Dr. Chung received a 5 year NIH U19 award (U19-AI142762) entitled“Center of Excellence for Encephalitic Alphavirus Therapeutics”, as MPI/Project leader.

Dr. Egilmez was awarded a two year Idea Development grant (LC180086)  from the DOD Lung Cancer  Research Program for a project entitled “Overcoming Anti-PD-1 Resistance in Lung Cancer” (PI) and a 3 year R44 award from the NIH (R44-DK117687) entitled “IL-10NanoCap for Therapy of Familial Adenomatous Polyposis” (MPI).

Dr. Shirwan was awarded a two-year NIH R21 grant (R21-AI147677) entitled “Establishing immunoprivileged scaffolds for transplantation of immature beta cells.

Dr. Matt Lawrenz is co-investigator on an NIH STTR (R41-AI142726) grant entitled “Use of a Designer Proline-rich antimicrobial peptide Chaperone protein inhibitor (DPC) for treating antibiotic resistant pneumonia” with a subaward to his laboratory.  The project period is 4/1/2019 – 3/31/2020.

M&I Endowed Chair Professor Yousef Abu-Kwaik was recently awarded a National Institute of Health R01 grant entitled "Innate immunity and inflammatory response of macrophages to Legionella infection".  The grant received a score of 1%.  This NIH funded project is budgeted from 09/14/2018 - 08/31/2023 for $1,913,286.

M&I Associate Professor Esma Yolcu recently received a SBIR Phase I award from the National Institute of Health entitled “Exploiting activation-induced cell death as a means of inducing tolerance to kidney allografts”.  The award is a collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

M&I Associate Professor Esma Yolcu and M&I Professor Haval Shirwan recently received a $500,000 gift in memory of William Marvin Petty, MD.  The funds are to be used to advance Type 1 Diabetes research conducted in the School of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology.  Dr. Yolcu and Dr. Shirwan’s research focuses on the use of ProtEx technology, pioneered by the team, as an alternative to gene therapy for immunomodulation to treat transplant rejection and autoimmune diseases with particular focus on Type 1 Diabetes.     

M&I Professor Haval Shirwan received a five year NIH/NIAID R01 grant award in support of the application entitled “A novel immunomodulatory approach to overcome innate and adaptive immune barriers to islet transplantation”.  The project is for the period  11/5/2018 – 10/31/2023 with a total budget of $1,943,360.

M&I Associate Professor Bing Li was recently awarded a National Institute of Health R01 grant entitled "Immunomodulatory mechanisms of E-FABP in psoriasis pathogenesis".  This NIH funded project is budgeted from 09/24/2018 - 08/31/2023 for $1,925,000.

M&I Associate Professor's Matthew Lawrenz (PI) and Jonathan Warawa (Co-PI) were awarded a contract from the FDA entitled “Development of a Mouse Model for Preclinical Screening of Investigational Drugs Against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and Acinetobacter Baumannii”.  The $933,606 award runs from 9/19/2018 to 9/18/2020. http://www.uoflnews.com/post/uofltoday/uofl-researchers-escalate-efforts-against-multi-drug-resistant-bacteria-with-fda-contract/

M&I received the notice of award for its NIH T32 training grant application entitled “Inflammation and Pathogenesis Training Program” on August 1^st.  Dr. Haval Shirwan (Professor, M&I) is the contact PI and Dr. Richard Lamont (Chair, Department of Oral Immunology and Infectious Disease) is the Co-PI on this award.  The grant will support 4 PhD students per year during the 5 year period 8/1/2018-7/31/2023.  This collaborative effort between M&I and OIID is the first NIH T32 training award in Department’s history.

Dr. Haval Shirwan         Dr. Richard Lamont

Dr. Bing Li's discovery of a novel molecular link between obesity and breast cancer entitled "Circulating Adipose Fatty Acid Binding Protein is a Link Underlying Obesity-Associated Breast/Mammary Tumor Development," appeared in the online version of the November 2018 issue of Cell Metabolism (2017 impact factor 20.565).  The study was the result of a long-standing collaborative project between the Li lab and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Hartford Healthcare Cancer Center in Connecticut and Peking University in China.  Separately, Dr. Bing Li was selected to be featured in NCI’s electronic newsletter, Nutrition Frontiers, a publication of the Nutritional Science Research Group (NSRG), NCI, NIH. The NSRG Program staff selected him based on the high level of enthusiasm for his research efforts on Prevention of Breast cancer Development by Epidermal Fatty Acid Binding Protein as well as his past contributions in the field of nutrition and cancer prevention.  He will be featured in the section, “Investigator Spotlight” in October.

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Dr. Haval Shirwan, along with a team of researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan published on a potential new therapy for treating Type 1 Diabetes.  This new therapy involves the use of a novel technology for islet cell transplantation.  More information regarding Dr. Shirwan's, et al., research may be found in Nature Materials (2017 impact factor 39.737).

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Dr. Huang-Ge Zhang’s paper entitled “Plant-derived exosomal microRNAs shape the gut microbiota” has been accepted for publication in the journal “Cell Host Microbe” (2017 impact factor 17.87).  The article will be featured on the cover.   It describes the novel finding that diet-derived exosome-like nanoparticles can selectively modulate the metabolism of gut-resident bacteria via microRNA, which ultimately impacts  immune homeostasis in the gut.

M&I Associate Professor Matthew Lawrenz was recently awarded a National Institute of Health R21 grant entitled "Zinc Acquisition in Yersinia pestis".  The major goal of this project is to define the contribution of the yersiniabactin synthase-dependent zinc acquisition system on the virulence of Yersinia pestis.  This NIH funded project is budgeted from 11/24/2017 - 10/31/2019 for $437,080.

M&I Professor Dr. Esma Yolcu recently awarded a National Institute of Health SSRT grant to study “SA-FasL-engineered human islets as a novel product for the treatment of type 1 diabetes."  The major goal of this phase I STTR application is to develop SA-FasL-engineered human islets as a novel immune privileged product for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D).  This NIH funded project is budgeted from 07/01/2017 – 03/30/2018 for $224,529.00.

M&I Professors Drs. Thomas Mitchell and Carolyn Casella were recently awarded a National Institute of Health R01 grant to study “Mechanisms of successful vaccine adjuvants." This NIH funded project is budgeted from 06/26/2017 – 05/31/2022 for $1,925,000.

Drs. Haval Shirwan and Esma Yolcu have been awarded a multiple PI NIH/NIAID UO1 grant with Andres Garcia from Georgia Institute of Technology. The grant is entitled “Targeted delivery of immunomodulatory biologics for induction of immune privilege to allogeneic pancreatic islet grafts”.  The major focus of this project is to develop immunomodulatory biomaterials for induction of tolerance to allogeneic islets as a cure for type 1 diabetes.  The award amount of $1,954,270 is budgeted for 06/20/20176 – 05/31/2022

M&I Professor and Vice Chair, Haribabu Bodduluri, PhD was awarded a grant titled ‘Innate immune mechanisms regulating silicosis”. This NIH/NIAID funded project is budgeted from 6/6/2017 - 5/30/2019 for $423,500. This research is important to explore the mechanisms of their recent work on silicosis and lung cancer; https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150429084837.htm

M&I Associate Professors Drs. Jon Warawa and Matt Lawrenz were recently awarded an NIH/ NIAID grant contract to study “Therapeutics Testing In a Murine Model of Multiple Drug Resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Lung Infection.” This NIH/ NIAID funded project is budgeted from 03/2017 – 11/2018 for $729,174.

M&I Assistant Professor Dr. Krishna Jala was recently awarded a National Cancer Institute of National Institute of Health R21 grant to study “PQ-10:  Microbial metabolite, Urolithin A is a potent immunomodulator and chemosensitizing adjuvant in treating color cancer.” This NIH funded project is budgeted from 04/12/2017 – 03/31/2019 for $368,445.

M&I Associate Professor Dr. Jon Warawa was recently awarded an NIH/ NIAID grant contract to study “HHSN272201000033I/HHSN2720005 / Task A91- Mod #1.” This NIH/ NIAID funded project is budgeted from 03/21/2017 – 05/25/2018 for $508,703.

M&I Professor Dr. Nathan Schmidt was recently awarded an NIH/ NIAID grant contract to study “Role of gut microbiota in shaping severity of malaria.” This NIH/ NIAID funded project is budgeted from 01/11/2017 – 12/31/2021 for $2.6M.  http://uoflnews.com/post/uofltoday/uofl-researcher-awarded-2-6m-nih-grant-to-study-links-between-gut-microbiota-and-disease/

M&I PhD candidate wins 2^nd place in two poster competitions 

M&I PhD candidate awarded Best Poster prize

Congratulations to Deepa Karki, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Kevin Sokoloski, who was awarded a Best Poster prize at the 2024 HSC Inflammation Colloquium.

M&I PhD candidate published paper in FEMS Microbes

Michelle Hallenbeck, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. James Collins, recently published a paper in FEMS Microbes. Read more about the paper titled "The role of the universal sugar transport system components PtsI (EI) and PtsH (HPr) in Enterococcus faecium" here.

M&I Graduate Students Present at KY-TN Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Spring 2024 Research Meeting

The M&I Department was well represented at the KY-TN Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Spring 2024 Research Meeting on April 20. Graduate students Urelys Casiano-Esquilin (Kirpich Lab), Taylor Garrison (Lawrenz Lab), Denny Guo (Diamond Lab), and Michelle Hallenbeck (Collins Lab) gave poster presentations on their research projects. Dan Erickson (Collins Lab) was invited to give an oral presentation and won first prize for best oral presentation by a graduate student!

M&I Faculty Ryan Doster and Irina Kirpich were also invited to give oral presentations at the meeting and James Collins was recognized with a Peggy Cotter Award to attend the 2024 ASM Microbe meeting in June.

M&I Graduate Students Recognized at Research! Louisville 2023

Congratulations to the graduate students in our department who were selected for awards at Research! Louisville 2023: Cierra Isom (Sokoloski lab) and Shikha Srivastava (Uriarte lab). Cierra Isom was awarded third place for the Doctoral Basic Science Graduate Student Award and Shikha Srivastava was awarded the Core Facility Voucher of $2500. Alum Cassandra Wooley (Mitchell Lab) was also awarded first place for the Rhonda A. Hoffman Medical Student Award. Images from left to right: Cierra Isom, Shikha Srivastava, Cassandra Wooley 

M&I Graduate Student Selected to Present at 2023 Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference

Amanda Brady, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz, was 1 of 5 PhD students chosen to give an oral presentation at the 2023 Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference. Amanda shared her research on Yersinia pestis manipulation of inflammatory lipid production during plague with over 500 attendees at MMPC.

M&I Graduate Students Recognized at SLB 2023

Congratulations to the graduate students in our department who were selected for awards at the Society for Leukocyte Biology (SLB) Annual Meeting 2023: Katelyn Sheneman (Lawrenz lab) and Shikha Srivastava (Uriarte lab). Katelyn Sheneman was awarded the Presidential Scholar Award for her research on Yersinia pestis inhibition of extracellular vesicle production by neutrophils. This award recognized the top student presentation at the annual SLB Meeting. Shikha Srivastava was awarded the Presidential Merit Finalist Award for her poster presentation titled “MyD88 not TLR2 is Essential for Neutrophil-functionality Against Peptoanaerobacter stomatis.” Images from left to right: Katelyn Sheneman, Shikha Srivastava.

M&I Graduate Student Receives FASEB Fellowship

Kamille Rasche, an M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Corey Watson, has been awarded a 3-month Science Policy Fellowship from The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). This is the first time that a student from the University of Louisville has received this fellowship in science policy. Read more about the fellowship here.

M&I Graduate Student Receives F31 Fellowship

Katelyn Sheneman, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz, was awarded an F31 Fellowship from the NIAID to support her research on the role of extracellular vesicles during plague.

M&I Graduate Student Receives Diversity Supplement Award

Taylor Garrison, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz, was awarded a Diversity Supplement from NIAID to support her research on Klebsiella pneumoniae evasion of nutritional immunity.

 M&I Graduate Student Receives ASM Future Leaders Mentoring Fellowship

Amanda Brady, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz, was awarded an American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Future Leaders Mentoring Fellowship. She was also invited to give an oral presentation Yersinia pestis manipulation of inflammatory lipid production during plague at the 2023 ASM Microbe Annual Meeting, the largest international meeting in the field of microbiology.

M&I Graduate Student Receives GRC Best Poster Presentation Award

Katelyn Sheneman, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz, was awarded a Best Poster Presentation at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Phagocytes. She was also awarded a Top Oral Presentation at the Gordon Research Seminar held prior to the GRC.

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in Science Advances

Omar Sadi Sarkar, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Kavitha Yaddanapudi, recently published a first author paper in Science Advances. Read more about the paper titled “Monocytic MDSCs exhibit superior immune suppression via adenosine and depletion of adenosine improves efficacy of immunotherapy” here. 

M&I Graduate Students Recognized at T32 HSC Colloquium 2023

Congratulations to the graduate students in our department who were selected for awards at the T32 HSC Colloquium for Inflammation and Pathogenesis at the University of Louisville (May 2023): Cierra Isom (Sokoloski lab), Daniel Erickson (Collins lab), and Katelyn Sheneman (Lawrenz lab). Cierra Isom was awarded 1^st place, Daniel Erickson was awarded 2^nd place, and Katelyn Sheneman was awarded 3^rd place for their poster presentations. Images from left to right: Cierra Isom, Daniel Erickson, Katelyn Sheneman.

M&I Graduate Students Receive University Commencement Awards

Recent M&I PhD graduate, Dr. Sarah Price, was named recipient of the Guy Stevenson Award. This award recognizes an outstanding doctoral degree recipient who has demonstrated excellence in both scholarship and leadership within the discipline, and has made significant contributions to teaching and service. The Guy Stevenson Award is the highest honor given by the Graduate School and the winner carries the graduate school banner at both the Doctoral Hooding and Commencement Ceremonies and provides remarks during the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony.

Three recent M&I Graduates, Drs. Trey Landers, Sarah Price, and Matthew Woetse, also received the Graduate Dean's Citation. To be eligible for a Graduate Dean’s Citation, a graduate student must have significant accomplishments beyond the achievement of a high grade point average. Congratulations to all! Click here to watch the ceremony live stream Friday, May 12 at 2:00 p.m. Images from left to right: Trey Landers, Sarah Price, Matthew Woeste

 M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in Journal of Immunology

Easton Ford, a M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Melissa Smith, recently published a paper in Journal of Immunology, that was highlighted in the Top Reads section. Read more about the paper titled "FLAIRR-Seq: A Method for Single-Molecule Resolution of Near Full-Length Antibody H Chain Repertoires" here.

M&I Graduate Students Publish New Findings in Nature Immunology

M&I recent graduates, Drs. Anne Geller, Rejeena Shrestha, and Matthew Woeste, of the Yan lab, recently published a paper in Nature Immunology. Read more about the paper titled "Inducing trained immunity in pro-metastatic macrophages to control tumor metastasis" here.  Images from left to right: Anne Geller, Rejeena Shrestha, Matthew Woeste 

M&I Graduate Students Publish New Findings in Journal of Leukocyte Biology

M&I recent graduate, Dr. James Harder, and current student, Jing Ma, of the Kosiewicz lab, recently published a paper in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (JLB) entitled, "Male microbiota-associated metabolite restores macrophage efferocytosis in female lupus-prone mice via activation of PPARgamma/LXR signaling pathways". Read more here. Images from left to right: James Harder, Jing Ma

M&I Graduate Student Receives University Doctoral Award

Recent M&I PhD graduate, Claire Westcott, was named recipient of the Guy Stevenson Award. This award recognizes an outstanding doctoral degree recipient who has demonstrated excellence in both scholarship and leadership within the discipline, and has made significant contributions to teaching and service. The Guy Stevenson Award is the highest honor given by the Graduate School and the winner carries the graduate school banner at both the Doctoral Hooding and Commencement Ceremonies and provides remarks during the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. Click here to watch Claire's speech during the ceremony live stream Friday, December 16 at 2:00 p.m.

M&I Graduate Students Recognized at Research! Louisville 2022

Congratulations to the graduate students in our department who were selected for the second round of judging for Research! Louisville 2022: Katelyn Sheneman (Lawrenz lab), Cierra Isom (Sokoloski lab), Daniel Erickson (Collins lab), and Easton Ford (Smith lab). Daniel Erickson won third place for MS basic science graduate student award and Easton Ford won first place for doctoral basic science graduate student award. Images from left to right: M&I student participants, Easton Ford, Daniel Erickson 

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in Viruses

Dr. Claire Westcott, a recent M&I graduate of the Sokoloski lab, recently published a paper in Viruses. Read more about the paper titled "Binding of hnRNP I–vRNA Regulates Sindbis Virus Structural Protein Expression to Promote Particle Infectivity" here.

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Finding in G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics

Cassie Woolley, M&I PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Tom Mitchell, recently published a paper in G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics. The paper, titled "Reference long-read isoform-aware transcriptomes of 4 human peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets" can be read here. 

M&I Recent Graduate Publishes New Findings in Frontiers

M&I recent graduate, Dr. Rejeena Shrestha, recently published a paper in Frontiers. The paper, titled "Differential Functional Responses of Neutrophil Subsets in Severe COVID-19 Patients" can be read here. 

M&I Graduate Student Receives F31 Research Fellowship

Kelley Cooper, an M&I PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Juhi Bagaitkar, has been awarded a 2-year F31 Research Fellowship from the National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research for her project entitled: "Mechanisms and immune consequences of atypical efferocytosis of neutrophils during Porphyromonas gingivalis infection."

M&I Graduate Students Publish New Findings in Nature Communications

M&I recent graduate, Dr. Anne Geller, and current students, Rejeena Shrestha and Matthew Woeste, of the Yan lab, recently published a paper in Nature Communications. Read more about the paper titled "The induction of peripheral trained immunity in the pancreas incites anti-tumor activity to control pancreatic cancer progression" here.  Images from left to right: Anne Geller, Rejeena Shrestha, Matthew Woeste 

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in PNAS

Carlos Rodriguez Hernandez, an M&I PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Juhi Bagaitkar, recently published a paper in PNAS. Read more about the paper titled "Microbiome-mediated incapacitation of interferon lambda production in the oral mucosa" here. 

M&I Graduate Student Receives Commencement Honor 

Henry Nabeta, a Microbiology and Immunology graduate student and a Fulbright fellowship recipient, was selected to bear the School of Medicine banner at the 2021 Fall commencement ceremony. Congratulations Henry! 

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in Frontiers 

Hazel Ozuna, M&I PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Silvia Uriarte, was recently featured in the American Society for Microbiology's blog "Small Things Considered" for her paper titled "The Hunger Games: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans Exploits Human Neutrophils As an Epinephrine Source for Survival." Read the blog here. Image: Hazel Ozuna

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in PNAS

Sarah Price, M&I PhD candidate in the Lawrenz Lab, recently published a paper in PNAS. Read more about the paper titled "Yersiniabactin contributes to overcoming zinc restriction during Yersinia pestis infection of mammalian and insect hosts" here. Image: Sarah Price 

M&I Graduate Students Recognized at Research! Louisville 2021

Congratulations to three students in our department who were selected for the second round of judging for Research! Louisville 2021. Amanda Brady ("yersinia pestis inhibits host synthesis of Leukotriene B4, a potent mediator of inflammation") and Sarah Price ("novel Tn-seq approach identifies the primary secretion system for yersiniabactin in yersinia pestis"), PhD candidates in the laboratory of Dr. Lawrenz, work on yersinia pestis. Erika Figgins, a MS student in Dr. Diamond's lab, works on herpes simplex virus. Erika won the second place for Research! Louisville in category MS of basic science for her work "Therapeutic effectiveness of antimicrobial peptoids against herpes simplex virus-1". Congrats to all! Images: From left to right: Amanda Brady, Sarah Price, Erika Figgins

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in Microbiology Spectrum 

Henry Nabeta, M&I PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Kenneth Palmer, recently published a paper in Microbiology Spectrum. His study has identified Q-GRFT, a broad-spectrum antiviral protein that harbors growth-inhibitory activity against several Candida strains, as a potential candidate for the prevention and treatment of fungal infections. The paper, titled "Novel Antifungal Activity of Q-Griffithsin, a Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Lectin" can be found here. Image: Henry Nabeta

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in Frontiers 

Hazel Ozuna, M&I PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Silvia Uriarte, recently published a paper in Frontiers in Immunology showing that A. actinomycetemcomitans promotes azurophilic granule exocytosis by neutrophils as an epinephrine source to promote bacterial survival. The paper, titled "The Hunger Games: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans Exploits Human Neutrophils As an Epinephrine Source for Survival" can be found here. Image: Hazel Ozuna

 M&I Graduate Student Recognized at FASEB Conferences 

Sarah Price, M&I PhD candidate in the Lawrenz Lab, won a Top Poster Award at the FASEB Microbial Pathogenesis Conference: Mechanisms of Infectious Disease held July 13-15, 2021 on her work to define the secretion system for the metalophore yersiniabactin. Sarah was also chosen to give an oral presentation at the FASEB Nutrition, Immunity, and Inflammation Conference: From Model Systems to Human Trials to be held July 27-29. She will present her work defining an iron independent role for yersiniabactin in plague virulence. Image: Sarah Price 

M&I Graduate Student Publishes New Findings in mBio 

Hannah Hanford, Microbiology and Immunology PhD Candidate in the lab of Dr. Yousef Abu Kwaik, recently published a paper in mBio. The paper, titled "Dot/Icm-Dependent Restriction of Legionella pneumophila within Neutrophils" can be found here.  Image: Hannah Hanford

M&I Graduate Student Receives 2021 School of Medicine Student Diversity Award 

Microbiology and Immunology graduate student, Hazel Ozuna, was awarded the 2021 School of Medicine Student Diversity Award in May, a deserved recognition for her continuous effort and commitment for diversity and inclusion among the student's population and beyond. Image: Hazel Ozuna 

M&I Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellow Present at the American Association for Immunologists 2021 National Research Meeting 

The M&I Department was recognized at the American Association for Immunologists (AAI) national meeting held May 10-15, 2021. Jing Ma and James Harder, graduate students in the laboratory of Dr. Kosiewicz, gave one and two oral presentations, respectively, on their Dissertation projects. Dr. Sweta Ghosh, a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Jala, gave an oral presentation on her project. Congratulations to all for receiving an AAI Trainee Abstract Award for their presentations! Images: From left to right: Jing Ma, James Harder, and Sweta Ghosh

M&I Students Publish New Findings in JCI Insight 

Dr. Anne Geller and Dr. Samantha Morrissey, Microbiology and Immunology PhD graduates formerly in the lab of Dr. Jun Yan, recently published a paper in JCI Insight. The paper, titled "A specific low-density neutrophil population correlates with hypercoagulation and disease severity in hospitalized COVID-19 patients" can be found here. Images: Anne Geller (left) and Samantha Morrissey (right) 

M&I Student Wins the Richard and Mary Finkelstein Award from the American Society for Microbiology

Sarah Price was awarded the Richard and Mary Finkelstein Award for the upcoming 2021 World Microbe Forum. In addition to travel support for the meeting, the award also includes an invitation for Sarah to give an oral presentation on her research during this international meeting. Sarah’s virtual presentation will be on June 22, 2021.

M&I Graduate Students Present at American Society for Microbiology Spring 2021 Research Meeting

The M&I Department was well represented at the KY/TN Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Spring 2021 Research Meeting on April 17. Kelley Cooper (Bagaitkar Lab), Trey Landers (Sokoloski Lab), Autumn LaPointe (Sokoloski Lab), Sarah Price (Lawrenz Lab), Carlos Rodriguez (Bagaitkar Lab), and Claire Westcott (Sokoloski Lab) were among 21 participants invited to give oral presentations on their research projects. Congratulations to Sarah, Autumn, and Carlos for receiving “Top Presentation Awards” at the meeting!

(From left to right: Kelley Cooper, Trey Landers, Autumn LaPointe, Sarah Price, Carlos Rodriguez, Claire Westcott)

M&I Student Publishes New Findings in mBio

Bethany Vaughn, Microbiology and Immunology PhD Candidate in the lab of Dr. Yousef Abu Kwaik, recently published a paper in mBio. The paper, titled "An Indispensable Role for the MavE Effector of Legionella pneumophila in Lysosomal Evasion" can be found here.  Image: Bethany Vaughn 

M&I Student Publishes New Findings in Viruses

M&I Ph.D. Candidate, V “Trey” Landers (in the Sokoloski Lab) has recently published a paper regarding his dissertation research in the journal Viruses. The paper, titled “The Alphaviral Capsid Protein Inhibits IRAK1-Dependent TLR Signaling” reports the identification of a novel host / pathogen interaction, and can be found here. Image: Trey Landers 

M&I Students Publish New Findings in PLOS Pathogens 

Current M&I Ph.D. student, Hannah Hanford (AbuKwaik lab) and M&I graduate Dr. Juanita von Dwingelo (AbuKwaik lab) have jointly published a paper in PLOS Pathogens. The paper, titled "Bacterial nucleomodulins: A coevolutionary adaptation to the eukaryotic command center" can be found here.   Image: Hannah Hanford

M&I Graduate Students Present at American Society for Microbiology Fall 2020 Research Meeting

The M&I Department was well represented at the KY/TN Branch of the American Society for Microbiology Fall 2020 Research Meeting on December 5^th. Trey Landers (Sokoloski Lab), Autumn LaPointe (Sokoloski Lab), Sarah Price (Lawrenz Lab), Drew Skidmore (Chung Lab), and Claire Westcott (Sokoloski Lab) were invited to give oral presentations on their thesis projects. Congratulations to Sarah and Trey for receiving the top awards at the meeting for their presentations!

(From left to right: Trey Landers, Autumn LaPointe, Sarah Price, Drew Skidmore, Claire Westcott) 

M&I Graduate students win University doctoral awards

Dylan Johnson and Irina Miralda received University’s Guy Stevenson Award and the John Richard Binford Memorial Award, respectively.

Please click here to view Dylan Johnson's virtual Graduate School Graduation speech.

The Guy Stevenson Award recognizes an outstanding doctoral degree recipient who has demonstrated excellence in both scholarship and leadership within the discipline, and has made significant contributions to teaching and service. This award is the highest award given by the Graduate School and the winner carries the graduate school banner at both the Doctoral Hooding and Commencement Ceremonies, and provides remarks during the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony.  The Binford Award is presented to a doctoral degree recipient who excels in scholarship, and has contributed to other areas within the discipline such as leadership, teaching, or service.  The winner receives special recognition at the Doctoral Hooding and Graduation ceremony.  Congratulations Dylan and Irina!

Autumn LaPointe wins presentation award at Viruses 2020 conference in Barcelona

Autumn LaPointe, PhD candidate, received the best oral presentation award, elected by the scientific committee and sponsored by the journal Microorganisms, for her talk entitled “Noncapped genomic RNA are critical for Alphaviral infection and pathogenicity”. LaPointe is a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. KevinSokoloski. Read more at https://blog.mdpi.com/2020/02/13/viruses-2020-novel-concepts-in-virology-another-success/

M&I students receive 1st and 2nd place for doctoral dissertation at Research! Louisville

Congratulations to Autumn LaPointe on receiving 1st place and Samantha Morrissey on receiving 2nd place for the 2019 Research!Louisville Doctoral Basic Science award. Autumn is a doctoral candidate in the lab of Dr. Kevin Sokoloski and Samantha is a doctoral candidate in the lab of Dr. Jun Yan. Read more at: https://louisville.edu/researchlouisville/r-l-2019-award-winners-and-photos/r-l-2019-award-winners/view

2019 T32 Awardees announced

The Inflammation and Pathogenesis T32 Training Grant is excited to announce its newest PhD graduate student fellows: Drew Skidmore, laboratory of Dr. Donghoon Chung, Trey Landers, laboratory of Dr. Kevin Sokoloski, and Sarah Price laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz. These students will join 2018 fellow Autumn LaPointe, laboratory of Dr. Kevin Sokolowski, in the program. 

This year M&I’s summer high school program MISTRE merged with Louisville Science Pathways, which is the Science Policy and Outreach Group’s University-wide internship program. This merger expanded the opportunities to include weekly career seminars, and how to apply to two- and four-year colleges, with emphasis on careers in the biomedical field. Altogether, seventeen 10^th and 11^th graders experienced hands on research projects.  M&I provided stipends to two of the seventeen participants, Awa Koita from Central High, and Osazuwa Omoruyi from St. Francis; who were hosted in the labs of Drs. Venkatakrishna Jala and Sylvia Uriarte, respectively. During their internship, the students participated in mentored biomedical research, focused on the roles of microbial communities inhuman disease.

MISTRE is coordinated by Claire Jones, and Louisville Science Pathways is coordinated by Dylan Johnson and Sarah Price. Claire, Dylan and Sarah are all PhD candidates in the Department.

The Microbiology and Immunology Department was well represented by its graduate students at the 2018 Joint Meeting of the Society for Leukocyte Biology and International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society in October. Amanda Pulsifer (laboratory of Matthew Lawrenz) was one of three finalists for the SLB Presidential Award, which included the opportunity to present her research at a plenary session during the first day of the meeting. Katlin Stivers’ research (laboratory of Jay Hoying) was also highlighted and she was chosen to give a “Poster Flash Talk”. Irina Miralda (laboratory of Silvia Uriarte) won a SLB travel Award for her poster presentation. Finally, Hazel Ozuna (laboratory of Don Demuth) was selected to present her research at the Late Breaking Research Poster Session. Congratulations to all of the students!

Tiva Vancleave, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz, has been awarded the 2018 University of Louisville School of Medicine Student Diversity Award.  This award acknowledged Tiva’s commitment to the educational and societal needs of underrepresented minorities through mentorship and service during her PhD career. Tiva was recognized for this award during the 2018 PhD Commencement Ceremony, where she also received a Dean’s Citation for her PhD research on the YapE protein of Yersinia pestis.

Hazel Ozuna, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Donald Demuth, has been awarded a five year F31 Research Fellowship from the National Institiute of Dental & Craniofacial Research for her project entitled: "Exploitation of the host response by Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans mediated by QseBC".

Katlin Stivers, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. James Hoying, has been awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association for her project entitled "Regulation of Adipose Tissue Inflammation by Resident Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells". The two year award will fully support her research investigating the role of tissue resident, immunosuppressive myeloid cells in promoting immune homeostasis in healthy, lean adipose tissue and preventing the chronic inflammation that can lead to the development of obesity.

Earlier this year, Katlin also received a travel award to give an oral presentation on her current work "Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells in Adipose Tissue Homeostasis" as  part of the Kaley Lecture featured topic session, "The Complications of Diabetes and the Role of Inflammation: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities" at the Experimental Biology 2017 Conference, April 22-26, Chicago, IL.

Amanda Pulsifer was awarded a “Best Poster Presentation” prize at The Yin and Yang of Phagocytes: Regulators of Human Health and Disease Gordon Research Conference, June 11-16, Waterville Valley, NH for her work entitled “Exploitation of Host Rab GTPases by Yersinia pestis Facilitates Intracellular Survival”. Amanda is a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Lawrenz.

Henry Nabeta awarded New Investigator Scholarship based on abstract, ''Activity of Griffithsin-M78Q, an HIV Entry Inhibitor, in the Rectal Environment," at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (March 4-8, 2018).

Amanda Pulsifer’s abstract, “Exploitation of Host GTPases by Yersinia pestis Facilitates Intracellular Survival,” was chosen for an oral presentation at the ASM BioThreats Conference (December 2017).

Amanda Pulsifer wins NIH Fellow Travel Award at the Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference (September 2017).

Michael Connor awarded M&I Chairman's Citation for Multiple First Author Papers During PhD Candidacy by the Chairman of the Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology (May 2016).

Shuvasree Sengupta awarded 2016 AAI Careers in Immunology Fellowship by the American Association of Immunologists.

Maria Gutierrez awarded letter of citation on the publication of multiple first author papers during her PhD candidacy by the Chairman of the Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology (December 2015).

Sabrin Albeituni wins 2015 John Richard Binford Memorial Award and the Graduate Dean’s Citation, Fall 2015 Commencement award, from the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies (December 18, 2015).

Tiva Vancleave awarded CODRE / School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies Diversity Research Grant by CODRE/SIGS (2015).

Joseph Kolb awarded Graduate Dean’s Citation, Fall 2014 Commencement award by the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies (December 18, 2014).

Ashley Richards awarded Excellence in Research by the Chairman of the Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology (April 24, 2014).

Ashley Richards awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) by the National Science Foundation (April 1, 2014).

Anita Chhabra awarded Graduate Dean’s Citation, Spring 2014 Commencement award from the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies (May 10, 2014).

Kelly Carroll awarded Graduate Dean’s Citation, Fall 2013 Commencement award by the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies (December 19, 2013).

Zinal Chheda wins Second Place “Regulation of CTL trafficking into tumors and anti-tumor immunity by the chemokine receptors BLT1 and CXCR3” at the Brown Cancer Center Retreat (October 25, 2013).

Sabrin Albeutuni wins Michael K. Tanner Memorial Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Sciences at Research! Louisville 2013 (September 24-27, 2013).

Ramy Fodah wins Norton Healthcare Medical Student Award - 3rd place at Research! Louisville 2013 (September 24-27, 2013).

Chris Fleming wins Doctoral Basic Science Graduate Award - 1st place at Research! Louisville 2013 (September 24-27, 2013).

Kyle Woodward  wins Doctoral Basic Science Graduate Award - 3rd place  at Research! Louisville 2013 (September 24-27, 2013).

Monday, August 7, the Department of Microbiology & Immunology welcomed  the incoming M&I graduate students with a luncheon in the CTRB. Incoming students include Anne Geller, Melissa Henckel, Zak Henn, Claire Jones, Consolee Karangwa, Trey Landers, and Rejeena Shrestha.

Two M&I students recently published their first - first author papers in August and September. 

Shuvaree Sengupta, PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Thomas Mitchell was first author on a paper published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology in August.  Shuvaree’s  paper “A Pseudomonas aeruginosa hepta-acylated lipid A variant associated with cystic fibrosis selectively activates human neutrophils” published in Journal of Leukocyte Biology can be found here:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27538572

Cortney Armstrong, PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Silvia Uriarte was first author on a paper published in Infection and Immunity in September.  Cortney’s  paper “Filifactor alocis promotes neutrophil degranulation and chemotactic activity” published in Infection and Immunity can be accessed here:  http://iai.asm.org/content/early/2016/09/13/IAI.00496-16.abstract

Dr. Nejat Egilmez, chairman of Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology and Dr. Rich Lamont, chairman of Oral Immunology and Infectious Diseases, along with the School of Public Health and the Kent School of Social Work drew up a metagenomics and health interdisciplinary proposal which was recently selected to be funded. The iRFP proposal, “Program in Metagenomics and Health,” has been selected to be funded January 1 - December 31, 2017, with the possibility of annual renewal through 2019. The award is $250,000 for the current year. Annual assessment will be directed by the sponsors of the program, the Dean of the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies and the Vice President for Research and Innovation, who will review progress for a recommendation to the president and provost.

On Saturday, September 17th at Waterfront Park, M&I PhD student, Nikki Warner headed up a volunteer group from the department of Microbiology and Immunology and it's friends and family in the Kentuckiana Heart Walk, an American Heart Association event designed to raise money and awareness to fight cardiovascular disease and stroke. Nikki was happy to report that the event was a huge success:

We had 15 walkers, walked 3 miles, and raised $644!!!  This is the most we have ever raised (since I’ve been Team Captain) and it’s the most walkers we’ve ever had in one year!!  I can’t thank everyone enough for the donations!  I would like to especially thank our great walking team for getting up early and trudging through the rain!  You guys were champions!

Thank you everyone for another successful year!

 Nikki  

Monday, August 8, the Department of Microbiology & Immunology welcomed  the incoming M&I graduate students with a luncheon in the CTRB. Incoming students include James Birch, Jing Ma, Autumn Towne, Morgan Duff, Sarah Price,  Dylan Johnson, Henry Nabeta, Samantha Morrissey, Ruqaih Alghsham,  Stephanie Lunn, Kylee Creason, Bethany Vaughn and  Abdulrahman Alrezaihi.

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Microbiology and Immunology Summer Transitional Research Experience (MISTRE)

Brittany Mangas- 2016

 When I applied for the Microbiology and Immunology Summer Transitional Research Experience at the University of Louisville several months ago, I had no idea what to expect coming into the program. My knowledge in the sciences was fairly limited in high school, and the opportunity to expand that was overwhelmingly exciting. What I was even less prepared for, however, was how much I would truly end up learning in these eight weeks in more fields than I imagined.

During the summer, I was mentored by Neal Bhutiani, a surgical resident in the process of working towards a Ph.D. Neal was very patient in explaining what it was he was doing specifically in his own experiments, as well as teaching me techniques and necessary lab skills I would need later in life. By the end of the first week, I was able to successfully create a useable gel to run a polymerase chain reaction. At the end of the eight weeks, I am now able to run the reaction from start to finish on my own, as well as analyze the results to pick out which mice show positive and which show negative under the U.V. lamp.

Not only was I able to gain experience in something I will likely be doing later on in my schooling, but Neal allowed me to participate in things I was curious about. I helped grow bacteria, stain slides, and use different microscope techniques, such as confocal, to view them. Many of these things are more advanced than what I will be exposed to during undergraduate school, making them that much more interesting to see.

All my life, I have set a clear path that headed straight towards Neuroscience. Because of this, I never took the time to open my mind to other fields of science that are just as interesting. Immunology was definitely a hard topic to grasp, and that only covers the basics! This field would take several lifetimes to master, but I have loved every second of trying this summer. I began by studying the differences between the innate and adaptive immune system, and then moved on to cell types and functions. I spent a lot of time focusing on several T-cell populations, including TH1, TH2 and TH17 cells, as well as CD8 T-cells. After further explanation from Neal, I began to understand the concept of cytokines and receptors involved in these cells that allow the immune system to work as intended. I spent some time reading different sections in Dr. Eglimez’s Immuno-biology textbook, aiding me as both a source of knowledge and preparation. As I have mentioned, my previous teachings in biology were very limited, and there were several things Neal sat down to review with me that I did not grasp on my own. By the end of every work day, I had learned a new concept in Immunology.

I spent some time at the University outside of this lab and inside another, working with primarily microbiology. Working alongside Ashley Best, I washed bacteria and removed it from various suspensions in order to run it through a PCR, eventually to extract it from the gel. Working with Ashley showed me a much different side to this program, one that I enjoyed just as much. Looking at similar things through different perspectives aided me in grasping wide concepts in science.

Flow was another vital part of my summer in the program. I spent a day with Bob Miller reviewing Flow Cytometry after spending time on my own looking over some material. He opened the machine and explained how the laser functions as well as how the data is processed in the machine and displayed on the computer. Forward scatter and side scatter are measured, determining the type of cell that is found based on complexity and size. After working with Bob, I had a better understanding of the variety of methods that need to be used in the lab to obtain the information you need in order to successfully run an experiment.

Perhaps my favorite part of MISTRE was working with the mice. Although I was not allowed to experiment with them myself, I was able to watch Neal perform the most important part of his project in person. I was able to see the foundation for genotyping from start to finish, and learned how testing as “positive” or “negative” comes into play when it is time for breeding. In addition, having a personal experience with animal testing will help me defend how essential it truly is for humankind throughout my life. Neal taught me many regulations during my time in the turnaround and barrier that will make sure I am safely working with animals when it is time to do research on my own further in my career. These include maintaining the cages, checking for signs of discomfort in the animal, proper weaning, and how perform tail snips to be able to accurately genotype.

Working with Neal for the duration of this program has been an enlightening experience. Not only was I able to learn about the workings of immunology, but I gained knowledge that will help me in all aspects of life. These include proper time management, successful interactions with peers, and even balancing school and work.  Having already completed medical school, he was able to teach me many things that would be beneficial to me to know over the next eight years of my life, as well as equip me with diagrams and websites to navigate successfully in science.

Overall, this summer has been the most eventful one yet. I have learned more in these eight weeks than I have in an entire year of high school. I gained tremendous interest in research, and have a new acceptance for the idea of exploring as many fields of science as possible- Neuroscience may not be for me. Spending a summer in a lab may not seem exciting to the average American teenager, but I would not have wanted to do anything else. I am appreciative for the opportunity to participate this year, and hope the program continues for many years to come.