Volume 8, Issue 11, November 2011

Congratulations to Michael Wiseman for passing all 4 sections of the ACVP Clinical Pathologist Board Exam!

Congratulations to Micro major Caitlin Lozano for winning the Fall 2011 CVMBS Freshman Resume Writing Contest! All freshmen at Preview and Ram Welcome where encouraged to create a professional resume after consultation with the Career Center and then upload it to the Career Ram website. Two resumes where randomly selected and the IPAD was awarded to the resume judged to be most effective and professional in appearance.

A second contest will run for the Spring 2012 semester. All freshmen who did NOT participate in the Fall 2011 contest are eligible.

Have you ever wanted to hold a protein in your hand and look at it from all different directions? Would a 3D model of an icosahedral capsid help your students understand viral genome packaging? Want a life-like model of your favorite animal's skeleton that will make you the envy of your all your friends? Looking to develop the next great artificial joint but don't know a CNC machine from a bandsaw? Well, look no further! Three-dimensional printing is the wave of the future! Here are a few examples of what this new technology can do:

~1:10 scale boar skull model printed in nylon

dodecahedral lattice printed in titanium

CSU doesn't have the instrumentation to print these types of models or prototypes yet, but we're working with a cross-disciplinary group to establish a facility where CSU faculty, staff, and students can build computer models of objects that can then be printed in 3D from various materials (plastics/metals) for reasonable costs. We're looking to gauge MIP interest in this technology, so if you could envision using a 3D model for your teaching/research/outreach, we'd really like to hear about it. Please send your questions or ideas to Brian Geiss.

Glycolytic and Non-glycolytic Functions of M. tb Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate Aldolase, an essential Enzyme Produced by Replicating and Non-replicating Bacilli

Maria de la Paz Santangelo, Petra Gest, Marcelo Guerin, Mathieu Coincon, Ha Pham, Gavin Ryan, Susan Puckett, John Spencer, Mercedes Gonzalez-Juarrero, Racha Daher, Anne Lenaerts, Dirk Schnappinger, Michel Therisod, Sabine Ehrt, Jurgen Sygusch and Mary Jackson

J. Biol Chem 286:40219-40231 (November 2011)

The number of new cases of tuberculosis each year around the world is approximately equivalent to the number of barrels of oil currently being produced per day in Saudi Arabia (9.4 million).  While there’s about as much of a chance of there being a cause-and-effect connection between the two as the roof on the Micro Bldg not leaking during the next rainy day, it does serve to illustrate the sheer magnitude of the problem caused by this pesky pestilence.  What is sorely needed are drugs that will effectively target both replicating and latent/semi-dormant turbercle bacilli.  Mary and her fifteen co-authors (for short we’ll just call ‘em the ‘M-16’) may have fired an effective warning shot across the bow of the bacillus with this current study.

M. tb makes a ‘class II’ fructose 1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) that’s involved in both glycolysis and gluconeogenesis in bacterial cells.  This study uses merodiploids to clearly demonstrate that FBA is an essential enzyme in M. tb under all nutrient and growth conditions tested since a build up of its substrate is an allosteric inhibitor of ~5 enzymes in carbon metabolism.  Further, Maria, Petra  and the rest of the ‘M-16’ go on to demonstrate using a newly produced antibody that FBA protein is always constitutively expressed in M. tb at all times (on plates and in animals – including in granulomas) and that for some reason a portion of it is expressed on the surface of the bacteria (although the protein lacks obvious secretion signals).  FBA plays a role in host-bacteria interactions as it binds plasmin with nanomolar affinity and affects its regulation by competing with host factors for a common binding site.  Finally (as if that wasn’t enough), the group solved the crystal structure of both native FBA and in complex with a small molecule substrate.  This provides key structural information as the previous structure of this protein published in 2009 was done with a C-terminal tag that results in an inactive enzyme.  The bottom line is that since we humans have a functionally similar but totally structurally unrelated ‘class I’ FBA protein in our cells, this paper demonstrates that M. tb’s FBA represents a rather attractive drug target and provides structural information necessary for rational drug design.

So what are the three reasons that we chose this manuscript out of this month’s 19 impressive department papers for our coveted MIPublication of the Month®?  First, any single study that demonstrates the results of a genetic knockout, uses immunological methodologies to pinpoint expression and localization, studies biologically relevant protein-protein interactions, and (a drum roll please)presents two crystal structures is pretty darn impressive any way that you look at it.  Second, this publication may have set a department record with authors from five different countries (Argentina, Spain, France, USA and Canada) on three continents.  This clearly highlights the international flavor and outreach of MIP research.   Finally, FBA is a cool family of multi-tasking enzymes whose active site has been recently shown to be capable of catalyzing rather different chemical reactions.  With the holidays/exam season just ahead of us, this serves as a good reminder that with a little planning and juggling, we can get everything finished while retaining our sanity.

MIP Publications Late October 2011 - Early November 2011

Rao S, Lana S, Eickhoff J, Marcus E, Avery PR, Morley PS, Avery AC.  Class II major histocompatibility complex expression and cell size independently predict survival in canine B-cell lymphoma.  J Vet Intern Med. 2011 Sep;25(5):1097-105.

Honda JR, Shang S, Shanley CA, Caraway ML, Henao-Tamayo M, Chan ED, Basaraba RJ, Orme IM, Ordway DJ, Flores SC.  Immune Responses of HIV-1 Tat Transgenic Mice to Mycobacterium Tuberculosis W-Beijing SA161.  Open AIDS J. 2011;5:86-95.

Palanisamy GS, Kirk NM, Ackart DF, Shanley CA, Orme IM, Basaraba RJ.  Evidence for oxidative stress and defective antioxidant response in Guinea pigs with tuberculosis.  PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e26254.

Kenyon CL, Basaraba RJ, Bohn AA.  Influence of endurance exercise on serum concentrations of iron and acute phase proteins in racing sled dogs.  J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2011 Nov 1;239(9):1201-10.

Barbosa S, Black WC 4th, Hastings I.  Challenges in estimating insecticide selection pressures from mosquito field data.  PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2011 Nov;5(11):e1387.

Palacios G, Wellehan JF Jr, Raverty S, Bussetti AV, Hui J, Savji N, Nollens HH, Lambourn D, Celone C, Hutchison S, Calisher CH, Nielsen O, Lipkin WI.  Discovery of an orthoreovirus in the aborted fetus of a Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus).  J Gen Virol. 2011 Nov;92(Pt 11):2558-65.

Stoeker L, Nordone S, Gunderson S, Zhang L, Kajikawa A, Lavoy A, Miller M, Klaenhammer TR, Dean GA.  Assessment of Lactobacillus gasseri as a Candidate Oral Vaccine Vector.  Clin Vaccine Immunol. 2011 Nov;18(11):1834-44.

Ebel GD, Fitzpatrick KA, Lim PY, Bennett CJ, Deardorff ER, Jerzak GV, Kramer LD, Zhou Y, Shi PY, Bernard KA.  Nonconsensus West Nile Virus Genomes Arising during Mosquito Infection Suppress Pathogenesis and Modulate Virus Fitness In Vivo.  J Virol. 2011 Dec;85(23):12605-13.

Henderson BR, Saeedi BJ, Campagnola G, Geiss BJ.  Analysis of RNA Binding by the Dengue Virus NS5 RNA Capping Enzyme.  PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e25795.

de la Paz Santangelo M, Gest PM, Guerin ME, Coinçon M, Pham H, Ryan G, Puckett SE, Spencer JS, Gonzalez-Juarrero M, Daher R, Lenaerts AJ, Schnappinger D, Therisod M, Ehrt S, Sygusch J, Jackson M.  Glycolytic and Non-glycolytic Functions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate Aldolase, an Essential Enzyme Produced by Replicating and Non-replicating Bacilli.  J Biol Chem. 2011 Nov 18;286(46):40219-31.

Keyser A, Troudt JM, Taylor JL, Izzo AA.  BCG sub-strains induce variable protection against virulent pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, with the capacity to drive Th2 immunity.  Vaccine. 2011 Nov 21;29(50):9308-15.

Mathew B, Srivastava S, Ross LJ, Suling WJ, White EL, Woolhiser LK, Lenaerts AJ, Reynolds RC.  Novel pyridopyrazine and pyrimidothiazine derivatives as FtsZ inhibitors.  Bioorg Med Chem. 2011 Dec 1;19(23):7120-8.

Wang Y, Hess TN, Jones V, Zhou JZ, McNeil MR, Andrew McCammon J. Novel inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dTDP-6-deoxy-l-lyxo-4-hexulose reductase (RmlD) identified by virtual screening.  Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2011 Dec 1;21(23):7064-7.

Ching LK, Mompoint F, Guderian JA, Picone A, Orme IM, Coler RN, Reed SG, Baldwin SL.  Transcriptional profiling of TLR-4/7/8-stimulated guinea pig splenocytes and whole blood by bDNA assay. J Immunol Methods. 2011 Oct 28;373(1-2):54-62.

Kumar A, Schweizer HP. Evidence of MexT-Independent Overexpression of MexEF-OprN Multidrug Efflux Pump of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Presence of Metabolic Stress. PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e26520.

Chantratita N, Rholl DA, Sim B, Wuthiekanun V, Limmathurotsakul D, Amornchai P, Thanwisai A, Chua HH, Ooi WF, Holden MT, Day NP, Tan P, Schweizer HP, Peacock SJ. Antimicrobial resistance to ceftazidime involving loss of penicillin-binding protein 3 in Burkholderia pseudomallei. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Oct 11;108(41):17165-70.

Putty S, Rai A, Jamindar D, Pagano P, Quinn CL, Mima T, Schweizer HP, Gutheil WG.  Characterization of d-boroAla as a Novel Broad-Spectrum Antibacterial Agent Targeting d-Ala-d-Ala Ligase.  Chem Biol Drug Des. 2011 Nov;78(5):757-63.

Zheng X, Carver S, Troyer RM, Terwee JA, Vandewoude S.  Prior Virus Exposure Alters the Long-Term Landscape of Viral Replication during Feline Lentiviral Infection.  Viruses. 2011 Oct;3(10):1891-908.

Li W, Sakamuri RM, Lyons DE, Orcullo FM, Shinde V, Pena EL, Maghanoy AA, Mallari IB, Tan EV, Nath I, Brennan PJ, Balagon M, Vissa V. Transmission of dapsone-resistant leprosy detected by molecular epidemiological approaches. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2011 Nov;55(11):5384-7.

You have a great opportunity to be "an angel" this Christmas season, to bring a little Christmas cheer into the life of a child! MIP has adopted three families, each with 4 kids (a total of 9 girls, 3 boys, ages 2 through 18)

Being an angel is a simple yet rewarding process, just follow the guidelines below:

• Please, only give NEW toys or clothes for Christmas. Your gift might be the only chance for a child to ever get all-new toys and clothes! For many families, clothes are the most pressing need.
• No need to buy every item listed on the card. It is just a list of choices to give you a better idea of kid's needs and wishes.
• Observe a $50 limit per person, MAXIMUM (it can be less). If your family is able to spend more than this amount per person, we ask that you consider adopting more children. (Coats are exempt from the $$ limit)
• Food in the form of a Grocery Certificate is preferred. This allows the family to shop for those items that are unique to their family needs.
• If you wish to purchase a gift card instead of toys, the Salvation Army recommends Wal-Mart, or Target because a family can get both food and toys there, but this is just a recommendation. These families will appreciate gift cards to any store!
• Bring back UNWRAPPED presents. The families would like to wrap the presents themselves. It allows parents to be a part of the gift-giving process. We encourage you to include wrapping supplies.
• Please return the items to your MIP Office by Tuesday December 13th at the latest.
• Be sure to put the Family Code #'s on the outside of each bag/box!

Have fun shopping and thank you for spreading the Christmas spirit!

If you have any questions about this program, please contact Karen Hofmaier (491-6136) or Carol Wilusz (491 4919)

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is one of the most impoverished and marginalized regions in the United States. Recently ABC News and Diane Sawyer did a Special 20/20 Edition on Pine Ridge called, "Hidden America: Children of the Plains".

Chris Bartholomew along with Julie Sullivan have been coordinating the Pine Ridge Holiday Gift Project for eight years now. Last year, the Holiday Gift Project provided gifts to more than 600 children and elders on the reservation. We'd like to invite you to contribute a holiday gift for a child or elder this year.

Here's how it works: Each child or elder on our list provides a few gift options…you may chose items off the list or send anything you think is appropriate. We would like to gently stress the importance of our recipients receiving gifts of approximately the same value. Most wishes are between $20.00 - $35.00. In these difficult economic times our list is growing every year, so if you wish to contribute more, please consider "adopting" another child or elder so we can provide items for more individuals.

We do have a few individuals and families who have particularly difficult circumstances and need more costly items such as electric blankets, space heaters, coats, etc. and if you wish to provide a more expensive gift let us know and we'll set you up to help them specifically. If you need a tax receipt, please send us an email with the gift and amount and we will send you a receipt at the end of the project.

If you're interested in participating in this project, please contact Chris Bartholomew to obtain a child or elder's name and gift options.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation – Dell Big Crow Holiday Gift Project Facebook Page

MIP Icon Contest

The MIP Advisory Committee is seeking submissions of artwork and concepts to create a new MIP Department Icon. The icon's purpose will be to serve as an artistic visual identifier of the MIP Department on research posters, recruitment materials, alumni communications and for other development purposes.

The artist whose work and/or idea is chosen as "Best Icon" will be awarded a $25 Amazon Gift Card! In addition, the winner and all finalists will be highlighted in the MIP Newsletter!

Send your icon artwork and/or your creative ideas to Erin Napier by December 20th!

WHEN: Nov 18, 12-noon to 2pm
WHERE: B120 Micro

All faculty staff, post-docs, visiting scientists, graduate students undergrads working in labs, etc. are invited. Please encourage those who will be attending to bring a food item to share. There is a sign-up sheet in all the facility offices.

The CL Davis Foundation's 2012 Gross Path Review Course will be held at Colorado State University in beautiful Ft. Collins, CO.

The Gross course, now in its 39th year, covers the major diseases of domestic and exotic species. Over four days, and utilizing thousands of excellent gross images, faculty will focus on the identification of common diseases of these species from its gross appearance, salient diagnostic features of each, and the formation of appropriate morphologic and differential diagnosis. This course is appropriate for practicing veterinary pathologists, pathology residents, and diagnosticians working with animals.

For more information, see the CL Davis Upcoming Meetings Webpage and the Registration Form.

MIP700 Topics - Drug Development: an Academic and Industrial Perspective
Instructors: Anne Lenaerts and Dean Crick

This course will include invited speakers from academia and industry to present on all aspects of R&D and drug development. Students will also work in small groups to develop a presentation on the development of specific classes of drugs. Round table discussions will also be used to delve into topics such as the pros and cons of drug development in an academic versus industrial setting.

MIP682A - Grant Writing
Instructor: Jeff Wilusz

The ability to effectively communicate scientific ideas, project goals and experimental approaches is vital for all scientists. To assist in developing these skills, this course will provide a series of formal lectures/discussions on how to prepare an effective grant proposal. Students will create a full NIH-R21 format research proposal based on their own research project. The proposal will be critiqued by other students in the class as well as a panel of faculty members to provide constructive criticism and then revised to generate a final version for grading. Teaching will utilize several approaches including discussion of examples of good and poor quality proposals and a mock study section with faculty present.

SAVE THE DATE!

The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences will be hosting the 13th Annual Research Day on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the Hilton Hotel.

The symposium will commence at 12:00PM, with a keynote address by Dr. Shane Hentges, the winner of the Pfizer Research Award. Poster and oral presentations in basic and clinical sciences by graduate students, veterinary students, veterinary residents, postdoctoral fellows and interns will follow. There will be an awards ceremony at 5:30PM.

Abstracts are due by Dec 1st!

For more information and to submit your abstract electronically go to the Research Day Website.

Carol Blair was invited to give a talk on "RNAi and dengue virus infection of Aedes aegypti" at the annual meeting of the Brazilian Society for Virology, held October 23 – 26th in Atibaia, São Paulo: 2011 the XXII Meeting on Virology - VI MERCOSUL Meeting on Virology (XXII ENV).

Photo Dr. Blair took on the street outside her hotel in Sao Paulo

Heidi Runge participated in this year's Zombie Crawl as an ‘Undead Housewife Circa 1950’

The Microbiology Student Association held a Halloween Costume Party!

Check out the student costumes from the party.

Hi! I am Audrey Oberlin, and I am the new Office Manager for MIP at the Foothills Campus. I am a repeat offender having graduated from CSU twice in the past decade in Accounting and Computer Information Systems. I am originally from Wisconsin but moved out to Colorado 20 years ago to practice Physical Therapy and rock climb. Out of the office I am an avid mountain biker, trail runner and climber and pursue these passions with my husband, Brad Johnson who is a research scientist in the Department of Biology and with our daughter Zoe, a 6th grader at Lincoln Middle School, and our faithful herding dogs. I am excited and thankful to be part of the MIP team.

Hi Everyone, my name is Edit Szalai, and I am excited to join MIP at Colorado State University as a Research Coordinator. I started my career at Rutgers University, where I earned my BS and PhD in Chemical Engineering specializing in fluid mixing and pharmaceutical processing. After graduation I worked for Bristol Myers Squibb and Schering-Plough Research Institute in New Jersey, as a research scientist in process development and technology transfer. In 2005 I moved to London, UK, and attended London Business School to complete a Masters in Finance. There I spent five years as a trader and portfolio manager with investment banks Lehman Brothers and Nomura, developing investment strategies and financial market models.
I grew up in Budapest, Hungary and relocated to Fort Collins in June with my husband Michael, who is from Auckland, New Zealand. I am an avid outdoor enthusiast, cyclist, and rock climber, and immediately fell in love with the beauty of the Front Range and the friendly atmosphere of Fort Collins. I am looking forward to working with a fantastic group of new colleagues at MIP.

The Sue VandeWoude Research Group (SVRG) is the latest laboratory to join the information super-highway. Check out what's happening in the VandeWoude Lab on the SVRG website!

Contact Erin Napier if you are interested developing a website for your research group.

Nov 1 - Nov 30

It's that time! The Colorado Combined Campaign is the one opportunity for CSU faculty and staff each year to support their favorite community charities — including United Way — via payroll deduction. This year's campaign runs through the month of November, with a goal of raising $125,000 to help worthy non-profit organizations and people in need across Colorado. CSU Men's Head Basketball Coach Tim Miles is the Honorary Chair of CSU's Colorado Combined Campaign drive this year.
See the CCC Faculty & Staff Webpage for more information on how to participate.

"To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone."
~ Reba McEntire

Gregg, Janet and Pete have a Halloween chat

1. “Of course he speaks softly, Janet – look at the size of his stick”
2. “Janet, where’s the best place to take a Wiz in the Micro Bldg?”
3. Gregg and Janet discuss the plusses and minuses of the new CSU cap and gown style for December graduates
4. I wonder if he can turn the GOP presidential nominee into a newt…
5. Submit your own

Halloween was alive and well in MIP this year...

The 3rd Floor of Microbiology held a potluck that featured a best costume and food contest while the MIP Office Staff held a potluck luncheon that included a best chili and costume contest. Chris Bartholomew won best Chili and Heidi Runge won best office costume while a musketeer and a vampire took top honors upstairs.

Be sure to checkout all the great costumes and food on the MIP Halloween Photo Gallery

During the day a gorilla was running loose in the Microbiology Building until a local cowboy lassoed it and not so gently escorted it out of the building. Luckily a bystander had their phone ready and was able to capture this exciting event on video...

Mark Zabel, Christy Wyckoff and Bruce Pulford recently played hookey and mountain biked around Dixon Reservoir to celebrate an outstanding score on a recent R01 grant application.

Questions for MIPuzzle #71
MIPuzzle #71 Answers

How many Turkeys can you find in the photo below...

• A one stop place for NIH grant policies

  Have a policy question regarding your NIH grant? Visit the NIH Grants Policies Webpage to view the updated (10/11) NIH grant policy statement.

• Interested in a possible career in tech transfer?

  The Technology Transfer Fellowship Program can help you learn technology transfer, develop new professional skills, and open up employment opportunities in fields related to technology transfer and the NIH mission. As a fellow, you'll be involved in negotiating technology transfer agreements (e.g., clinical trial agreements and Material Transfer Agreements) between NIAID and outside parties, such as universities and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Applications comprise a CV and letter of interest, there is no deadline and stipends range from $48K to $55K. Send questions or an application to the fellowship coordinator at NIAIDtdc@NIAID.nih.gov.

Becky Rivoire, "NextGen Cell Bank Development", Allergan, Inc.

Diane Ordway-Rodriguez, "Drug Treatment against Highly Virulent MDR-TB", University of Cambridge

Glenn Telling, "Studies of the Species Barrier and Prion Strains in Transgenic Mice", University of Texas

John Belisle, "Regulation of Lipid Biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis", NIAID

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 Tony Frank Faculty Mtg, 4:30-6PM, Hilton Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103	30 MIP Faculty Mtg, 4PM, 103 Path Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
			1	2
5	6 Graduate Seminar 12-noon Path 103	7 Microscopy Seminar 8am DMC101	8	9
12 F E	13 I X	14 N A Dept Seminar 9am Path 103	15 A M	16 L S Graduation: Grad School 3PM Moby CVMBS Sat 9AM LSC
19	20	21	22	23
26 Univ Offices Closed	27 Univ Offices Closed	28 Univ Offices Closed	29	30 Yikes! FAS entries due tomorrow!

Do you have NEWS or PICTURES you would like to share?

Send In your ideas or newsworthy items. Contributions make the Newsletter better!