MIP Newsletter

Volume 7, Issue 11,December 2010

Spotlight
Drew's Brew now brewing at New Belgium Drew Bombard

Microbiology Fall 2010 graduate, Drew Bombard is indeed brewing his very own beer at New Belgium after having put his palate to the test during their employee-only "Loose Lips" competition.

The competition is open to all New Belgium employees and involves correctly identifying what three beers have been combined into a pitcher by taste, appearance and smell. Drew's winning combination was 20% 1554, 30% Skinny Dip and 50% Blue Paddle. He guessed it 100% correctly, percentages and all, for the first time in NBB history! The prize is that he gets to design his own beer, write the recipe, and brew it himself. Drew chose to make a dark Czech-style lager using an old world brewing technique called a "decoction mash". It will be called "Drew's Brew". The beer will be ready sometime towards the New Year, but really its up to Drew at this point, the brewing and fermenting is done, but the lagering process just started. The idea with this is to let the beer mature in a tank until it tastes the way you want it to. It already tastes good, but Drew plans to lager it as long as possible- not many opportunities to brew a beer like this at a place like NBB. It will be on tap at the brewery and at certain places around Fort Collins. Hopefully the 'skellar too, it's the only place Drew requested it be!


Congratulations Graduates

MIP Undergraduate Students who will receive their B.S. Degrees on December 18...

Stanley Cole Bershinsky
Andrew Bombard
Binash Chaudhry
Kyle Dascher
Caitlin Glennon
Ashley Parnau
John Schneider
Linda Strange
Abigail Williamson
Rachel Wright


Nicole Garneau feature CSU Around the Oval

As department chair and curator in the health sciences department at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Nicole Garneau, alumna from the Wilusz2 Lab, is studying human's sense of taste and how it is tied to your DNA.

Check out the unique research Nicole is doing at the Museum


Defense

Jeffrey Chandler will defend his thesis entitled, "The Surface Proteome of Francisella tularensis" on Monday, December 20.
Dr. John Belisle is his advisor.


In the News...

Charlie Calisher and Ian Orme both had letters to the editor published in the Opinion section of the November 24 issue of the Coloradoan. Read the section.


pub highlight

DosS Responds to a Reduced Electron Transport System To Induce the Mycobacterium tuberculosis DosR Regulon.

Ryan Honaker, Rakesh Dhiman, Prabagaran Narayanasamy, Dean Crick and Marty Voskuil

J. Bacteriology 192: 6447-6455 (Dec 2010)

As we all (ok MOST of us) know, sometimes subtlety can be more effective than a sledgehammer while dealing with problems with your lab/office/dorm mates.  While an all out frontal attack on an entrenched obnoxious foe like Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) might seem like the right strategy to take, some researchers are trying to take a more subtle approach and trying to kill the enemy while it ‘sleeps’.  M. tb adopts a type of relative dormancy when it is encrusted in the low oxygen environment of granulomas inside the lung.  The bacterium induces expression of the DOrmancy Survival Regulator (DosR) regulon that controls adaptation to this new low oxygen environment.  Activation of this regulon is controlled by a histidine kinase called DosS that senses something in the environment.  The goal of this study by Marty and Dean’s laboratories is thus very straightforward – figure out what the heck DosS is truly sensing inside of the M. tb cell and we might get some insight in how to screw up adaptation of the bacterium to allow long term persistence in the lung.

Using a series of DosR and DosS mutants, along with ascorbate (a cytochrome C reductant) and ‘CSU-20’ (a type II oxidoreductase inhibitor that we hypothesize was named after Raymond Carter - #20 on the CSU football team who was the 3rd best rusher this year and was tied for the team lead in TD receptions), Rakesh, Prab, Ryan et al derailed the electron transport system of a mycobacteria cell and assessed its effect on induction of the DosR regulon.  In a nutshell (which by the way looks a bit like a granuloma), they found that the DosS kinase clearly monitors the redox state of the bacterium once it is switched ‘on’ in a low oxygen environment.  During regular aerobic growth, the DosS kinase is oxidized and is switched off.  This dual oxygen/redox sensing by DosS is also directly associated with the level/saturation state of menaquinones in the cell – the Crick labs’ favorite small molecule.  Thus messing around with the mycobacterium’s menaquinone pool using small molecule inhibitors can have dramatic effects on the regulation of a major regulon the bacteria uses to adapt to low oxygen environments.

So why did we pick this paper as our coveted MIPublication of the Month?  First, we love mechanistic studies and this paper does a great job in not only uncovering new mechanistic aspects of the DosR regulon but also helps put ‘in vivo’ perspective on years of biochemical analyses that have been done on isolated DosR-associated proteins.  Second, it nicely demonstrates the type of synergy that occurs between research labs from different universities associated with the RM-RCE.  Finally, ‘tis the season – and while the old Christmas song ‘Granuloma Got Run Over by a Reindeer’ plays on your radio, we hope that the proverbial hit-and-run reindeer may someday be identified as CSU-20 and Grampa and others with persistent TB will have something curative to believe in.  Never too late in the year for one more bad pun……


MIP Publications Late Nov 2010 - Early Dec 2010

Tonhosolo R, Gabriel HB, Matsumura MY, Cabral FJ, Yamamoto MM, D'Alexandri FL, Sussmann RA, Belmonte R, Peres VJ, Crick DC, Wunderlich G, Kimura EA, Katzin AM.  Intraerythrocytic stages of Plasmodium falciparum biosynthesize menaquinone.  FEBS Lett. 2010 Dec 1;584(23):4761-8.

Honaker RW, Dhiman RK, Narayanasamy P, Crick DC, Voskuil MI.  DosS Responds to a Reduced Electron Transport System To Induce the Mycobacterium tuberculosis DosR Regulon.  J Bacteriol. 2010 Dec;192(24):6447-55.

Ioerger TR, Feng Y, Chen X, Dobos KM, Victor TC, Streicher EM, Warren RM, Gey van Pittius NC, Van Helden PD, Sacchettini JC.  The non-clonality of drug resistance in Beijing-genotype isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the Western Cape of South Africa.  BMC Genomics. 2010 Nov 26;11(1):670.

Eisen L, Eisen RJ.  Using Geographic Information Systems and Decision Support Systems for the Prediction, Prevention, and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases.
Annu Rev Entomol. 2011 Jan 7;56:41-61.

Casagrande Proietti P, Coppola G, Bietta A, Luisa Marenzoni M, Hyatt DR, Coletti M, Passamonti F.  Characterization of Genes Encoding Virulence Determinants and Toxins in Staphylococcus aureus from Bovine Milk in Central Italy.  J Vet Med Sci. 2010 Nov 30;72(11):1443-1448.

Termentzi A, Khouri I, Gaslonde T, Prado S, Saint-Joanis B, Bardou F, Amanatiadou EP, Vizirianakis IS, Kordulakova J, Jackson M, Brosch R, Janin YL, Daffé M, Tillequin F, Michel S.  Synthesis, biological activity, and evaluation of the mode of action of novel antitubercular benzofurobenzopyrans substituted on A ring.  Eur J Med Chem. 2010 Dec;45(12):5833-47.

Johnson TE, Michel BA, Meyerett C, Duffy A, Avery A, Dow S, Zabel MD.  Monitoring immune cells trafficking fluorescent prion rods hours after intraperitoneal infection.  J Vis Exp. 2010 Nov 19;(45). pii: 2349. doi: 10.3791/2349.

Wilusz CJ, Wilusz J.  Consequences of mRNA Wardrobe Malfunctions.  Cell. 2010 Dec 10;143(6):863-865.

 

Happenings

FAS Deadline Jan 3
MIP Adopt a Family

MIP donates gifts for Twelve Kids through Adopt-A-Family Program

Students, faculty and staff donated tons of toys and clothes for three families with kids ranging from 2 to 16 years old. We also collected over $250 worth of gift cards! Thanks to everyone for making the holidays special for these families, and special thanks to Karen Hofmaier, Andrea Guillory, Tach Costello and the front desk staff at Pathology, Microbiology and IDA for collecting the gifts. Everything was delivered to the Salvation Army on December 15th and will be distributed to each family in time for Christmas!


Microbiology Student Association

The Microbiology Student Assoication held a special "meeting" in October during which the members created "Microbial Art" by inoculating agar plates plates with bacteria that produce colored pigments. They had a great time!

Bacteria

Check out the rest of the Microbial Art


Welcome New Employees

Hi, I am Katie Hechavarria, the new** Account Technician based at the Foothills campus. As you can probably tell from looking at my picture, I married into my last name! For those of you wondering, my last name is pronounced Hech (rhymes with “fetch”) – a – varria (rhymes with “Maria”). I have my Accounting degree from Colorado Christian University and spent 12 years in the financial services industry before joining CSU this past July. My husband and our dog, an Alaskan Malamute named Tundra, still live in Denver so I spend a good portion of my time in the car. When not driving between Fort Collins and Denver, I enjoy reading, cooking, and camping.

** Please note that Katie has been with the department since July 2010 and was somehow able to slip past the crackerjack reporting team of the MIP News for a few months. We apologize for the oversight.


Admin Notes

Tammy Taylor has moved to main campus and is now providing additional accounting support for the Pathology PI’s. You can find her in the cubicle next to Cathy Griffin.

Austin Walton is a new non-student hourly helping out the Microbiology Office Staff. Austin is located in the same office as Jim Frantz.


CVMBS Research Day

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS) 12th Annual CVMBS Research Day will be held on March 5, 2011.

Abstracts are due Dec 18. Electronic submission is be available on the Research Day webpage.

If you have questions contact Dr. James Graham at jkgraham@colostate.edu


CURC

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

This year's Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity event will be held on April 19 in the Main Ballroom of the Lory Student Center. Registration will open in January 2011 at the CURC website. Presenting at CURC is a great resume builder and awards will be given for most outstanding poster presentations.


Lablines

Check out the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of the Diagnostic Lab's Lablines.


Colorado Combined Campaign

The Colorado Combined Campaign (CCC) - the annual campus fund-raising event - begins today, November 1 and runs through December 31.

The campaign this year is going totally green with a paperless campaign so you will not be receiving information through campus mail.

To make your online pledge, please go to the CCC Website and click "Pledge Now".

You can choose the charity you wish to donate to by going to the 2010 CCC Charity Listings web page.


What is it?

Dr. Don Klein submitted an article entitled "A Simple Wooden Ribosome Model: Helping Students Understand Transpeptidation" for the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. Below is a picture of the model and the legend for the figure.

Ribosome

The complete ribosome, with the mRNA in place, and the tRNA’s and nascent peptide after two transpeptidation steps have been carried out. The locations of the tRNA on the A, P and finally the E site are noted. The size bar is 6” in length.


 

MIP Bits

Quote of the Month

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. "

~Michael Altshuler

 


2010 MIP Holiday Parties

Several Holiday/End-of-Year celebrations were enjoyed by MIP'ers again this year....

The MRL held their yearly potluck and cooking contest which included attendees voting for best appetizer, main dish, and desert! Check out the MRL potluck photos

The 3rd Floor of the Microbiology Building had a Cookie Exchange. Be sure to check out the cookie exchange photos...especially the adorable Merry Chris-mice cookies.

Best wishes from the MIP News Staff for a Happy Holiday and a Fantastic 2011!


Why only the 5th smartest?

Time Magazine's News Feed recently released an article entitled "Where Are America's Smartest Cities?" in which Fort Collins, CO was named the 5th Smartest City.

The MIP News staff decided to take a stab at listing the possible reasons why the good 'ol Fort wasn't ranked Number 1 (instead of Boulder, CO)....

  1. FoCo academics spend too much time reading Tony Frank emails rather than pursuing scholarly activities.
  2. Locals consider that giant mylar balloons are an adaquate form of child transportation.
  3. High # of breweries per capita must have resulted in killing too many neurons per capita.
  4. The judges were not impressed by the design of the intersection of I25 and Rte 392 by Windsor.
  5. Confustion created by the ‘Ever Open Café’ that's only open from 6AM-10PM.
  6. Bars with names like the ‘Drunken Monkey’ give the appearance of dumbing down the intoxicated FoCo intellegencia.
  7. Too many Opinion articles by MIP faculty in the Coloradoan.
  8. How smart was it to open three Barbeque restaurants on the same block downtown?
  9. Enticing smell from nearby Greeley distracts FoCo students from their studies.
  10. Submit your own

MIPuzzle
Questions for MIPuzzle #60
MIPuzzle #60 Answers
MIPuzzle 60

2010 Year in Review
  1. Many departments have their ups and downs, but for > a month MIP had neither: The only elevator in the heavily populated Micro bldg was down in both January and July for major repairs.
  2. ‘MIPi’ leaks was also in vogue in 2010, with the Pathology 103 conference room getting flooded in March and – of course – the roof of the Micro Bldg leaking every time it rained.
  3. We proudly cut the ribbon on the new Research Innovation Center or ‘RIC’ building on the Foothills campus on May 11. While formally managed by the IDRC, several MIP labs have populated the building and make up the large majority of its research tenants. We are currently checking if Dr. Slayden’s donations to CSU have increased over the past year since he now has a building named after him….
  4. The recognition of MIP teaching efforts reached an impressive new height with the naming of Dr. Erica Suchman as a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar. Erica is the first person in MIP to ever achieve this award – the highest honor bestowed on teachers by the university. She was going to hang the award on her office door but couldn’t find a free inch to pin it on.
  5. Things were also hopping in the ‘Faculty Affairs’ arena in 2010 – and we’re not talking about the kind of affairs you’d find out about reading TMIPZ. Four MIP faculty achieved the career milestone of tenure in 2010 (Paul Avery, Alan Schenkel, Brian Foy and Ric Slayden), Erica Suchman was promoted to Full Professor, and two new Assistant Professors (special appointment) (Brian Geiss and Alexander Franz) were named. Debra Kamstock switched over to the Clinical Sciences Department from MIP to be better aligned with the Animal Cancer Center. We are also excited to welcome Dr. Sushan Han to the tenure-track Anatomic Pathology Asst. Prof position starting January 1.
  6. We bade farewell to three long time MIP faculty in 2010 – Ralph Smith, Charlie Calisher and Av Liav. We’re looking forward to bumping into them on the Poudre/Big Thompson, Coors Field, or on campus as they show up from time to time to do things like inspect new building signage.
  7. Like the Denver Broncos, MIP offices had a surprisingly large number of turnovers in 2010. Numerous staffers took advantage of opportunties for internal CSU transfers including, Kelly Belden (OSP), Lisa Anaya (OSP), Sharon Chapman (Accts Payable), Teresa Krueger (Forest Service), and Linda Moller (Ag Sci). On a more positive note, congratulations went out to Jenny Harding for a well-deserved nod as Outstanding CVMBS Service Employee of the Year and to Lisa McCann and Jim Frantz for their respective promotions to Academic Program Coordinator and Microbiology Manager.
  8. MIP halls were universally saddened by the loss of long-time grad student administrative assistant Marcia Boggs on May 11th. We also lost 2008 microbiology graduate Chelsea Brack in January. Mortality stinks.
  9. MIP Faculty received some really cool extramural honors in 2010. These included Carol Blair’s election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Anne Lenaerts was selected as the face of North American TB Research by the ‘Stop TB Partnership’, Gerry Callahan’s XX & XY book was selected as a CO Book Award Finalist, Colleen Duncan passed the ACVPM Boards and Pat Brennan was given a prestigious Life Achievement Award from Trinity College in Dublin.
  10. The number of publications coming out the MIP Department remains strong. The unofficial count for 2010 MIPublications was 123. Four MRL faculty (Ian, Diane, Dean and Pat) tied for most authorships on our coveted selection of MIPublication of the Month with two a piece.
  11. MIP Research dollars $24,383,977 for 2010 – or roughly the amount that the new Chronicles of Narnia movie took in during its first weekend. We’re betting that Cinemascope readers would rate our research an ‘A’ as well.
  12. From the Dept March Madness party at the Lincoln Center, the annual Dept trip in June to Coors Field to see the Rockies, Halloween shenanigins and the Thanksgiving Potluck, MIPers showed once again their fun side this calendar year.
  13. MIP students also deserve a loud ‘Hooah’ for the large number of awards they received this year. Regionally, MIP students took home three awards at the CURC, 4 at the Rocky Mtn Virology Conference, 6 from the RM-ASM and 2 at the CVMBS Research Day. Nationally/Internationally, MIP students/residents received 6 awards/fellowships. Three pathology residents passed all 4 parts of their boards, 3 passed 3 out of 4 parts and one passed the ACLAM Boards (the first MIPer ever to do so!). Also our congratulations go out to our almost 50 undergraduate majors, 3 MS and 8 PhD candidates who received their degrees in 2010.
  14. Unlike the previous four years, Randy Basaraba lost his crown to Ed Hoover and Dean Crick as the most lampooned MIP faculty member in the gosh-awful photo caption segment of the MIPnews. Either Randy’s ‘friends’ need to learn how to use the camera feature on their new smartphones or all of those grants he’s been getting lately have taken a bit of the randy outa Randy. Thanks to all of our MIPnews ‘participants’ for being good sports.

Thanks to everyone for a great decade and best wishes for a great 2011!


New Grant Awards

Ramesh Akkina, "ARRA: Enhancing the Intracellular Functioning of HIV Ribozymes", City of Hope National Medical Center.

William Black, "Development of a biochip for detection of Insecticide resistance markers in Anapheles gambae", The University of Liverpool.

Brian Geiss, "A High-Throughput Assay for Probes of the Flavivirus RNA Guanylytransferase", NIH-NIMH..

Brian Geiss, "SAR Analysis of Novel Anti-Flaviviral Compounds", CSU Ventures.

Edward Hoover,"Cervid Studies of Transmission and Control of Chronic Wasting Disease", NIH-NIAID.

Angelo Izzo, "Advanced Small Animal Models for the Testing of Candidate Therapeutic and Preventive Intervention", NIH-NIAID.


NIH Happenings
  • Overview of Interim Paylines (in place until Congress passes the FY11 budget):

    For R01 applications, it remains at the 8th percentile for regular apps / 12th percentile new investigators. For most other applications, you’ll need an overall impact score of 24 (F32, R03, R21). K awards require a 23 overall impact score for funding at this time.


DECEMBER 2010
Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri
    1
Microscopy Seminar 8am, 101 DMC
2  3
6 7
Grad Student Seminar 12-noon, 103 Path
8
Microscopy Seminar
8am 101 DMC
Faculty Seminar 4pm, Path 103
9  10
13
F
W
14
IN
E
15
A
E
16
L
K
17
S
20 21 22
Univ Offices Closed
23
Univ Offices Closed
24
Univ Offices Closed
27  28 29 30 31
Happy New Year
Univ Offices Closed

 

JANUARY 2011
Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri
3 4 5 6  7
10 11  12  13  14
17
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
Univ Offices Closed
18
Classes Begin
19
Faculty Seminar 4pm, Path 103
20  21 
24 25 26
Faculty Seminar 4pm, Path 103
27  28 

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MIP Newsletter Volume 7, Issue 11, December 2010
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