Volume 9, Issue 3, April 2012

We are pleased to report that Dr. Edward Hoover has being elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Fellows of the Academy are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process. The criteria for election are scientific excellence, originality, leadership and high ethical standards. Congratulations Ed on this well-deserved recognition!

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Zabel for being selected as this year's recipient of the Pfizer Award for Veterinary Research Excellence. The purpose of this award is to foster innovative research that furthers the scientific advancement of the veterinary profession. Dr. Zabel, whose research focuses on the immunobiology of prion disease, will be the featured speaker at the 2013 CVMBS Research Day Symposium to be held in late January next year. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Zabel on this honor.

Congratulations to Dr. Gerald Callahan for receiving the 2012 Outstanding Science Faculty/Staff Award from the Students as Leaders in Science (SLS). The student organization established this award in an effort to recognize individuals who have contributed to a supportive learning environment for students. This award recognizes Dr. Callahan's dedication to teaching and mentoring students in the sciences at Colorado State University.

It's our pleasure to welcome our newest prion researcher, Dr. Richard Bessen, to the MIP family. Richard received his BA from Washington University and his PhD from the Univ. of Wisconsin. Richard is located on the 3rd floor of the Path Bldg.

Congratulations to Justin Lee who has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. The Fulbright Program is the US government's flagship international exchange program designed to increase mutual understanding between the peoples of US and other countries. Fulbright Scholars are chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential. Justin's Project, "Development of a Genetic Management Plan for the Endangered Buffon Macaw", will take him to the country of Ecuador. Justin is a graduate student in the VandeWoude lab, and in his fifth year of the DVM PhD program

Less than 100 individuals of the Guayaquil subspecies of the Buffon Macaw remain in the wild. At least fifty additional individuals are in captivity. In order to conserve the remaining genetic diversity within this subspecies, which is essential for its future survival, Justin will characterize the genetic diversity among captive individuals and use this information to better inform onging captive breeding and reintroduction strategies.

Congratulations to Danielle Lagana of the VandeWoude Lab, for receiving the Ballard Award for her poster entitled, "Characterization of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus in Bobcats" at the March 8th – 9th Morris Animal Foundation Wildlife Scientific Review Meeting in Orlando, FL. All posters were presented by students in the MAF Veterinary Student Scholars program.

Congratulations to Craig Miller Anatomic Pathology Resident in the VandeWoude Laboratory, for receiving the National Phi Zeta Research Award. Phi Zeta is the veterinary honor society. The National Research Award is chosen among all Phi Zeta chapters across the United States and only two awards are sponsored per year. Both awards this year went to CSU students, the second going to medical oncology resident, Jenna Burton.

Congratulations to Microbiology Undergraduate, Nicholas Wawryzinski, for having his resume selected as one of the best of CVMBS Undergraduate resumes posted on CareerRAM this spring.

CareerRAM provides online job postings, on-campus interviewing services, resume handling, networking mentors for students, career event information, and more.

Post your resume to CareerRAM to help you land a summer job, create a successful transition to a career beyond Colorado State, and maybe win an iPod or iPad!

Congratulations to Dr. Randall Basaraba for receiving the "Gentle Doctor" Award from Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine in recognition of his participation in the Ramsey Lecture Series

CMB/MCIN/BMB/MIP Poster Symposium
MIP Student Awards

The annual CMB/MCIN/BMB/MIP Poster Symposium was held on Feb 24th in the Lory Student Center. Congratulations to all the students and postdocs who assembled and presented posters! Listed below are the MIP Students who received special recognition for their work:

HIGH HONORS

Stephanie Moon

HONORS

Kara Mosovsky

MIP AWARDS

Christy Wyckoff


Valerie Johnson


Amber Troy


Claire Birkenheuer

Inhibition of mycolic acid transport across the Mycobacterium tuberculosis plasma membrane

Anna Grzegorzewicz, Ha Pham, Vijay Gundi, Michael Scherman1, Elton North, Tamara Hess, Victoria Jones, Veronica Gruppo, Sarah Born, Jana Korduláková, Sivagami Sundaram Chavadi, Christophe Morisseau, Anne J Lenaerts, Richard Lee, Michael McNeil & Mary Jackson

Nature Chemical Biology 8: 334-341 April 2012

There are many important unexplained mysteries in life, from the Bermuda triangle to why they decided to only put a single elevator in the Micro Bldg. Somewhere in between this range of conundrums lies another head scratcher – what is the transporter that moves mycolic acids from their cytoplasmic site of synthesis through the plasma membrane and out to the cell wall in Mycobacterium tuberculosis? Despite the fact that mycolic acids may make up ~ half the dry weight of the bacteria, 30+ years of work has not provided any substantial clues to solve this mystery. It's enough to make hard working TB researchers turn to drugs…

Which is precisely what the team headed by Mike McNeil and Mary Jackson did. They took a new TB drug candidate with the golden-esque name (AU1235) and determined the target for this small organic molecule that is highly effective at inhibiting actively growing M. tb. A key observation by Anna et al was that while mycolic acid biosynthesis was unaffected by the drug, its accumulation on the cell surface as trehalose dimycolate (TDM) was dramatically reduced when bacteria are treated with AU1235. The drug did not affect the antigen 85 complex involved in the esterification reaction to form TDM - so they reasoned AU1235 must affect transport. After ruling out a couple of theoretical candidates, the group was faced with the problem of how do you find a specific protein that a novel drug targets among the many thousands of proteins in a mycobacterial cell? The approach they used was simple yet elegant - let the mycobacteria mutate to become resistant to the drug and then sequence the genomes of multiple resistant M. tb isolates to identify a protein that is commonly mutated. Seventeen AU1235-resitant mutants all had a single base change that caused a G to E amino acid change at the border of a conserved membrane spanning segment of the MmpL3 inner membrane transporter protein that is essential to the growth of M. tb. Studies involving the overexpression of MmpL3 or using conditional mutants all confirmed that AU1235 is acting on this protein and preventing TDM accumulation on the outside of mycobacteria. Thus Anna et al declared that the hunt for the mycolic acid plasma membrane transporter is finally over – is the multimeric protein MmpL3.

So why did we pick this Nature Chem Biol gem as our coveted MIPub of the Month for April? First and foremost, it provides the answer to a fundamental question in M. tb. biology by a team of 12 CSU researchers and identifies the molecular target for a promising new lead compound in a TB drug development effort. The one-third of the world's population who carry M. tb. around in their lungs should be quite happy about that. Second, it's a very well presented piece that combines terrific biochemistry, modern sequence analyses and mycobacterial genetics to boldly go where no TB researcher has been able to go before on this topic. Finally, the AU1235 compound looks a bit like its wearing a baseball cap on its left side.

With shouts of ‘Play Ball’ finally in the air again, how could we not choose this paper with the reminder of America's pastime? Go Rockies!

MIP Publications Late February and March 2012

Chavez DJ, Levan IK, Miller MW, Ballweber LR.  Baylisascaris procyonis in raccoons (Procyon lotor) from eastern Colorado, an area of undefined prevalence.  Vet Parasitol. 2012 Apr 30;185(2-4):330-4.

Salomón-Grajales J, Lugo-Moguel GV, Tinal-Gordillo VR, de La Cruz-Velázquez J, Beaty BJ, Eisen L, Lozano-Fuentes S, Moore CG, García-Rejón JE. Aedes albopictus Mosquitoes, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Emerg Infect Dis. 2012 Mar;18(3):525-7.

Saavedra-Rodriguez K, Suarez AF, Salas IF, Strode C, Ranson H, Hemingway J, Black WC 4th. Transcription of detoxification genes after permethrin selection in the mosquito Aedes aegypti. Insect Mol Biol. 2012 Feb;21(1):61-77.

Thibodeaux BA, Garbino NC, Liss NM, Piper J, Schlesinger JJ, Blair CD, Roehrig JT. A humanized IgG but not IgM antibody is effective in prophylaxis and therapy of yellow fever infection in an AG129/17D-204 peripheral challenge mouse model. Antiviral Res. 2012 Feb 15;94(1):1-8.

Li W, Matsuoka M, Kai M, Thapa P, Khadge S, Hagge DA, Brennan PJ, Vissa V. Real-Time PCR and High-Resolution Melt Analysis for Rapid Detection of Mycobacterium leprae Drug Resistance Mutations and Strain Types.  J Clin Microbiol. 2012 Mar;50(3):742-53.

Mathema B, Kurepina N, Yang G, Shashkina E, Manca C, Mehaffy C, Bielefeldt-Ohmann H, Ahuja S, Fallows DA, Izzo A, Bifani P, Dobos K, Kaplan G, Kreiswirth BN. Epidemiologic Consequences of Microvariation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  J Infect Dis. 2012 Mar;205(6):964-74.

Pesko KN, Fitzpatrick KA, Ryan EM, Shi PY, Zhang B, Lennon NJ, Newman RM, Henn MR, Ebel GD. Internally deleted WNV genomes isolated from exotic birds in New Mexico: Function in cells, mosquitoes, and mice. Virology. 2012 May 25;427(1):10-7.

Pesko KN, Ebel GD. West Nile virus population genetics and evolution. Infect Genet Evol. 2012 Mar;12(2):181-90.

Gonzalez-Juarrero M. Immunity to TB and targets for immunotherapy.  Immunotherapy. 2012 Feb;4(2):187-99.

Grzegorzewicz AE, Pham H, Gundi VA, Scherman MS, North EJ, Hess T, Jones V, Gruppo V, Born SE, Korduláková J, Chavadi SS, Morisseau C, Lenaerts AJ, Lee RE, McNeil MR, Jackson M. Inhibition of mycolic acid transport across the Mycobacterium tuberculosis plasma membrane. Nat Chem Biol. 2012 Feb 19;8(4):334-41.

Waldock J, Olson KE, Christophides GK. Anopheles gambiae Antiviral Immune Response to Systemic O'nyong-nyong Infection. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2012 Mar;6(3):e1565.

Bonizzoni M, Dunn WA, Campbell CL, Olson KE, Marinotti O, James AA. Strain Variation in the Transcriptome of the Dengue Fever Vector, Aedes aegypti.  G3 (Bethesda). 2012 Jan;2(1):103-14.

Duncan C, Kersh GJ, Spraker T, Patyk KA, Fitzpatrick KA, Massung RF, Gelatt T. Coxella burnetii in Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus) Placentas from St. Paul Island, Alaska.  Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2012 Mar;12(3):192-5.

Bevins SN, Carver S, Boydston EE, Lyren LM, Alldredge M, Logan KA, Riley SP, Fisher RN, Vickers TW, Boyce W, Salman M, Lappin MR, Crooks KR, Vandewoude S. Three pathogens in sympatric populations of pumas, bobcats, and domestic cats: implications for infectious disease transmission. PLoS One. 2012;7(2):e31403.

Wood BA, Troyer RM, Terwee JA, Vandewoude S.  Microsphere immunoassay for the detection of cytokines in domestic cat (Felis catus) plasma: Elevated IL-12/23 in acute feline immunodeficiency virus infections. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2012 Feb 15;145(3-4):604-10.

Vap LM, Harr KE, Arnold JE, Freeman KP, Getzy K, Lester S, Friedrichs KR. ASVCP quality assurance guidelines: control of preanalytical and analytical factors for hematology for mammalian and nonmammalian species, hemostasis, and crossmatching in veterinary laboratories.  Vet Clin Pathol. 2012 Mar;41(1):8-17.

Flatland B, Vap LM. Quality management recommendations for automated and manual in-house hematology of domestic animals. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract. 2012 Jan;42(1):11-22.

Twelve prospective MIP graduate students visited the CSU campus on Feb 23-26 to the opportunities available for them in our program. In addition to the educational aspects of their visit, two social networking events were worked into the schedule. Friday evening the MIP Graduate Student Organization organized a FAC at CB & Potts for the prospective students to spend time with current graduate students and faculty. Saturday morning, they headed up Poudre Canyon for a day of snowshoeing with Drs. Quackenbush, Black, Blair, Brennan, Rovnak, Suchman, Basaraba and Bryna Fitzgerald.

Check out the Snowshoeing Photo Gallery

...there's a new cover girl in town! Congratulations once again to Dr. Barbara Powers on receiving the 2011 E.P. Pope Award, which landed her on the cover of the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation's January 2012 issue.

And you think our IT people have problems!

Doreene Hyatt recently returned from a trip to India to attend the International Workshop on Biosecurity and Public Health Challenges in Veterinary Hospitals – Bridging the Gap Between Human and Animal Health: An Indo-US Workshop.

MIP ROADTRIP to see the Rockies

With Tebow-time over, its time for all Colorado sports fans to start thinking Tulo-time! MIP has reserved a block of field level box seats to a Rockies game once again this year. The tickets are along the first base line in sections 116/ 117 to see the Colorado Rockies take on Albert Pujols and the LA Angels in interleague action on Friday, June 8th at 6:40PM at Coors Field in Denver. The price per ticket is $23 - an almost 50% savings over the face value.

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.

MIP 342 Immunology is being held in the Summer Session again as well as Fall and Spring. This will keep class enrollment size down and help students keep on track.

MIP400C Immunology Capstone will be offered this Fall. Diane Ordway-Rodriguez will be the instructor and she is planning on topics in Vaccines, Transplantation, Asthma/Allergies, and Diabetes. Scheduled to be Monday and Wednesday 4-450pm. Enrollment limit of 20 students.

Topics in Microbiology MIP700 - 2012-2013

Fall 2012
Title: "Molecular Replication of RNA Viruses"
Instructor: Dr. Brian Geiss

The course will focus on Flaviviruses, Alphaviruses and Picornaviruses and how each of these viruses utilize different mechanisms and strategies to usurp the host cell environment to replicate their genomes.

Spring 2013
Title: "Bacteriophages"
Instructor: Dr. Claudia Gentry-Weeks

The course will cover history of discovery, use in genetic manipulation/vectors, replication and therapeutic uses.

Ashley Neff and Jerome Lee of the Wilusz Lab attended the Protein-RNA Interactions in Biology and Disease Keystone Symposium held March 4 - 9, 2012 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pictured above are Jerome and Ashley with a number of RNA Big Wigs at the meeting.

MIPers and Microbiologists of all Ages - MARK YOUR CALENDARS

The Spring meeting of the Rocky Mtn Branch of the American Society for Microbiology will take place on April 20th (Fri evening plenary talk) and 21st (full day Saturday 9-5PM talk and poster sessions). This is a fantastic opportunity (aka supportive, high yield environment) for grad students, postdocs and undergrads to present their research projects in a poster or oral format. As the premier microbiology department in the state, I think that MIP should have a strong showing at this meeting. I hope that you agree.

Here are the specifics:

When: April 20th and 21st (all student/postdoc talks will take place on Saturday 4/21; its OK to just come for the Saturday session)

Where: The University of Denver

Saturday Plenary Speaker: Dr. Yousif Shamoo, Rice University ‘Experimental Evolution as a Tool for Completing the Link Between Genomics, Biochemistry and Prediction in Antibiotic Resistance’

MIP Administrative Staff gathered at the Grey Rock Room in the Lory Student Center on Tuesday, April 17 to participate in a staff retreat. With 20+ staff scattered across 4 buildings and two campuses, Dr. Gregg Dean used the retreat as an opportunity to thank everyone for their excellent service and support and provide comments on the year ahead. A delicious lunch buffet was served, followed by everyone breaking into two groups, "The Aggies" and "The Rams", to participate in fun, team-building competitions. (In honor of Dr. Mark Stetter, one competition involved Disney Trivia. Since that competition the staff have determined they need to be renting as many Disney movies as possible before May 1st!)

Moving On...

Best wishes to Janet Bebell as she embarks on new adventures in the CVMBS. Janet served as business officer of the department from July 2008 until she began her new position in the Dean's office last February. We will be recognizing Janet's many contributions and dedication to the department with a reception on Wednesday, May 16 from 3-4:30pm in the Pathology Glover Gallery. Please stop by to thank Janet and wish her well.

Hello, my name is Pamela Eppler and I am the new HR Administrative Assistant. I am originally from Scotland, but have lived in Colorado since 2001. I have recently moved to Fort Collins from the Roaring Fork Valley, western Colorado, and am looking forward to exploring Fort Collins and the surrounding areas with my husband and children.

Congratulations to Heidi Runge on her recent appointment as a state classified employee! Heidi will continue to support Lisa McCann with coordinating the MIP Academic Programs, the only change is she will now do so as a permanent employee at the Administrative Assistant II level. Heidi is from Yuma Colorado, and graduated from CSU in 2009 with a degree in Business Administration (accounting). In addition to her already proven talent in the academic support area, Heidi is also a fantastic baker—keeping all in the Microbiology facility supplied with amazing cupcakes in flavors like French Toast and Chocolate Peanut Butter.

Congratulations to Sushan Han and her husband on the birth of their first child, Friso. Friso was born wit abundant black hair, at 7.4 lbs, 18.75 in on March 5.

Congratulations to Brad Charles and Karen Zaks on the birth of their first child, Arthur Joe, on March 16!

"Income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf"
~ Will Rogers

An alert MIPnews reporter snapped this photo of the collapsed ceiling in the first floor stairwell of the Micro Building in late February

Theories on why the ceiling collapsed:

1. Lisa McCann in a nearby office must have started using the ceiling for archiving old student files
2. The MRL Faculty Irish Dance club needs to stop meeting on the second floor.
3. Kristy ‘Chicken Little’ Pabilonia predicted it.
4. Duh – it's the Micro Bldg folks…
5. Submit your own

Questions for MIPuzzle #75
MIPuzzle #75 Answers

Some MRL folks think this talking head bears a rather striking resemblance to our very own Dean Crick…

Fiscal Year End Deadlines

All purchased items must be received and invoiced by June 30, 2012. To meet this requirement, the department has set the following deadlines for year end purchases:

PCard Purchases - June 20

Purchases <$10,000 - May 18

Purchaess >$10,000 - April 18

Please contact your accounting technician if you have any questions

Following is Colorado State University's Holiday schedule for the 2012-2013 fiscal year:

Wednesday, July 4
Monday, September 3
Thursday, November 22
Friday, November 23
Monday, December 24
Tuesday, December 25
Wednesday, December 26
Tuesday, January 1
Monday, January 21
Monday, May 27

• NIAID set final paylines for business-related grants

  For those of you with corporate connects, the final payline for STTR applications (R41, R42) will be a 32 overall impact score. SBIR applications (R43, R44) will put a smile on your face with a 30 overall score.

• New R21 model grants and summary statements posted by NIAID

  In addition to the model R01 grants that have been available for about a year, NIAID has recently posted 4 model R21 applications to help you with the preparation of your application – including one from our very own STEVE DOW!

• New search tool accessible via eRA Commons

  Ever wonder how novel your idea is? Want info on grants and publications similar to yours? Then log into your eRA Commons account and check out the beta version of 'Like This' accessible as a link on the right side of the page.

• Got an unfunded project and looking for new avenues such as foundations for funding?

  Then check out the National Health Council's Health Research Funding website.

• Warning – the eSNAP report form will be changing next year

  Progress reports we're all used to submitting now via eSNAP will likely change format to a ‘RRPR’ at the beginning of 2013. For more information, check out RPPR Website.

  How does eSNAP and RRPR will differ?

Alexander Franz, "Arbovirus Midgut Escape Mechanisms", Kansas State University

Anne Lenaerts, "Novel Spectinamide Antibiotics for the Treatment of MDR/XDR Tuberculosis", Microbiotix, Inc

John Spencer, "Development of an Alternative Screening Method for Detecting Evidence of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infections", ADA Technologies, Inc.

Sue VandeWoude, "Novel Antibody Therapy for FIV", CytoDyn

Torsten Eckstein, "Immune Response of Johnes Disease Induced by Mycobacterium Avium Subsp. Paratuberculosis-Specific Lipids", USDA-NIFA

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