Members of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and staff in the Office of Biomedical Education enjoyed the opportunity to show off their Halloween outfits!
A unique partnership between an engineer and a scientist at the University of Kentucky has produced data that is challenging prevailing wisdom about a potentially life-threatening parasite's behavior and revealing possible targets for treatment.
Decades of research and treatment advances have helped extend the lives of many people living with HIV, but while these patients live longer, their risk of developing dangerous blood clots increases as much as tenfold. Blood clots – also known as thrombi – can wreak havoc on the body, causing events such as debilitating strokes and heart attacks.
Beth Oates has been selected as the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Young Ambassador to Kentucky. As the Ambassador for Kentucky, Beth is starting an ASM student chapter at the University of Kentucky. With the Chapter, she hopes to connect undergraduate students, graduate students and PhD students that perform research or are interested in microbiology throughout the University. If you are interested in Beth's ASM ambassador initiatives and for information on joining the ASM student chapter, email Beth at alice.oates@uky.edu.
4th year MIMG Ph.D. student Gabrielle Keb has been awarded a NIH F31—Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Predoctoral Fellowship. The award from NIAID, entitled “Chlamydia trachomatis Secreted Effector Proteins: Infection Properties and Identification of Host Targets” will directly support her dissertation work and facilitate additional career development. Reviewers were particularly positive about Gabby’s ability and productivity as well as the strong Ph.D. training environment at the UK COM.
Dr. Jackie Rivas, a post-doctoral scholar in Dr. Subba Bondada's lab, won first place for her poster presentation entitled, Enhancing anti-tumor immunity and responses to immunotherapy by reversing interleukin-10 mediated immunosuppression in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, at the 10th annual Markey Cancer Research Day on May 7, 2019.
Dr. Rivas research is studying how to enhance anti-tumor immunity in leukemia model systems.
The William B. Sturgill Award is presented annually to a graduate faculty member for outstanding contributions to graduate education at UK. William B. Sturgill was a 1946 graduate of UK and became prominent in the coal industry. He made several important contributions to higher education in Kentucky and served 18 years on the UK Board of Trustees, 10 of which he was chairperson. Among his numerous contributions to graduate education at UK, Dr.
Gabrielle Keb, a third year Ph.D. student, recently published her innovative work building on a method developed in the Fields lab termed Fluorescence Reported Allelic Exchange Mutagenesis (FRAEM). Gabby engineered a CRE-lox system for generation of marker-less gene deletions in Chlamydia. Importantly, this elegant approach relieves polar effects on down-stream genes and enables a more definitive assessment of null phenotypes. The manuscript appears in Journal of Bacteriology (PMID: 30224436) and was chosen as a spotlight article. The commentary (PMID: 30297356), authored by Drs.
Barbara Nikolajczyk has always had a passion for scientific exploration and discovery. After losing her father to complications from type 2 diabetes, she decided to delve into research examining the connection between inflammation and the disease. Read the rest of Dr. Nikolajcyzk's story on the College of Medicine Research Website here.
Founded in 1912, The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) was originally created by three independent scientific organizations to provide a forum in which to hold educational meetings, develop publications, and disseminate biological research results. The association has grown to be the nation’s largest coalition of biomedical researchers, representing 30 societies and over 130,000 researchers from around the world. FASEB is now recognized as the policy voice of biological and biomedical researchers. Dr.
Dr. Brian Stevenson has been appointed to the US Department of Health and Human Services' Tick-Borne Disease Working Group subcommittee on Pathogenesis, Transmission and Treatment.
Congress established the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group in the 21st Century Cures Act to provide expertise and to review all efforts within the Department of Health and Human Services related to all tick-borne diseases, to help ensure interagency coordination and minimize overlap, and to examine research priorities.
Of the 14 million cancer survivors in the United States, a significant number experience a serious side effect called chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI). While easily recognized, little is known about the etiology of this condition, also known informally as “chemo brain.” CICI can significantly reduce patients’ quality of life with serious, even devastating, symptoms such as memory lapses, difficulty concentrating, negative impacts on multitasking, confusion and fatigue.
Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics Faculty Members Beth Garvy, Charlie Lutz, Subbarao Bondada and University of Louisville Faculty Member Michele Kosiewicz (UL) represented the American Assoication of Immunologists on a visit to Capitol Hill at the close of IMMUNOLOGY 2017. The faculty members also met with Staffers from Rep Andy Barr, Sen Rand Paul, and Sen Mitch McConnell. All were supportive of NIH.
When you ask Brett Spear about what he most admires in his wife and colleague, Martha Peterson, a smile instantly appears on his face.
The pair, both professors in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Department ofMicrobiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, has been married for 32 years and has two sons. Yet, because they have different last names, not everyone on campus recognizes their connection.
Christina Savage and Will Arnold, MIMG doctoral students, have been
invited to present results of their research in Vienna, Austria, at the
International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis. Ms. Savage will give a talk
on her studies on how the Borrelia burgdorferi SpoVG protein controls
bacterial replication, and Mr. Arnold will present a poster describing his
work on gene regulation by the bacterial master regulator, BpuR. Both are
students in the laboratory of Professor Brian Stevenson, who will also
present an invited talk on the laboratory¹s research.
A new University of Kentucky study in the journal mBio shows that tissue cysts of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, long thought to be dormant, are quite active.
Led by Anthony Sinai, professor at the UK College of Medicine, the study has significant implications on the understanding of chronic toxoplasmosis in the brain, a condition suggested to contribute to a range of neurological diseases including schizophrenia in humans, and the modulation of behavior in rodents.
Toxoplasmosis can be acquired from the droppings of infected cats as well as the consumption of tissue cyst contaminated mea
On March 30 and 31st the University of Kentucky hosted a total of 150 students from Oneida and Manchester elementary schools in Clay County Kentucky. These students are participants in a study called The Clay County Clock Study funded by CCTS. The co-PIs of the study, Jody Clasey from Kinesiology and Karyn Esser from Physiology, arranged for the students to get a “hands on” look at science at UK. The students did 4 rotations around campus including Engineering, Cardiology, Human Performance, and Microbiology. Dr. Beth Garvy, with help from Dr.
Congratulations to Animesh Dhara Ph.D.(postdoc) and Elizabeth Watts B.S. (lab manager) from the Sinai Lab for each having been recognized as presenting the best posters at the 13th International Congress on Toxoplasmosis and T. gondii Biology held in Gettysburg PA. Animesh and Elizabeth’s posters were selected on the basis of both the quality of the work, its display and presentation. The top 12 posters out of a total of 221 poster presentations were chosen by the attendees at the conference for this honor.
In her research, Sarah D'Orazio, associate professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, investigates why some people get sicker than others after ingesting the foodborne bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes.
