Schountz Pounces on MIP Faculty Offer

We are pleased to report that RNA Virologist Dr. Tony Schountz has accepted a tenure-track Associate Professor position with MIP. His tour of duty will begin on August 1, 2013. Welcome aboard Tony!

Effective November 1 the ‘special appointment’ faculty position of Dr. Kristy Pabilonia was converted to a ‘regular appointment’ tenure track position. Congratulations to Kristy for this well-deserved change in status!

Congratulations to Dr. Ramesh Akkina for receiving the Distinguished Research Alumnus Award from the University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicineduring the Research celebrations on October 10, 2012.

Herbert Schweizer was chosen as one of three scientists from the U.S. to serve on two grant evaluation panels of the European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative. The overall topic of the specific initiative Herbert was asked to review is ND4BB - No Drugs for Bad Bugs. The meetings are held in Brussels.

The Annual American College of Veterinary Pathologist (ACVP) Board Exam was held September 18-20 . Great job to all! Passing any or all is an accomplishment and we're proud of your efforts and success!

Deanna Dailey passed all 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam

Matt Feirer passed 2 of the 4 sections of the Clinical Pathologist Exam

Shannon McLeland passed 3 of the 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam

Julia Ryseff passed 3 of the 4 sections of the Clinical Pathologist Exam

Brett Webb passed all 4 sections of the Anatomic Pathologist Exam

Congratulation to Corrine Lindstadt on her recent promotion to Accounting Technician. A move to a new facility came with the promotion, so Corrine can now be found crunching numbers for the PI's in the Microbiology Facility!

Congratulations to the following MIP students who received awards for their presentations:

1st Place Graduate Talk
Justin Lee
VandeWoude Lab

1st Place Undergraduate Talk
Guy Stewart
iGEM Program

Congratulation RMVC Winners!

Winners of the best talks and posters at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Virology Club Meeting
(Click on image to see larger photo)

In the News...

Sue VandeWoude was quoted in the Colorado Springs Independent article, "The truth on bobcat poop", and the LiveScience article, "Bobcats and Humans Swap Diseases in Urban Areas", and the MSNBC article, "Bobcats and Humans Swap Diseases in the Urban Areas" in regards to the growing number of diseases that humans and bobcats are sharing.

The CSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory was highlighted in the Denver Post article, "Busy summer at CSU vet diagnostic lab informs future treatments" and the Bent County Democrat Online article, "Colorado Livestock Disease Recap".

Paulina Zurita Urrea, DVM, MS Program, defended her thesis entitled, "A Derivatization Protocol for Mycolic Acids Detection Using Liquid Chromatography/ Mass Spectrometry " on September 7. Her advisor is Dr. John Belisle.

Carl Soffler, DVM, MS, PhD Program, defended his thesis entitled, "The Development and Characterization of Caprine Infection Models of Melioidosis" on September 24. His advisor is Dr. Richard Bowen.

Lisa M Wolfe, BS, PhD Program, "Mining the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Cellular Envelope for Diagnostic and Drug Targets" on October 16, 2012 Her advisor is Dr. Karen Dobos

Karen Fox, DVM, DACVP, PhD Program, defended her thesis entitled, "Sinus Tumors of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep: Investigation of an Infectious Etiology" on October 22. Her advisors are Dr. Terry Spraker & Dr. Sandra Quackenbush.

Brady Michel, BS, PhD Program, defended his thesis entitled, "Early Peripheral Immunological Events Dictate Chronic Wasting Disease Pathogenesis" on October 22. His Advisor is Dr. Mark Zabel.

The PARN Deadenylase Targets a Discrete Set of mRNAs for Decay and Regulates Cell Motility in Mouse Myoblasts

Jerome Lee, Ju Youn Lee, Jarrett Trembly, Jeff Wilusz, Bin Tian, Carol Wilusz

PLoS Genetics 8: e1002901August 2012

In addition to Halloween’s ‘Magic Mike’ Barnhart, this month’s MIPublication of the month clearly documents that there are other ‘PARN’ stars in the Wilusz laboratories.  PARN – or Poly(A)-specific RiboNuclease – was the first deadenylase that was described in mammalian cells.  It possesses the interesting ability to interact with both the 3’ poly(A) tail and the 5’ 7m-Gppp cap of its mRNA substrate.  However to date, the extent of the contribution of the protein to cellular gene expression has not been clear.  Jerome Lee et al at CSU, along with a team from NJ (who was chased away from their lab for a week due to problems associated with Superstorm Sandy), set to work to answer that question.

The team knocked down PARN in a mouse myocyte cell line and analyzed mRNA stability in a global fashion using (now old fashioned) microarrays.  They found 40 mRNAs that were specifically stabilized by knock down of the deadenylase.  The observation for selected mRNAs was validated by qRT-PCR analysis.  Furthermore, one of the mRNAs was shown to have increased poly(A) tail length in PARN knock down cells, consistent with the mRNA being a direct substrate for the PARN deadenylase.  Gene Ontogeny analysis of the set of mRNAs whose stability was regulated by PARN showed a bias for genes involved in cell motility.  The group confirmed that PARN appears to control an RNA ‘regulon’ involved in cell motility by the behavior of PARN knock down cells in a wound healing assay.  Collectively, these data indicate that PARN plays an important role in regulating gene expression of a subset of mRNAs in somatic cells.

So why did we choose this paper as our coveted MIPublication of the Month®?  On the surface, the paper may appear to simply make a connection between an RNA decay enzyme and the control of cellular gene expression.  However there’s a much deeper observation in this study that may be a true paradigm-shifting gem.  Since the abundance of an mRNA in a cell should be a factor of both its synthetic (transcription) and decay rates, one would assume that when you stabilize a transcript by shutting down a decay factor, its abundance should go up.  However for every mRNA tested in this study that was stabilized by the knockdown of the PARN decay factor, there was not a corresponding increase in abundance.  Surprisingly, transcription of these mRNAs was reduced to compensate for the increased stability so that ‘normal’ levels of the mRNAs were maintained.  This observation implies that there is feedback from the cytoplasm to the nucleus that allows crosstalk between mRNA decay rates and transcription rates to regulate gene expression.  How that might occur (e.g. via feedback to the nucleus of proteins or small RNA fragments released from the decaying transcripts in the cytoplasm) is unclear.  If this is true as implied in this study, we probably will have to re-write the dogmas for the regulation of cellular gene expression.   If it isn’t true, then file this one with the rest of the Wilusz jokes that start off very promising but in the end miss the mark…

MIP Publications Late August thru mid-November 2012

Soffler C, Bosco-Lauth AM, Aboellail TA, Marolf AJ, Bowen RA.  Development and characterization of a caprine aerosol infection model of melioidosis.  PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43207.

Nischang M, Gers-Huber G, Audigé A, Akkina R, Speck RF.  Modeling HIV infection and therapies in humanized mice.  wiss Med Wkly. 2012 Jul 9;142:13618.

Ito D, Frantz AM, Williams C, Thomas R, Burnett RC, Avery AC, Breen M, Mason NJ, O'Brien TD, Modiano JF.  CD40 ligand is necessary and sufficient to support primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells in culture: a tool for in vitro preclinical studies with primary B-cell malignancies.  Leuk Lymphoma. 2012 Jul;53(7):1390-8.

Ryseff JK, Kamstock DA, Hissam KM, Avery PR.  Pathology in practice.  J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2012 Oct 15;241(8):1035-7.

Scorza AV, Ballweber LR, Tangtrongsup S, Panuska C, Lappin MR.  Comparisons of mammalian Giardia duodenalis assemblages based on the β-giardin, glutamate dehydrogenase and triose phosphate isomerase genes.  Vet Parasitol. 2012 Oct 26;189(2-4):182-8.

Podell BK, Ackart DF, Kirk NM, Eck SP, Bell C, Basaraba RJ.  Non-Diabetic Hyperglycemia Exacerbates Disease Severity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infected Guinea Pigs.  PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e46824.

Somashekar BS, Amin AG, Tripathi P, Mackinnon N, Rithner CD, Shanley CA, Basaraba R, Henao-Tamayo M, Kato-Maeda M, Ramamoorthy A, Orme IM, Ordway DJ, Chatterjee D.  Metabolomic Signatures in Guinea Pigs Infected with Epidemic-Associated W-Beijing Strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  J Proteome Res. 2012 Oct 5;11(10):4873-84.

Molins CR, Delorey MJ, Young JW, Yockey BM, Belisle JT, Schriefer ME, Petersen JM.  Use of Temperature for Standardizing the Progression of Francisella tularensis in Mice.  PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e45310.

Schountz T, Acuña-Retamar M, Feinstein S, Prescott J, Torres-Perez F, Podell B, Peters S, Ye C, Black WC 4th, Hjelle B.  Kinetics of immune responses in deer mice experimentally infected with Sin Nombre virus.  J Virol. 2012 Sep;86(18):10015-27.

Bernhardt SA, Simmons MP, Olson KE, Beaty BJ, Blair CD, Black WC.  Rapid Intraspecific Evolution of miRNA and siRNA Genes in the Mosquito Aedes aegypti.  PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e44198.

Calvert AE, Huang CY, Blair CD, Roehrig JT.  Mutations in the West Nile prM protein affect VLP and virion secretion in vitro.  Virology. 2012 Nov 10;433(1):35-44.

Ryseff JK, Bohn AA.  Detection of alkaline phosphatase in canine cells previously stained with Wright-Giemsa and its utility in differentiating osteosarcoma from other mesenchymal tumors.  Vet Clin Pathol. 2012 Sep;41(3):391-5.

Lund H, Boysen P, Dean GA, Davis WC, Park KT, Storset AK.  Interleukin-15 activated bovine natural killer cells express CD69 and produce interferon-γ.  Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2012 Nov 15;150(1-2):79-89.

Bizikova P, Dean GA, Hashimoto T, Olivry T.  Cloning and establishment of canine desmocollin-1 as a major autoantigen in canine pemphigus foliaceus.  Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2012 Oct 15;149(3-4):197-207.

Franzblau SG, Degroote MA, Cho SH, Andries K, Nuermberger E, Orme IM, Mdluli K, Angulo-Barturen I, Dick T, Dartois V, Lenaerts AJ.  Comprehensive analysis of methods used for the evaluation of compounds against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2012 Nov;92(6):453-88.

Read RL, Duncan CG, Wallace AD, Perry JA, Duerr FM.  Assessment of on-screen measurements, magnification, and calibration in digital radiography.  J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2012 Sep 15;241(6):782-7.

Lamont EA, O'Grady SM, Davis WC, Eckstein T, Sreevatsan S.  Infection with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis results in rapid interleukin-1β release and macrophage transepithelial migration.  Infect Immun. 2012 Sep;80(9):3225-35.

Yoshikawa H, Ehrhart EJ, Charles JB, Thamm DH, Larue SM.  Immunohistochemical characterization of feline oral squamous cell carcinoma.  Am J Vet Res. 2012 Nov;73(11):1801-6.

Bradley A, Kinyon J, Frana T, Bolte D, Hyatt DR, Lappin MR.  Efficacy of Intranasal Administration of a Modified Live Feline Herpesvirus 1 and Feline Calicivirus Vaccine against Disease Caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica after Experimental Challenge.  J Vet Intern Med. 2012 Sep;26(5):1121-5.

Henneveld K, Rosychuk RA, Olea-Popelka FJ, Hyatt DR, Zabel S.  Corynebacterium spp. in dogs and cats with otitis externa and/or media: a retrospective study.  J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2012 Sep-Oct;48(5):320-6.

Rakesh, Bruhn D, Madhura DB, Maddox M, Lee RB, Trivedi A, Yang L, Scherman MS, Gilliland JC, Gruppo V, McNeil MR, Lenaerts AJ, Meibohm B, Lee RE. Antitubercular nitrofuran isoxazolines with improved pharmacokinetic properties. Bioorg Med Chem. 2012 Oct 15;20(20):6063-72.

Franzblau SG, Degroote MA, Cho SH, Andries K, Nuermberger E, Orme IM, Mdluli K, Angulo-Barturen I, Dick T, Dartois V, Lenaerts AJ. Comprehensive analysis of methods used for the evaluation of compounds against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Tuberculosis (Edinb). 2012 Nov;92(6):453-88.

Fávaro WJ, Nunes OS, Seiva FR, Nunes IS, Woolhiser LK, Durán N, Lenaerts AJ.  Effects of P-MAPA Immunomodulator on Toll-Like Receptors and p53: Potential Therapeutic Strategies for Infectious Diseases and Cancer.  Infect Agent Cancer. 2012 Jun 18;7(1):14.

Peng W, Zou L, Bhamidi S, McNeil MR, Lowary TL.  The Galactosamine Residue in Mycobacterial Arabinogalactan Is α-Linked.  J Org Chem. 2012 Nov 2;77(21):9826-32.

Frankot JL, Behrend EN, Sebestyen P, Powers BE.  Adrenocortical Carcinoma in a Dog with Incomplete Excision Managed Long-term with Metastasectomy Alone.  J Am Anim Hosp Assoc. 2012 Nov;48(6):417-23.

Li X, Liu N, Zhang H, Knudson SE, Li HJ, Lai CT, Simmerling C, Slayden RA, Tonge PJ.  CoA Adducts of 4-Oxo-4-Phenylbut-2-enoates: Inhibitors of MenB from the M. tuberculosis Menaquinone Biosynthesis Pathway.  ACS Med Chem Lett. 2011 Nov 10;2(11):818-823.

McLeland S, Duncan C, Spraker T, Wheeler E, Lockhart SR, Gulland F.  Cryptococcus albidus Infection in a California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus).  J Wildl Dis. 2012 Oct;48(4):1030-4.

Thomsen BV, Schneider DA, O'Rourke KI, Gidlewski T, McLane J, Allen RW, McIsaac AA, Mitchell GB, Keane DP, Spraker TR, Balachandran A.  Diagnostic accuracy of rectal mucosa biopsy testing for chronic wasting disease within white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herds in North America: effects of age, sex, polymorphism at PRNP codon 96, and disease progression.  J Vet Diagn Invest. 2012 Sep;24(5):878-87.

Schweizer HP, Choi KH.  Characterization of Molecular Mechanisms Controlling fabAB Transcription in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.  PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e45646.

Burtnick MN, Heiss C, Roberts RA, Schweizer HP, Azadi P, Brett PJ.  Development of capsular polysaccharide-based glycoconjugates for immunization against melioidosis and glanders.  Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2012;2:108.

Michel B, Ferguson A, Johnson T, Bender H, Meyerett-Reid C, Pulford B, von Teichman A, Seelig D, Weis JH, Telling GC, Aguzzi A, Zabel MD.  Genetic Depletion of Complement Receptors CD21/35 Prevents Terminal Prion Disease in a Mouse Model of Chronic Wasting Disease.  J Immunol. 2012 Nov 1;189(9):4520-7.

Kang HE, Weng CC, Saijo E, Saylor V, Bian J, Kim S, Ramos L, Angers R, Langenfeld K, Khaychuk V, Calvi C, Bartz J, Hunter N, Telling GC.  Characterization of Conformation-dependent Prion Protein Epitopes.  J Biol Chem. 2012 Oct 26;287(44):37219-32.

Zabel MD.  Lipopeptide Delivery of siRNA to the Central Nervous System.  Methods Mol Biol. 2013;948:251-62.

Moon SL, Wilusz J.  In Vitro Transcription of Modified RNAs.  Methods Mol Biol. 2012;941:171-80.

Moon SL, Anderson JR, Kumagai Y, Wilusz CJ, Akira S, Khromykh AA, Wilusz J.  A noncoding RNA produced by arthropod-borne flaviviruses inhibits the cellular exoribonuclease XRN1 and alters host mRNA stability.  RNA. 2012 Nov;18(11):2029-40.

Wilusz CJ, Wilusz J.  HuR and translation--the missing linc(RNA).  Mol Cell. 2012 Aug 24;47(4):495-6.

Dickson AM, Anderson JR, Barnhart MD, Sokoloski KJ, Oko L, Opyrchal M, Galanis E, Wilusz CJ, Morrison TE, Wilusz J.  Dephosphorylation of HuR Protein during Alphavirus Infection Is Associated with HuR Relocalization to the Cytoplasm.  J Biol Chem. 2012 Oct 19;287(43):36229-38.

Record Turnout for Rocky Mtn Virology Club Retreat Weekend

The annual Rocky Mountain Virology Club Meeting was held September 28-30 at Pingree Park Campus. Check out the RMVC Photo Gallery

Congratulations to Microbiology Majors Guy Stewart and Steven Denhan and the rest of their CSU Undergraduate iGEM team; Ethan Ho, David Packard, Ryan Clouse, Brian Searcy, Christopher Strickland and June Medford, for participating in this year's iGEM Competition! Their project, "Genetically Modified Yeast Breaks Down Gluten in Beer" was also presented at the ASM branch meeting where they received first place for undergraduate presentation. Check out their iGEM project webpage to learn more about their project.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) is the premiere undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. Student teams are given a kit of biological parts at the beginning of the summer from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts. Working at their own schools over the summer, they use these parts and new parts of their own design to build biological systems and operate them in living cells. This was the first year ever that CSU had a participating team!

SAVE THE DATE!

The 14th Annual CVMBS Research Day will be held on January 26, 2013 at the Hilton, Fort Collins. Abstracts are due Dec 3 at 1pm!

For more information see the CVMBS Research Day webpage or contact Dawn Duval at Dawn.Duval@ColoState.edu.

MIP Comparative Medicine Residents at this year's New Belgium Tour de Fat.

Pictured Left to Right: Ryan Curtis, Kelly Walton, Carmen Ledesma, and Wendy Tuttle

The American Society for Microbiology is currently accepting applications for their ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship

The deadline is February 1st!

Are Your Students Seeking Funding to Attend a National Meeting and Enhance Presentation Skills? Applications are Available Today!

The ASM Undergraduate Research Capstone program is currently accepting applications online.

The deadline is December 1st!

MSA meetings begin at 5:30 p.m. in B120 Microbiology.
Contact csumicrobiology@gmail.com for additional information about the Microbiology Student Association

FREE TUTORS!!

Microbiology Tutors Fall 2012

Please contact tutors directly to make an appointment

• LIFE206, MIP300: Alexandra Kumor
• MIP342: Lena Young
• MIP420: Claire Birkenheuer
• MIP450: Heather Bender

The Blair-Brennans have been accompanying each other to meetings in interesting places (only working 40% time now, they have lots of leisure!).

Carol gave a talk at the International Conference of Entomology in South Korea in August. Pictured above are the burial mounds

Patrick gave a talk at the Armauer Hansen memorial meeting in Bergen, Norway in September. Pictured above is a waterfall at Sognesfjiord.

Best Wishes Shannon!

We are sad to report that Friday, November 2 was Shannon Pfohl's last day with MIP. Please wish Shannon well as she pursues other personal and career interests. Her kindness, patience, and willingness to help all was a welcomed presence.

Barb Andre and Corrine Lindstadt will be picking up Shannon's work duties in the future. Barb and Corrine have provided exemplary support for MIP in their current positions and will continue to provide that level of support with the assumption of these new duties. Please contact Jim Frantz or Becky Trentlage with any questions or concerns.

"Everything comes too late for those who only wait"
~ Elbert Hubbard

MIP'ers once again filled the department hallways with characters of all types.

Check out some of this year's costumes in the MIP Halloween 2012 Photo Gallery

halloween viruses

Drs Pabilonia and Duncan got into the Halloween Spirit enacting the Schmallenberg Virus to entertained students

The Microbiology Student Association held their annual Halloween Party where the students dressed in microbiology related costumes.
Check out the MSA Halloween Photo Gallery.

Questions for MIPuzzle #80
MIPuzzle #80 Answers

Mason Plumlee and an MIP faculty member make the ESPN highlights of the Duke-GA State Basketball game on November 9th

Did you know that October 16 was the official "National Boss's Day"?? If not, you now have to wait until next October to tell your boss what you really think of him/her.

Brian Geiss's office as he found it on October 16

• ENCODE – Something you probably want to book mark for future use

  The work of ENCODE – the ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements – has been a hot topic lately This well-funded international collaboration is designed to build a comprehensive ‘parts list’ of functional elements in the human genome, including elements that act at the protein and RNA levels. All ENCODE data are freely available for download and analysis. For a tutorial and how to use the site, check out the ENCyclopedia of DNA Elements.

• Patent Law Changes on the Horizon (March 16, 2013)

  Next March, the America Invents Act goes into law which changes the US Patent system from a ‘first to invent’ standard to a ‘first to file’ system. For more information, check out the law at the Library of Congress website or contact the CSU intellectual property office (Rod Tompkins and company).

• New to NIH’s eRA Commons system?

  Check out the new eRA Training page, designed to make it easier for you to navigate the system.

• NIAID Interim FY2013 Paylines

  Never thought that I would be writing this, but remember the ‘good old days’ when NIAID paylines were 12%? Due to the cloud of budget uncertainty hanging over Washington, NIAID has recently announced that its interim payline for R01 awards is a paltry 6%. The interim payline for new investigators is currently 10%.

"Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness..." and seasonal bugs all around!

Remember that sick leave forms must be turned in within 24 hours after returning to work (over 3 days will require a doctor statement or FMLA paperwork to be filled out).
Any questions, please contact Bev, Pamela or Kathy

Ramesh Akkina, "Efficacy testing of HIV-specific microbicides in humanized mice", NIH-NIAID.

Ramesh Akkina, "Beyond HAART: Innovative Therapies to Control HIV-1", NIH-NIAID.

Bradley Borlee, "Role of c-di-GMP Signaling in B. Pseudomallei Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance", HHS-NIH-NIAID-Allergy & Infect Diseases.

Delphi Chatterjee, "Development and Validation of Point-of-Care-Tests for TB", University of Utah

Karen Dobos, "Mycobacterium spp. Research Reagent Replenishment", ATCC-American Type Culture Collection.

Greg Ebel, "Genomics-Enabled Sensor Platform for Rapid Detection of Viruses Related to Disease Outbreak", Sandia National Laboratories

Mary Jackson, "Susceptibility of Mycobacteria to CDG101", CHD Biosciences, Inc.

Angelo Izzo, "Advanced Small Animal forModels the Testing of Candidate Therapuetic and Preventive?", NIH-NIAID

Anne Lenaerts, "Inhibitors of Latent M. tuberculosis", St. Jude Medical, Inc.

Anne Lenaerts, "Mouse Models for the Early Stage of Lead Drug Candidates against Mycobacterial Species", NIAID

Herbert Schweizer, "Evaluating Antimicrobials Against B. Psudomallei in Vitro and in Vivo", Trius Therapeutics, Inc.

Sue VandeWoude, "Defining the Feline Virome: Targeted Genome Enrichment of Blood-Borne Pathogens", Morris Animal Foundation

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
			1	2
5	6 Graduate Seminar	7 Microscopy Seminar	8	9 Dept Seminar
12	13 Graduate Seminar	14 Microscopy Seminar	15	16 MIP Thanksgiving Potluck
19 TH B	20 AN R	21 KS E	22 GIV A	23 ING K
26	27 Graduate Seminar	28 Microscopy Seminar	29	30

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
3	4 Graduate Seminar	5 Microscopy Seminar	6	7
10 F W	11 I E	12 N E	13 A K	14 LS Grad School Commencement 3pm Moby
17	18	19	20	21
24 Univ Offices Closed	25 Univ Offices Closed	26 Univ Offices Closed	27	28
31

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

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