Volume 7, Issue 2, February 2010

The main goals of the MIP Newsletter are to

• improve/increase communication in our diverse and spread out department
• provide a forum to recognize and disseminate departmental accomplishments
• provide some stress-relief to the hard working department masses

We need your help to see how we’re doing! Can you please take a few minutes and complete the Online Survey?

Faculty, staff and students gathered in the Pathology Glover Gallery on the afternoon of February 5th to celebrate the career of Dr. Jon Carlson.

Check out the Photo Gallery.

Over 160 attendees and 98 abstracts were presented at the 11th Annual CVMBS Research Day held on January 23rd at the Hilton Hotel.

MIP Students that were recognized for outstanding work in Basic Research are:

Davis Seelig for his Oral Presentation entitled, "Trafficking of CWD prions via the autonomic & enteric nervous systems in cervidized mice."

Britta Wood for her Poster Presentation entitled, "Development & optimization of a multiplex microsphere based feline cytokine assay"

A special thanks goes to Nate Denkers, Elise Gingrich, Kelly McCord, Drew Rholl, Josh Schaeffer, Allan Schell and Brett Webb who did a large part of the work organizing this event.

Candace Mathiason presented her final seminar entitled, "Tracking Infectious Prions in the Body Fluids of Deer Infected with Chronic Wasting Disease" on Tuesday, February 2, and defended her PhD dissertation immediately following the seminar. Her advisor is Dr. Edward Hoover.

FREE TUTORS!!

Microbiology Tutors for
Spring 2010

Students: Please contact the tutors to make an appointment. Tutors are paid by the Dept, so tutoring is FREE to any student enrolled in the MIP courses listed below. Please contact Susan Deines in Room B126 Microbiology or at 491-2913 if you have questions.

An insight into the sialotranscriptome of the West Nile mosquito vector, Culex tarsalis

E. Calvo, Irma Sanchez-Vargas, A. Favereau, K. Barbian, V. Pham, Ken Olson and J. Riberio

BMC Genomics 11:51 January 2010

This issue’s coveted MIPublication of the Month®, as you might have expectorated, involves an analysis of spit – mosquito spit to be precise. In addition to encoding enzymes involved in sugar digestion to facilitate feeding, skeeter salivary glands make a host of very interesting proteins that are involved in things like counteracting the host immune and clotting systems to facilitate feeding during blood meals. Thus mosquito saliva plays a large role in the transmission of vector borne disease - and salivary proteins represent potential therapeutic and vaccine targets. Thus our own Irma and Ken, along with their collaborators from the NIH, set out to characterize mRNAs made in the salivary glands of Culex tarsalis, a competent vector of West Nile virus that started to plague Colorado in 2003.

The group identified over 1,700 cDNA clones encoding for 283 proteins. While you might say 1753 sequences is only a drop in the spittoon given the high throughput ability of our new next generation sequencer on campus, the set analyzed in this study probably identified a large proportion of the ‘sialotranscriptome’ – they would argue upwards of 90%. What they found was fairly straightforward. The study contributed a pile of sequences into public databases for secretory proteins, housekeeping gene and proteins of unknown function for only the second member of the Culex genus. Interestingly, comparison of the secreted proteins of C. tarsalis with the other Culex species with some available sequence info (C. quinquefasciatus [a word you surely don’t want to get in the MIP Spelling Bee]) revealed only ~70% identity along with significant codon volatility. This may indicate that these genes are undergoing accelerated evolution (although several papers have been published which argue against codon volatility as an evolutionary indictator).

So aside from giving our writer the opportunity to make a pair of spit jokes, why did we choose to highlight this manuscript? Three main reasons. First, targeting mosquito salivary proteins with therapeutics or vaccines is a very interesting and attractive approach for controlling vector borne diseases with a broad spectrum of potential efficacy. Knowledge about major genes expressed in the salivary gland will likely play a very key role in realizing the potential of this approach. Second, the study should serve as a reminder to MIP students of the important role bioinformatics and computational approaches are playing in modern biology. Thus we encourage you as much as possible to broaden your education into these areas. Finally, since King Tut was shown earlier this month to have suffered from malaria – a mosquito-borne disease, we figured highlighting a paper from MIP’s vector biology community this month would be very appropriate.

Happy Publishing!

MIP Publications Late January 2010 - Early February 2010

• Berges BK, Akkina SR, Remling L, Akkina R.  Humanized Rag2(-/-)gammac(-/-) (RAG-hu) mice can sustain long-term chronic HIV-1 infection lasting more than a year.  Virology. 2010 Feb 5;397(1):100-3.
• Calvo E, Sanchez-Vargas I, Favreau AJ, Barbian KD, Pham VM, Olson KE, Ribeiro JM.  An insight into the sialotranscriptome of the West Nile mosquito vector, Culex tarsalis.  BMC Genomics. 2010 Jan 20;11(1):51.
• McConnel CS, Garry FB, Hill AE, Lombard JE, Gould DH.  Conceptual modeling of postmortem evaluation findings to describe dairy cow deaths.  J Dairy Sci. 2010 Jan;93(1):373-86.
• Mejia JS, Arthun EN, Titus RG.  Cysteine-free proteins in the immunobiology of arthropod-borne diseases.  J Biomed Biotechnol. 2010;2010:171537.
• Rhyan JC, Spraker TR.  Emergence of diseases from wildlife reservoirs.  Vet Pathol. 2010 Jan;47(1):34-9.
• Schenk M, Belisle JT, Modlin RL.  TLR2 looks at lipoproteins.  Immunity. 2009 Dec 18;31(6):847-9.
• Skeiky YA, Dietrich J, Lasco TM, Stagliano K, Dheenadhayalan V, Goetz MA, Cantarero L, Basaraba RJ, Bang P, Kromann I, McMclain JB, Sadoff JC, Andersen P.  Non-clinical efficacy and safety of HyVac4:IC31 vaccine administered in a BCG prime-boost regimen.  Vaccine. 2010 Jan 22;28(4):1084-93.
• Sottnik JL, U'Ren LW, Thamm DH, Withrow SJ, Dow SW.  Chronic bacterial osteomyelitis suppression of tumor growth requires innate immune responses.  Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2010 Mar;59(3):367-78.
• Van Campen H, Rhyan J.  The Role of Wildlife in Diseases of Cattle.  Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract. 2010 Mar;26(1):147-161.
• Vandewoude S, Rollin BE.  Practical considerations in regenerative medicine research: IACUCs, ethics, and the use of animals in stem cell studies.  ILAR J. 2009;51(1):82-4.

MIP is going to celebrate March Madness this year with a department potluck at the Lincoln Center

When: March 12, 6-10pm
Where: Canyon West Room, Lincoln Center
Activities: Fun, food, and games

There will be a hoops contest, so put together a team!

1. Each team will consist of 5 players
   * Please come up with an appropriately quirky name for your team
   * Submit that name of your team and the names of your five players to Andrea Guillory - no later than March 5th.
2. Elimination rounds will be held to determine brackets just like the "Sweet 16", "Elite 8", and the "Final 4".
3. A trophy will be given to the team that wins
4. Those not shooting hoops will have an opportunity to guess which team will win. A prize will be given for the correct guess. If multiple guesses are correct a drawing of those winners will determine who gets the prize.

Have some fun putting together your team, creating fun team uniforms and putting forth the best name for your team.

When: Sunday June 20th at 1PM
Event: Rox versus Milwaukee Brewers
Seats: Section 117 (same section as last year)
Cost per ticket: $15

Interested? Contact Jeff Wilusz for more details and ticket reservations.

It is with great sadness to report that one of MIP's recent microbiology graduates, Chelsea M. Brack, passed away unexpectedly on January 24th from complications of diabetes. A spring 2008 graduate, Chelsea went one to the school of Nursing at Regis College, and she had many friends in both places. "I will miss Chelsea's bubbly personality and enthusiasm for science, and I most remember Chelsea's life goal of helping others." ~Lisa McCann, Undergraduate Coordinator. May she rest in peace.

The MIP Graduate Students invited Dr. Terrance Tumpey from the CDC in Atlanta to CSU to speak on February 5. Dr. Tumpey also went to dinner with the graduate students.
Check out the Dinner Photos.

Please see the attached letter from the Salvation Army "Angels Among Us" program thanking everyone in MIP for their generous giving this past holiday season.

Seventeen prospective MIP graduate students will be visiting the CSU campus Feb 25-27. Six of the applicants are from Colorado and 11 from out-of-state. After arriving on Thursday night they will attend a welcome dinner with current students. Friday morning they will spend meeting with the GEC and individual faculty whose research programs are of interest to them and attend lunch with Faculty. Friday afternoon they will attend the CMB/MCIN/BMB/MIP Poster Symposium in the Student Center. Friday evening the Microbiology Graduate Student Organization has arranged to meet at Old Chicago's with the prospective students. All MIP graduate students and faculty are encouraged to attend. Herbert will conduct a tour of the Foothills facilities on Saturday morning.

It is time for Staying Alive, the faculty and staff physical activity tracking program. The MIP Movers team is once again being led by Barb Andre! Tracking started on Feb 7 and will run for 10 weeks. Best of luck to the MIP Movers!

Best Wishes Av!

We are sad to report that Av Liav has decided to retire from CSU. His last day with MIP was January 29. We wish him the best in his retirement!

Friday, Feb 26, 2-5pm
Abstracts Deadline: Feb 2

The annual CMB/MCIN/BMB/MIP Poster Symposium and pop quiz to see if you can identify all of the acronyms in its title will be held on Feb. 26th in the Lory Student Center. This is an excellent opportunity for MIP to showcase the research ongoing in our department to those students participating in our recruitment. Therefore all MIP graduate students should consider submitting an abstract. ‘Lucrative’ awards for the best posters, including a separate award for best MIP poster will be given.
See the Symposium Flyer for more information.

Last year, Colorado State placed 10th in the nation in the Grand Champion competition for RecycleMania, finishing with a cumulative recycling rate of 54 percent of the total waste generated on campus. We're aiming for the No. 1 spot in 2010. So come on MIP – PITCH IN!

Can science be beautiful? Can art be scientific?

Students, faculty and staff are invited to submit work to CSU's Fifth Annual Art and Science Exhibition by Feb 24 by visiting the Art and Science website

The ASM Undergraduate Teaching Fellowship (UTF) is aimed at highly motivated and competitive students who are interested in a career as an elementary or secondary school science teacher. Students will have the opportunity to develop a project to provide instruction in a scientific discipline in a local school or community setting in partnership with a mentor at their home institution and a teacher or site coordinator from the host site.

Application Deadline is April 1, 2010
See the ASM Website for more information

The College Research Council (CRC) 2010 Call for Proposals information is now available on the web at the College Faculty Resources Webpage. The deadline for proposal submission is 5:00pm on Monday, March 22^nd.

Deadline for Abstract Submission is March 29 .

Setup posters: Mon, April 19, 5-10pm
Judging: Tues, April 20, 10am-2pm
Awards Ceremony: Thurs, April 22, TBD

For more information, see the CURC Webpage

Main Gate for IDRC Complex

The main gate for the IDRC complex (BRB, Discovery, RBL, etc.) is currently under construction. People will need to enter the IDRC complex through the front door of AIDL. Signs will be posted for the best route through the building. Construction is expected to take till the end of February to complete. Vehicle traffic can still enter through the South gate.

Congratulations to Lars and Rebecca Eisen on the birth of thier son, Samuel, born on January 21st.

Congratulations to Reem Al-Mubarak and her husband, Baha, on the birth of their baby girl, Aya Baha Al-Alawi. Aya was born on February 18, 2010 at 18:18 p.m.

‘I couldn't wait for success,
so I went ahead without it.’

A recent presentation by Dr. Van Campen to the Microbiology Student Association

Alternative Captions
• If human detectives are ‘gumshoes’, we’re pretty sure what you’ll find on the soles of a pet detective….
• If you liked this show, be sure not to miss Dr. Van Campen in ‘The Cable Gal’, ‘Yes Woman’ and her vocal work in ‘Hana Hears a Who’
• Wonder how many times she said ‘Alrighty then’ during the presentation?
• What’s Basaraba’s hat doing on the dog?
• Remember to double check the date before I print the notice.
  Remember to double check the date before I print the notice.
  Doh!
• Submit your own.

Questions for MIPuzzle #51
MIPuzzle #51 Answers

• Don't use Adobe Forms-A on Grants.gov

  Only applications submitted on Adobe Forms-B will be accepted by NIH. So even though you can still find Adobe-A forms on Grants.gov, Don’t use ‘em!

• Watch out for this little quirk in filling out your renewal/resubmission application

  In the ‘Type of Application’ field of the SF 424 Cover page, choices include resubmission, revision, or renewal -- but you cannot designate more than one type, e.g., both a resubmission and a renewal. NIH is working on fixing this – but for now if you need to deal with this follow the instructions found at January 22, 1010 Guide notice.

• NIAID is looking for advice and ideas on how to treat/cure tuberculosis

  Help set long-range and short-term goals to better diagnose, treat, and prevent tuberculosis (TB) with and without HIV co-infection. Fill out their questionnaire at Request for Information.

• In case you were wondering, the NIAID interim payline remains at 8% for standard R01 submissions

Congratulations Kali!

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
1	2 Graduate Seminar	3 Microscopy Seminar	4	5 Faculty Seminar
8	9 Graduate Seminar	10 Microscopy Seminar	11	12
15	16 Graduate Seminar	17 Microscopy Seminar	18	19
22	23 Faculty Mtg 103 Path Graduate Seminar	24 Microscopy Seminar	25	26

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
1	2 Graduate Seminar	3 Microscopy Seminar	4 Faculty Seminar, 12pm	5
8	9 Graduate Seminar	10 Microscopy Seminar	11 Faculty Seminar	12 March Madness Party 6pm Lincoln Center
15 S B	16 P R	17 R E	18 I A	19 NG K
22	23 Graduate Seminar	24 Microscopy Seminar	25	26 Faculty Seminar
29	30 Faculty Mtg 103 Path Graduate Seminar	31 Microscopy Seminar

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