can't-be-missed’ Departmental outing.

“Comedy is like a frog – you can dissect it, you learn how it works, but it will die in the process.”

Alternative Captions:
1. To avoid laughing, fellow construction workers deftly avoid eye contact with the guy wearing the pink hard hat.
2. Unlike Pink Floyd, Pink Gary doesn’t believe that we don’t need no education.
3. Win Valuable Prizes - Guess what other article of Dr. Mason’s clothing matches his hat.
4. Gary begins his own personal crusade to make every month, not just October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
5. Submit you own

Click Here for the questions to MIPuzzle #41
Click Here or the answers to MIPuzzle #41

Monfort Professor, RCE Director, and Rockies Relief Pitcher?

• RMRCE American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Request for Proposals

  The Rocky Mountain Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense is looking for exceptionally innovative proposals to fund through the Recovery Act Funding Package. Applications are due May 14th. For more information, check out the RMRCE Request for Proposals (pdf)

• NIAID resets its 2009 Paylines (again):

  New and Early Stage Investigators: 25th percentile! (Hallelujah!) RO1s for "regular investigators" will be funded to 12th percentile (but grants that ranked from the 12-25th percentile may qualify for ~ two years of funding via NIAID’s share of the ARRA Funds

• Proposed changes to NIH’s Recombinant DNA Guidelines

  NIH is requesting comments on proposed actions to amend its Guidelines on research involving recombinant DNA molecules. In a nutshell, the proposed changes would do three main things: (1) broaden the scope of the guidelines to include synthetic nucleic acids, (2) change oversight policies regarding rDNA experiments involving drug resistant traits and (3) change the level of review for recombinant or synthetic experiments involving more than half but less than two thirds of the genome of certain viruses in tissue culture. The deadline for submission of comments is May 4th. For detailed information, please see the March 4th Federal Reigster Notice (pdf).

Mary Jackson, "PimA Assay Development and Preparation of Biological Reagents", European Union

Ric Slayden, "FtsZ Inhibitors for Anti-TB Chemotherapy Novel Antimicrobials Targeting Cell Division", State Univer. of New York at Stonybrook

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
				1
4	5 Graduate Seminar - 12pm - 103 Path	6 Microscopy Seminar - 8am - 103 Path	7	8 Faculty Seminar - 9am - Path 103
11	12	13	14	15 Graduation
18	19	20	21	22
25	26 Faculty Mtg - 4pm - Path 103	27	28	29

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