Curriculum Vitae
DEBORAH R. YODER-HIMES, Ph.D.
354 Shumaker Research Building
139 Life Sciences Building
Louisville, KY 40292
Phone: 502-852-0991
Email: deborah.himes@louisville.edu
INTERESTS
Bacterial pathogenesis in relation to respiratory infections; transmission of opportunistic pathogens from the environment to humans, the role of bacterial pathogens in the environment, the evolution of pathogenesis; air microbial ecology
EDUCATION
2000 – 2005 Ph.D., Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Michigan State University (MSU)
1996 – 2000 B.S., Department of Biology
RESEARCH AND WORK EXPERIENCE
2013- Present University of Louisville, Department of Biology
Assistant Professor
2009 – 2012 Carol Basbaum Memorial Research Fellow
Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital Boston
Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Stephen Lory and Dr. Craig Gerard
2005 – 2008 MSU Center for Microbial Ecology
Postdoctoral Researcher with Dr. James M. Tiedje
2000 – 2005 MSU Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Graduate Assistant with Dr. Lee R. Kroos
Ph.D. Dissertation Title: Transcriptional Regulation of the C signal-dependent gene W4400 in Myxococcus xanthus: the cis elements and trans-acting factors
1998, 1999 City of Elkhart Wastewater Treatment Facility – Microbiology Lab
Aided in enumeration and characterization of TSS, DO, total coliforms, fecal coliforms in facility output, county rivers, groundwaters
1997 - 2000 Purdue University Department of Biology
Undergraduate Researcher with Dr. Mark Levinthal
Undergraduate Thesis Title: Global Regulation of the methionine biosynthetic pathway of Escherichia coli by the Lrp protein.
PUBLICATIONS
Dong TG, Ho BT, Yoder-Himes DR, Mekalanos JJ. 2013. Identification of T6SS-dependent effector and immunity proteins by Tn-Seq in Vibrio cholera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 2013 Jan 29. PMID: 23362380
Wurtzel O*, Yoder-Himes DR*, Han K*, Dandekar AA, Edelheit S, Greenberg EP, Sorek R, Lory S. 2012. The single-nucleotide resolution transcriptome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa grown in body temperature. PLoS Pathogens 2012 Sep;8(9):e1002945 * authors contributed equally. PMID: 23028334
Oh S-D, Buddenborg S, Yoder-Himes DR, Tiedje JM, Konstantinidis KT .2012. Genomic Diversity of Escherichia Isolates from Diverse Habitats. PLoSONE. 2012;7(10):e47005. PMID: 23056556
Kimelman A, Levy A, Sberro H, Kidron S, Leavitt A, Amitai G, Yoder-Himes DR, Wurtzel O, Zhu Y, Rubin EM, Sorek R. 2012. A vast collection of microbial genes that are toxic to bacteria. Genome Research. Apr;22(4):802-9. PMID: 22300632
Yang X, Medvin D, Yoder-Himes DR, Lory S, Narasimhan G. 2011. CloG: A pipeline for closing gaps in a draft assembly using short reads. Proceedings of the IEEE 1sT International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences (ICCABS), 202-207.
Oh S-D*, Yoder-Himes DR*, Tiedje JM, Konstantinidis KT. 2010. Evaluating the performance of oligonucleotide microarrays for strains of increasing genetic divergence to the reference strain. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. May; 76(9): 2980–2988. * authors contributed equally. PMID: 20228107
Yoder-Himes DR, Konstantinidis KT, Tiedje JM. 2010. Identification of potential therapeutic targets for Burkholderia cenocepacia by comparative transcriptomics. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8724 [January 2010]. PMID: 20090946
Yoder-Himes DR, Chain PS, Zhu Y, Wurtzel O, Rubin EM, Tiedje JM, Sorek R. 2009. Mapping the Burkholderia cenocepacia niche response via high-throughput sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 2009 Mar 10;106(10):3976-81. PMID: 19234113
Yoder-Himes DR, Kroos L. 2006. Regulation of the Myxococcus xanthus C-Signal-Dependent Omega4400 Promoter by the Essential Developmental Protein FruA. Journal of Bacteriology. July 188(14):5167-5176. PMID: 16816188
Yoder-Himes DR, Kroos L. 2004. Mutational Analysis of the Myxococcus xanthus Omega4499 Promoter Region Reveals Shared and Unique Properties in Comparison with Other C-signal-dependent Promoters. Journal of Bacteriology. Jun; 186(12):3766-76. PMID: 15175290
Yoder-Himes DR, Kroos L. 2004. Mutational analysis of the Myxococcus xanthus Omega4400 promoter region provides insight into developmental gene regulation by C signaling. Journal of Bacteriology. Feb; 186(3):661-71. PMID: 14729691
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2013 Interspecies communication in mixed bacterial populations. University of Louisville Research Initiation Grant. $4500. One year grant to provide seed money for new projects.
2013 The TolQRAB-Pal complex of Burkholderia dolosa and its role in bacterial pathogenesis. University of Louisville Undergraduate Research Grant. $2700. One year grant to encourage the development of
an undergraduate research project.
2010-2012 Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. Two year competitive award for salary and some research and travel support. Granted the Carol Basbaum Memorial Research Award for highest scoring fellowship of the year.
2007-2009 Genes associated with epidemic Burkholderia cenocepacia. NIH competitive R21. $429,620 (total costs). Co-author status with 4 other researchers led by John J. LiPuma (University of Michigan School of Public Health).
2007 Identifying Burkholderia cenocepacia genes expressed under conditions that mimic the CF lung. Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics. $8,100. Co-author status with James M. Tiedje. Equipment costs for microarray experiments.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Michigan State University
2002 – 2008 HM 525 and 526 – Microbiology Lab Sessions for Second Year Medical Students
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Martha Mulks
2001 – 2008 MMG 522 – Microbiology Lab Sessions for First Year Medical Students
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Cindy Grove Arvidson
Instructor 2005 - 2006
2001 MMG 408 -Advanced Microbiology Lab
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Loren Snyder
Purdue University
1999 BIOL 132 – Biology II: Development, Structure, and Function
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Laurie Iten
PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENTS
2008 Grant reviewer for National Science Foundation
2010 Peer reviewer for Journal of Medical Microbiology
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
2011- Present American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
1997- Present American Society for Microbiology
2005 – 2008 International Society for Microbial Ecology
MEETINGS, TALKS, AND POSTERS
April 2012 Speaker, International Burkholderia cepacia Working Group 15th Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada
April 2010 Speaker, International Burkholderia cepacia Working Group 13th Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, US
April 2009 Speaker, International Burkholderia cepacia Working Group 13th Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
May 2007 Poster, 107th General Meeting, American Society for Microbiology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
April 2007 Speaker, International Burkholderia cepacia Working Group 11th Annual Meeting, Ann Arbor, MI, US
August 2006 Speaker, 11th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, Vienna, Austria
January 2006 Genomics of Closely Related Organisms Conference, Tucson, AZ
July 2004 Speaker, 31st International Conference on the Biology of Myxobacteria. Helsingør, Denmark
July 2003 Speaker, 30th International Conference on the Biology of Myxobacteria. Long Beach, CA, US
July 2002 Speaker and Poster, 29th International Conference on the Biology of Myxobacteria. Quebec, Canada
July 2002 Poster, American Society of Microbiology - Prokaryotic Development Conference. Quebec City, Canada
May 2002 Poster, Gene Expression in Development and Disease Focus Group and Genetics Program – Transcription in Development Symposium. East Lansing, MI, US
May 2000 Poster, Indiana Branch of the American Society of Microbiology. Turkey Run State Park, IN,US
COMMITTEES
2003 - 2004 MSU Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Graduate Committee – Admissions and Recruiting
2002 - 2003 MSU Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Planning Committee
AWARDS
2010 Carol Basbaum Memorial Research Award (top scoring fellowship; Cystic Fibrosis Foundation)
2005 Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship-Michigan State University
2005 DuVall Doctoral Scholarship (awarded to two outstanding Ph.D. candidates in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department) - Michigan State University
2004 Hsiung-Kimball Award (for graduate students in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics department) - Michigan State University
2003 Travel Awards - Michigan State University College of Natural Science, Michigan State University Graduate School, Michigan State University Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
2002 Travel Grant - American Society for Microbiology
