Volume 8, Issue 10, October 2011
Congratulations to Dr. Barbara Powers for recieving the 2011 E.P. Pope Award, the highest honor awarded by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD). Barb was given the award at the 54th Annual AAVLD/USAHA meeting held Sept 29-Oct 5 this year in Buffalo, NY.
The E.P. Pope Award provides the highest acknowledgement those members who have made noteworthy contributions to the AAVLD, and advanced the implementation and recognition of the specialty of veterinary diagnostic medicine.
The DMC held a chocolate party (Barb loves all things chocolate) on Friday, October 14th to celebrate her well-deserved recognition.
Congratulations to Dr. Charles Hibler, Professor Emeritus (CSU Pathology Department), for receiving Emeritus Membership from the Wildlife Disease Association, in recognition of meritorious contributions to the study and understanding of diseases of wildlife. Dr. Hibler was presented with the award at the Wildlife Disease Association's 60th Annual International Conference held in Quebec City, Canada held on August 14-19.
Greetings MIP!
My name is Chad Frank and I recently joined the faculty at the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the MIP Department. I am a veterinary anatomic pathologist and did my residency at Purdue University. I received my DVM from Michigan State University and earned my bachelors in microbiology and masters in anatomy and physiology from Colorado State University. I have special interests in infectious diseases of livestock and neuropathology.
I am originally from Wheat Ridge, Colorado. I enjoy all outdoor activities, especially biking, hiking, snowboarding, and wakeboarding.
It's great to be back in Fort Collins! I am honored to be working with everyone in the Dlab and the MIP Department.
Hello Everyone.
My name is Greg Ebel and I will be joining the faculty of MIP on the first of November. I am an arbovirologist with interests in entomology, virus-host interactions and evolutionary biology. I began my research career as a graduate student at the Harvard School of Public Health, where I worked on a tick-borne flavivirus called Powassan virus. Since then, I've worked mainly on West Nile virus in various capacities, first as a Research Scientist at the New York State Department of Health and most recently as an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Research questions in my lab center around obtaining a deeper understanding of how obligate two-host viruses interact with arthropods and vertebrates, and how these interactions influence virus perpetuation and emergence.
I'm very, very excited to get to Fort Collins and start working with such a wonderful new group of colleagues in MIP – something I've hoped to do ever since I did short stints at the CDC in grad school and as a scientist in New York. I'm also excited to introduce my three small girls to Fort Collins and its beautiful surroundings.
The Annual American College of Veterinary Pathologist (ACVP) Board Exam was held September 20-22 . Great job to all! Passing any or all is an accomplishment and we're proud of your efforts and success!
Mona Bera passed all 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam
Deanna Dailey passed 3 out of the 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam
Chuck Halsey passed all 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam
Gopi Palanisamy passed all 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam
Brendan Podell passed all 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam
Davis Seelig passed all 4 sections of the Clinical Pathologist Exam
Congratulations to Microbiology Veterinary Resident, Valerie Johnson, for receiving a $1,000 travel trainee grant to present at the 54th Annual American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) Meeting held Sept 29 - Oct 5 in Buffalo, NY. Read Dr. Johnson's Abstract.
Congratulations to Dr Shannon McLeland who will receive the CL Davis Student Scholarship Award this year at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, December 3-7th in Nashville, TN.
Shannon has done a tremendous job during her residency, graduate studies and within the residency program as a leader and initiator of change.
In the News...
Gary Mason, Barbara Powers and Pat Cole were highlighted in the Channel 7 News story "Colorado's ‘Pet CSI’ Investigates, Solves Crimes Against Animals"
Work by the Hoover Lab to develop a more sensitive test for Chronic Wasting Disease was highlighted in the Denver Post on October 15th.
Recently e-published work by Herb Schweizer and colleagues in PNAS on drug resistance in Burkholderia was highlighted October 3rd in Science Daily.
Don Klein had a letter to the editor of Microbe, the news magazine of the ASM, on potential problems with the analysis of nucleic acids associated with bulk extraction-based analyses of microbial ecology.
Jenna E Achenbach, MSc defended her PhD Thesis entitled, "Avian influenza A virus transmission and the emergence of drug resistance" on Friday, October 7. Her advisor is Dr. Richard Bowen.
Keith G. Nelson, DVM, DACVP defended his PhD Thesis entitled, "Macrophage receptor-mediated recognition, response and treatment against Leishmania major" on Thursday, October 13. Dr. Gary Mason is his advisor.
Megan Caraway, BA, defended her MS Thesis entitled, "The evaluation of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the murine and guinea pig infection models" on Friday, October 14. Her advisor is Dr. Ian Orme.
Kelsey M Deus, BS defended her PhD Thesis entitled, "Effects of immunological targeting of two mosquito antigens and oral ingestion of anthelmintic drugs on the Yellow Fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae)" on Friday October 14. Her advisor is Dr. Brian Foy.
Agatha Wieczorek, BS, defended her MS Thesis on October 18 entitled, "The 16kDa protein HspX from Mycobacterium tuberculosis as a possible vaccine candidate in the small animal model of TB". Her advisor is Dr. Karen Dobos.
Nucleophosmin Deposition During mRNA 3’ End Processing Influences Poly(A) Tail Length
Fumi Sagawa, Hend Ibrahim, Angie Morrison, Carol Wilusz and Jeff Wilusz
EMBO Journal 30: 3994-4005. October 2011
Getting straight A's is easy – if you are a eukaryotic messenger RNA anyway. Polyadenylation and the poly(A) tail are vital to the biogenesis of an mRNA - and they help to coordinate numerous processes in the cell, including transcription termination, splicing, nuclear export, transcript stability and translation. However, did you ever wonder how a boring stretch of A's could actually possess such an intricate array of regulatory influence? Previous work in the Wilusz2 lab demonstrated that in addition to putting a poly(A) tail onto the end of the mRNA, the process of polyadenylation also lays down a mark in the form of a protein called nucleophosmin onto the 3' untranslated region of the transcript near the poly(A) tail. The key question, though, was what the heck is this nucleophosmin protein actually doing? The answer to this question comes to you complements of the hard work of Fumi, Hend and Angie.
Fumi et al discovered that the nucleophosmin protein is actually associated with the core polyadenylation factors that take part in putting the poly(A) tail onto a nascent transcript (CPSF, PABPN1 and poly(A) polymerase). Nucelophosmin regulates the activity of the factors involved so that a poly(A) tail of a specified length gets put onto an mRNA. In the absence of nucleophosmin, a longer than usually poly(A) tail gets added. The slogan ‘more-is-better’ doesn’t apply to poly(A) tails, as mRNAs with too many A’s at the end don’t get efficiently exported from the nucleus and are likely targeted for degradation. Thus nucleophosmin serves as a rheostat for poly(A) tail length and then gets deposited on transcripts with appropriately sized poly(A) tails, perhaps to coordinate other downstream events of the life cycle of a mRNA. Interestingly, nucleophosmin is also an oncoprotein that is overexpressed in every cancer cell – thus this finding could have novel implications for the impact of post-transcriptional regulation on tumorigenesis.
Aside from the obvious blatant self-serving reasons, why did we choose to highlight this manuscript as our coveted MIPublication of the Month®? The study makes three key points. First, it represents a fundamental insight into a cellular process that’s vital for gene expression. With the recent realization that alterations in polyadenytion site usage is both rampant and vital in cell development, proliferation and cancerous growth, this insight regarding nucleophosmin could prove extremely valuable. Second, the study highlights the importance of Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) Program students to the MIP research enterprise as both Fumi and Angie were not formally MIP graduate students. Finally, the well-publicized Burkholderia work by the Schweizer lab that you probably expected to read about here is still only an advance online article in PNAS and has not formally appeared in the journal (one of our requirements). Happy Halloween to all our readers.
MIP Publications
Late September 2011 - Early October 2011
Dianišková P, Korduláková J, Skovierová H, Kaur D, Jackson M, Brennan PJ, Mikušová K. Investigation of ABC transporter from mycobacterial arabinogalactan biosynthetic cluster. Gen Physiol Biophys. 2011 Sep;30(3):239-50.
Dhiman RK, Dinadayala P, Ryan GJ, Lenaerts AJ, Schenkel AR, Crick DC. Lipoarabinomannan Localization and Abundance during Growth of Mycobacterium smegmatis. J Bacteriol. 2011 Oct;193(20):5802-9.
Kajikawa A, Nordone SK, Zhang L, Stoeker LL, Lavoy AS, Klaenhammer TR, Dean GA. Dissimilar Properties of Two Recombinant Lactobacillus acidophilus Strains Displaying Salmonella FliC with Different Anchoring Motifs. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2011 Sep;77(18):6587-96.
Norris MH, Propst KL, Kang Y, Dow SW, Schweizer HP, Hoang TT. The Burkholderia pseudomallei {Delta}asd Mutant Exhibits Attenuated Intracellular Infectivity and Imparts Protection against Acute Inhalation Melioidosis in Mice. Infect Immun. 2011 Oct;79(10):4010-8.
Brackney DE, Pesko KN, Brown IK, Deardorff ER, Kawatachi J, Ebel GD. West Nile Virus Genetic Diversity is Maintained during Transmission by Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus Mosquitoes. PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e24466.
Gardner CL, Ebel GD, Ryman KD, Klimstra WB. Heparan sulfate binding by natural eastern equine encephalitis viruses promotes neurovirulence. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Sep 20;108(38):16026-31.
Garcia da Silva E, Powell CC, Gionfriddo JR, Ehrhart E, Hill AE. Histologic evaluation of the immediate effects of diamond burr debridement in experimental superficial corneal wounds in dogs. Vet Ophthalmol. 2011 Sep;14(5):285-91.
Corstjens PL, de Dood CJ, van der Ploeg-van Schip JJ, Wiesmeijer KC, Riuttamäki T, van Meijgaarden KE, Spencer JS, Tanke HJ, Ottenhoff TH, Geluk A. Lateral flow assay for simultaneous detection of cellular- and humoral immune responses. Clin Biochem. 2011 Oct;44(14-15):1241-6.
Sagawa F, Ibrahim H, Morrison AL, Wilusz CJ, Wilusz J. Nucleophosmin deposition during mRNA 3' end processing influences poly(A) tail length. EMBO J. 2011 Aug 5;30(19):3994-4005.
Mark Your Calendars
for the November 18th
Thanksgiving Potluck!
Rocky Mountain Virology Association Meeting – Sept 23-25
Fifty virologists (23 from CSU/MIP) enjoyed a beautiful weekend in Pingree Park Sept 23-25 at the 11th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Virology Club. The weekend included great science, fantastic weather, gorgeous apoptosing aspens, a visit from a moose (who interrupted a lecture) and a reminder from Dr. Calisher that we are only scratching the surface of virology and need to do things like swab wombats. Several MIP students and postdocs received awards for their presentation in the face of some truly stiff competition. Congratulations to:
Alex Griffith
(2nd place poster for his undergrad research)
Britta Wood
(3rd place graduate student poster)
Natalia Voge
(2nd place graduate student poster)
Stephanie Moon
(2nd place graduate student oral presentation)
Scott Carver
(3rd place postdoc oral presentation)
Rocky Mountain Virology Meeting Photo Gallery
Over 75 microbiologists from our region converged on Colorado College on October 7th and 8th for the Fall meeting of the Rocky Mountain Branch of the ASM. The meeting contained a vibrant mix of presentations from students, postdoc and faculty and was one of the most enjoyable and interactive in recent memory. Congratulations to the following MIP students who received awards for their presentations:
1st Place Graduate Student Poster Presentation:
John C. Hoxmeier
(Dobos Lab)
2nd Place Graduate Student Oral Presentation:
Ashley Neff
(Wilusz Lab)
Rocky Mountain ASM Meeting Photo Gallery
SAVE THE DATE!
The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will be hosting the 13th Annual Research Day on January 28, 2012
Abstract submission deadlines and more information will be available soon!
Ian Orme gave the Keynote Address at the Webster Center Symposium on Infectious Disease in Dunedin New Zealand on Sept 16, and on November 5th he is invited to speak at the Gates Grand Challenges Vaccine Conference in New Delhi. Plenty of airmiles....
Charlie Calisher recounts his activities since retirement:
- Stuck a pin in an A-Rod doll. Seems to be working.
- Completed writing a book "LIFTING THE IMPENETRABLE VEIL: FROM YELLOW FEVER TO EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER AND SARS?. It is being edited by Catherine McClintock, a graduate of CSU's Department of Journalism and Technical Communication.
- Accepted task of Reviews Editor for Archives of Virology
- Downed and cut up >75 large pines killed by beetles. Have enough firewood to last through 2025, enough kindling through 2050.
- Planning speaking engagements in Italy, Austria and Atlanta in 2012.
- Barry Beaty warned me that if I retired and spent more time at home, ("She married you for better or worse, not for lunch!") Shelley and I would be divorced in six months. He was wrong.
- Had to put one dog down; got a new pup to join the clan.
Charlie Calisher models his Yiddish Yankee Hat while attending the RMVC Mtg at Pingree Park
"There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."
~ Steven Wright
Click on the image above to see a close-up of Alan Schenkel's new friend...
Dr. Michael Lairmore, former Ph.D. graduate (1987), now a noted virologist, cancer researcher and veterinarian, has accepted the position of Dean of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine beginning October 24th.
Read the entire UC Davis Announcement.
A temporary sign providing directions to CSU's South Campus facilities during the recent roadwork on Drake makes animals with joint problems a bit more nervous than usual……
- Why not try getting that amazing, innovative idea of yours funded through a TR01?
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award initiative, formerly known as the Transformative Research Project (TR01), was created specifically to support exceptionally innovative and/or unconventional research projects that have the potential to create or overturn fundamental paradigms. Applications are due January 12th. For more info, check out the TRA Program Website.
- American Heart Association to start requiring active membership or a $100 fee for all grant applicants
Effective with the winter 2012 grant deadlines, the AHA will require that each applicant (pre- and post-doctoral included) be either a dues-paying member of the AHA or pay a $100 per application submission fee. Undergraduate student programs are exempt from this requirement.
Dr. Suchman recently underwent successful surgery to re-attach a ligament in her arm
- Alternate Captions
- Erica's idea for a better mousetrap (patent pending)
- Probably not going to far out on a limb to guess that the medical device on her arm was invented by a Swiss company…
- "Ah pity – third case of ‘i-clicker’ elbow we've treated at Hartshorn this month"
- Bored with regular 2D tattoos, Dr. Suchman decides to get a 3D version of her favorite dairy product on her right arm
- Submit your own
New Grant Awards
Herbert Schweizer, "Production of Genetically Engineered Materials ", CSU Research Foundation
Karen Dobos, "Mycobacterium spp. Research Reagent Replenishment ", American Type Culture Collection
Colleen Duncan lectured to the 2nd Year vet students this month about ‘Diseases of Canada’
- Alternate Captions
- Does anyone else besides me think that Dean Crick's first reaction to this photo was ‘Oh #$*! They found me’?
- Someone tell Colleen that the pathogen is pronounced and spelled ‘Can–did-a’
- Next month, don't forget to check out the photo of your favorite MIP faculty member in a speedo lecturing on ‘Diseases of Cancun’
- Submit your own
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thur | Fri |
| 3 | 4 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
5 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
6 | 7 RMASM Mtg at Colorado College |
| 10 | 11 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
12 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
13 | 14 |
| 17 | 18 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
19 Dept Seminar 9am Path 103 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
20 | 21 |
| 24 | 25 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
26 Dept Seminar 9am Path 103 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
27 | 28 |
31 |
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thur | Fri |
| 1 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
2 Dept Seminar 9am Path 103 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
3 | 4 |
|
| 7 | 8 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
9 Dept Seminar 9am Path 103 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
10 | 11 |
| 14 | 15 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
16 Dept Seminar 9am Path 103 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
17 | 18 MIP Thanks- giving Potluck |
| 21 THA B |
22 NKS R |
23 GIV E |
24 IN A  Univ Offices Closed |
25 G K Univ Offices Closed |
| 28 | 29 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103 |
30 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101 |
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