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By: Published Date: Jul 24 UAB was host for the Spring Immunology Symposium held June 22-23, 2013. This was the second year for the regional meeting that was created by faculty from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine. The symposium showcases immunology research being done in the Southeast as researchers share new work, exchange ideas and build collaborations.

The Microbiology department played an important role in hosting this event. Hubert Tse, Ph.D., was one of the organizers of the meeting, which was sponsored by the Immunology Autoimmunity and Transplantation Steering Committee. Frances Lund, Ph.D., microbiology department chair, and Casey Weaver, M.D., microbiology department secondary faculty member, were co-directors of the steering committee.

Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel of the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland; Dr. Emil Unanue of Washington University School of Medicine; and Dr.John Cambier of the Denver School of Medicine, were distinguished keynote speakers. Faculty members at Emory, HudsonAlpha, Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee at Memphis, Georgia Regents University, University of Florida and UAB presented their work.

By: Published Date: Jul 24 Congratulations to David Chaplin, M.D., Ph.D., who has been named Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the UAB School of Medicine. In this new position, Chaplin will focus on increasing development opportunities for faculty. “My vision is to develop programs that will be useful for people at each stage of their careers,” said Chaplin.

By: Published Date: Jun 25
Jiri Mestcky, M.D., Ph.D., was awarded an honorary doctorate of medicine by Palacky’s University, School of Medicine, Olomouc, Czech Republic during a ceremony at the Archbishop’s Palace on May 14, 2013. (In photo left: Mestecky, Dean of the Medical School, Rector [President] of the University, Promotor [vice-president]. Front: Carriers of university insignia and symbols.)

By: Published Date: Jun 25 Travel assistance for Microbiology graduate students to attend meetings, workshops, and advanced courses offered by scientific societies and organizations is available through the Raymond N. Hiramoto Endowment. All Microbiology departmental graduate students in good standing are eligible to apply.


Submit all application materials:

• a completed application form
• curriculum vitae
• recommendation/approval from the student’s mentor
• a meeting abstract or a brief justification for attending the meeting/course (if attending a course, include a description of the course and how attending would benefit you)

in electronic format to Ashley Rouss (ashleyrouss@uab.edu).

Applications are evaluated by the Microbiology graduate committee, and awards are based on the student’s research accomplishments or potential for research. Preference is given to students who will be presenting their research findings at the meeting. Award recipients will be announced within three weeks of the deadline dates. Students not funded may reapply for the next award cycle. Awardees are eligible to reapply after two years of receipt of an award.
     The endowment fund was established in 2002 in honor of Dr. Ray Hiramoto, a noted immunologist who served more than 35 years on the faculty of the UAB Department of Microbiology.

By: Published Date: Jun 07 Timothy Fernandez, a Beckman Scholar in Dr. Jamil Saad’s lab, will give a 30-minute presentation on his research at the Beckman Foundation's Scholars Symposium to be held July 25-27 at the Beckman Center of the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, California.

A senior in the University Honors Program, Fernandez is one of UAB's three inaugural Beckman scholars. He is one of six students chosen from the nationwide pool of Beckman Scholars to present his research at the Beckman Symposium. Saad, who is representing the 15 Beckman UAB mentors at this year's symposium, will introduce Fernandez.

Fernandez has published three papers in professional journals. He is an author on two papers in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (2010 and 2011) and one paper in Frontiers of Virology (2012). Additionally, Timothy is first author on a paper under review at the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He has given presentations at more than 15 conferences, both on his research and other scholarly activities, at local (UAB EXPOs), state (Alabama Academy of Sciences; University of Alabama System Honors Research Conference), regional (Southern Regional Honors Council, the American Chemical Society Southeastern Undergraduate Research Conference), and national (National Conference on Undergraduate Research; American Chemical Society; and National Collegiate Honors Council) throughout his undergraduate career.

By: Published Date: May 31 Graduate student Jocelyn Hauser (a member of Dr. Janet Yother’s lab) is one of only six students nationally to receive the prestigious 2013 Richard and Mary Finkelstein Student Travel Grant. In addition to funding Hauser’s travel to the 113th General Meeting of the American Society of Microbiology, the grant also qualifies her to present a poster and give a short presentation of her abstract, “Modulation of Capsule Production in Streptococcus pneumoniae by SpxB and Hydrogen Peroxide,” during the Division B and D Business Meeting.

The 113th General Meeting of the American Society of Microbiology will be in Denver, Colorado, on May 18-21, 2013.

By: Published Date: May 31 UAB’s first K-RITH student, James Hove Mazorodze, is following in some big footsteps along the path to research on TB and HIV. He is working on his Ph.D. thesis at the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV (K-RITH) in Durban, South Africa, under the supervision of Dr. Andries Steyn, who maintains labs at K-RITH and at UAB. He will work one year in Dr. Steyn’s lab here at UAB before returning to South Africa. Read more

By: Published Date: May 24 Microbiology Professor Hubert Tse, Ph.D., believes that grant programs sponsored by nongovernmental organizations such as the American Diabetes Association play an important role in funding science research. In the May 2013 issue of Diabetes Forecast, Tse points out that receiving a Junior Faculty Award from the ADA allowed him to continue diabetes research after he completed his postdoc.

By: Published Date: May 06 NFL Charities has awarded UAB a $100,000 grant to study a compound that could minimize the effects of concussions. Known as catalytic oxidoreductant, the compound may interrupt a cascade of biochemical injuries, including oxidative stress and an aggressive immune response to brain inflammation, that cause a large amount of additional cell death after a concussion’s initial damage to brain cells. Candace Floyd, Ph.D., research director in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Hubert Tse, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology who helped to develop the compound, will lead the research team. Additional studies will examine the compound’s effects on multiple concussions; evidence suggests three or more lead to significant brain damage. The results could point to a drug that could be administered immediately after a concussion, anywhere from sidelines to battlefields.

By: Published Date: May 03 Jennifer Rowland and Kathryn Doornbos, both graduate students in Dr. Michael Niederweis’s lab, received 2013 Ireland Research Travel Scholarships.

Rowland’s award will help cover some of the travel expenses for her trip this summer to Durban, South Africa, where she will participate in a summer internship program at K-RITH (KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV).

Doornbos will be doing an 8-week collaboration with Wilbert Bitter at VU (Vrije Universiteit) this summer. Her award will help fund her travel expenses to the University in Amsterdam.

By: Published Date: Apr 29
In spring 2013, David Chaplin, M.D., Ph.D., was elected to a position on the UAB Faculty Senate. The Faculty Senate provides a voice for UAB’s faculty in addressing a variety of matters that affect the University. Faculty representatives from all academic units make up the Senate.

By: Published Date: Apr 15 Bliss Chang, an undergraduate majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Biology, has been awarded the 2013 Beckman Scholarship to work in Jamil Saad’s lab for one year starting this summer. He was selected as the only Beckman scholar at UAB this year.

“I am excited to have two Beckman Scholars in my lab at the same time [in addition to Timothy Fernandez who received the 2012 Beckman Scholarship]. Having two Beckman Scholars in the same lab at the same time is a very rare case in the US since it is considered an extremely competitive award,” explains Dr. Saad.

By: Published Date: Apr 08 Timothy Fernandez (a member of Dr. Jamil Saad’s lab) was one of three undergraduate recipients of the College of the Arts and Sciences 2013 Dean’s Award. Students receiving this high honor represent the very best that UAB can achieve, says Dr. Catherine Daniélou, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

The Dean’s Scholarship Award is a college-wide scholarship open to students currently enrolled in or admitted to a degree-granting program in the College of Arts and Sciences who have demonstrated solid academic promise and leadership qualities. Recipients must have at least an overall 3.0 grade point average.

Timothy has worked in Jamil Saad’s lab for three years and is a co-author on a JBC manuscript "Binding of calmodulin to the HIV-1 matrix protein triggers myristate exposure" and a review in Frontiers in Microbiology published last year. He will be recognized for this achievement at Honors Convocation on Tuesday, May 7th.

By: Published Date: Mar 29 Microbiology Professor Elliot Lefkowitz, Ph.D., is among several UAB researchers in multiple departments that have established a facility at UAB that provides the necessary expertise and resources to support microbiome research by UAB investigators. This research seeks to gain insight into the relationship between the presence of specific microbes and disease, and how various factors affect the overall composition of the microbiome. Dr. Lefkowitz directs the bioinformatics component of this facility that provides investigators with the resources and assistance necessary to evaluate the large amounts of data generated by microbiome analysis. The Winter 2013 edition of UAB Medicine explains UAB’s involvement in this work.

By: Published Date: Mar 26 Stephanie Garcia receives award from representative of Colgate-Palmolive CompanyStephanie Garcia (graduate student in Hui Wu’s lab) was one of only six students internationally to receive a 2013 IADR Colgate Research in Prevention travel award. The annual awards are divided regionally among North America (Canada, United States and Mexico), Latin America, Europe, Africa/Middle East, and Asian/Pacific region. This year’s awards were given to support young scientists’ attendance at the 91st General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research in Seattle, Washington.

Dr. Wu’s lab, including Stephanie, Fan Zhu, Katherine Taylor, and Dr. Qiong Zhang (a visiting scientist from China) attended the meeting in March. They were able to meet and share information with scientists in the fields of dental, oral, and craniofacial research.

With nearly 12,800 members worldwide, the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) works to improve oral health by supporting the oral health research community in advancing research and facilitating the communication and application of research findings.

The IADR meeting was held in conjunction with the 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 37th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research. The American Association for Dental Research (AADR) is the largest Division of IADR, with nearly 3,500 members in the United States. 

By: Published Date: Mar 18

By: Published Date: Mar 15
  

Amber Buel

Amber Buel (mentors: Patrizia De Sarno, Ph.D. and Chander Raman, Ph.D.) and Jocelyn Hauser (mentor: Janet Yother) were honored on Friday, March 8, 2013, at the UAB Graduate School Awards Luncheon in the Bartow Arena Green and Gold Room. Buel’s presentation, “Lithium Controls Central Nervous System Autoimmunity through Modulation of IFN-γ Signaling,” received third place in Session 14, and Hauser’s presentation, “Modulation of Capsule Production in Streptococcus pneumoniae by SpxB and Hydrogen peroxide,” received third place in Session 11.

Jocelyn Hauser

The annual UAB Graduate Student Research Day competition is open to all degree-seeking UAB graduate students enrolled during the semester in which the competition is held. Each participant is limited to 12 minutes for their presentation, with 3 additional minutes for questions from the judging panel. Judges include faculty and post-doctoral fellows, representing a diverse group of scholars.

By: Published Date: Mar 12 Kathryn Doornbos, a graduate student in Dr. Michael Niederweis’s lab, is one of five graduate students to be awarded the 2013 Moses Sinkala Travel Scholarship.

“I'll be doing an 8-week collaboration with Wilbert Bitter at VU (Vrije Universiteit) in Amsterdam. Dr. Bitter has a well-established zebrafish embryo infection model for Mycobacterium marinum that enables detailed and rapid identification of phenotypes of mycobacterial mutants that would be difficult or impossible to observe in other animal models of mycobacterial diseases,” explains Doornbos.

Along with a monetary award, Doornbos will be honored at a luncheon on Monday, April 8th in UAB’s Edge of Chaos Atrium.

This prestigious travel award is presented by The Sparkman Center for Global Health to assist exemplary graduate and undergraduate students complete an international internship or research opportunity. To learn about the late Dr. Moses Sinkala, go to the UAB Sparkman Center for Global Health website.

By: Published Date: Mar 08 Dr. Brian Parks, Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, and graduate of the UAB Microbiology Department, will speak May 7, 2013 at Noon in the Learning Resource Center (1714 9^th Ave South) Room 102.

Parks, a graduate student in Dr. Janusz Kabarowski’s lab from 2004 to 2009, is studying the genetic nature of obesity and weight gain at the University of California, Los Angeles. His recent study using a systems genetics approach in mice analyzed genetic and environmental interactions affecting obesity, metabolic syndrome and gut microbiota composition. The results indicated that body-fat responses and gut microbe changes to high-fat, high-sugar diets have a very strong genetic component. “We have identified several genetic factors potentially regulating these responses,” says Parks.

Read Dr. Parks’ most recent results, “Genetic Control of Obesity and Gut Microbiota Composition in Response to High-Fat, High-Sucrose Diet in Mice,” in the January 2013 issue of Cell Metabolism and a commentary at http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/january2013/01282013weight.htm.

By: Published Date: Feb 27

The UAB Program in Immunology NIH Training Grant has been renewed with a perfect score of 10! Drs. Harry Schroeder and Laurie Harrington (Director and Co-Director of the Training Program and Grant) announced the good news February 26, 2013.

The UAB Program in Immunology has more than 69 members on the UAB campus including 14 Primary and 20 Secondary Faculty in the Department of Microbiology. As Drs. Schroeder and Harrington indicated in their announcement: "The training grant was judged on the quality of the written application, the qualifications of the Program Director and Co-Director, the track record of the previous and current trainees, the quality of the institution, and the track records and qualifications of the mentors. A score of 10 indicates that the committee viewed our program faculty and trainees very favorably."

Congratulations to all!