LSU Health Shreveport - Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, Dr. James Bliska will present a seminar titled "Regulation of Host Immune Immunity by Bacterial Effectors".

Dr. Bliska is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine.

Welcome to LSU Health Shreveport, Dr. Bliska!

Congratulations to Dr. Bailey Mosher, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Andrew Yurochko, for receiving (and accepting) a Medical and Public Health Microbiology Fellowship at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

Congratulations to Ashley Wilkins, a senior student in the Ivanov Lab, for her recently accepted co-first author paper titled "Cellular cholesterol licenses Legionella pneumophila intracellular replication in macrophages".

Next Wednesday, December 7th, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology is hosting the 2nd Annual Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes (CAIPP) Colloquium. There will be presentations from several LSUHS Basic Science faculty members and invited speakers.

All are welcome to attend. This event will take place in the Testing Center (Room C3-405). A reception will be held after the event at The Seventh Tap (2640 Linwood Avenue).

Check out the itinerary for more information!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, senior student Temitayo Bamgbose in Dr. Woolard's lab will present an update on his research in a seminar titled "Lipin-1 Restrains Lipid Synthesis to Promote Pro-resolving Macrophage Function and Disease Resolution".
Good luck today, Temitayo!

NEW LSUHS School of Graduate Studies shirts!!!

Come by our table Thursday December 1st, Friday December 2nd, or Monday, December 5th between 10am and 12pm!!!
*Can also reach out via email to the contacts listed on the flyer!
*shipping is $10*

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, Dr. Tor Savidge will present a seminar titled "The Human-Microbiome Interactome: Infectious Disease Discovery Inferred from Systems Biology".
Dr. Savidge is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Welcome to LSU Health Shreveport, Dr. Savidge!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, Dr. Virginia Miller will present a seminar titled "The Long and Sticky Road to RmpD and Wzc".
Dr. Miller is a Professor in the Department of Genetics at the UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina!
Welcome to LSU Health Shreveport, Dr. Miller!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, Dr. Diana Cruz will present a seminar titled "Women disguised as Men: Sex-specific effects of mental stress on the heart".
Dr. Cruz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology here at LSU Health Shreveport.

This year, the ASM South Central Branch decided to give out an award for the best oral presentation in the Postdoctoral Fellow category.

This award will be called "The Richard and Dennis O'Callaghan Award" and its inaugural recipient is Dr. Bailey Mosher, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Andrew Yurochko.

Congrats, Dr. Mosher!

Congratulations to Danielle Schaal, a doctoral candidate in the lab of Dr. Rona Scott, for being awarded the Charles S. McCleskey Award.

The McCleskey Award is given out at the ASM South Central Branch Annual Meeting for outstanding research presented by a doctoral student during an oral or poster presentation.

ASM South Central Branch Meeting 2022 Day 2 was filled with lots of oral and poster sessions! Students, postdocs, and faculty worked at the registration desks and as co-chair moderators at the sessions.

Check out the posters from our department!
Tim Keiffer, Ebubechukwu Nkadi, Lohit Khera, Oluwamuyiwa Amusan, Sushma Bharrhan, Nahomi Guerra

Recognitions out to the following departmental members who were selected to give oral presentations! See those names below!

Junior Students
-----Oluwakemi Igiehon and Katelyn Parrish
Doctoral Candidates
-----Ashley Wilkins, Anthony Domma, Temitayo Bamgbose, Lauren Henderson, Jessica Trammel, BJ Ward, Danielle Schaal
Postdocs
-----Drs. Bailey Mosher, Byeong-Jae Lee, Katarzyna Zwolinkska
Faculty
-----Drs. Matthew Woolard, Monica Gestal, Rohit Jangra, Hongyan Gyo

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology just wrapped up hosting the American Society for Microbiology South Central Branch Annual Meeting. Programs from all across Lousiana, Mississippi and Arkansas were in attendance!

Night 1: Meet and Great
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology just wrapped up hosting the American Society for Microbiology South Central Branch Annual Meeting. Programs from all across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas were in attendance!!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, junior student Cierra Word in Dr. Jangra's lab will present her second library seminar titled "Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever: Lessons from Human and NHP Studies".
Good luck today, Cierra!

NOTE: Library seminars are part of the Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology curriculum. This type of seminar gives students the opportunity to discuss an area of research that is not directly related to their dissertation research.

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, junior student Nahomi Guerra Pilaquinga in Dr. Jangra's lab will present her second library seminar titled "Harnessing Mucosal Immunity for Antiviral Protection".
Good luck today, Nahomi!

NOTE: Library seminars are part of the Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology curriculum. This type of seminar gives students the opportunity to discuss an area of research that is not directly related to their dissertation research.

Happy Birthday to Dr. Martin Muggeridge!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, junior student Ebubechukwu Nkadi in Dr. Scott's lab will present his second library seminar titled " Genetic Approaches in Controlling Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) Infection in Domestic Cats".
Good luck today, Ebubechukwu!

NOTE: Library seminars are part of the Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology curriculum. This type of seminar gives students the opportunity to discuss an area of research that is not directly related to their dissertation research.

Happy Birthday to Cierra Word!

Happy Birthday to
Dr. Monica Gestal!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, Dr. Arif Yurdagul will present a seminar titled "Nutrient Sensing of Apoptotic Cells by Macrophages Drives Inflammation Resolution."
Dr. Yurdagul is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology here at LSU Health Shreveport.

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, Dr. Juanita Valdes-Camacho will present a seminar titled "Eosinophils and Human Disease".

Dr. Valdes-Camacho is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Allergy and Immunology here at LSU Health Shreveport.

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, senior student Anthony Domma in Dr. Kamil's lab will present an update on his research in a seminar titled "UL38-Mediated Activation of mTORC1 causes IRS1 Degradation and AKT Inactivation during HCMV Lytic Infection".
Good luck today, Anthony!

Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Yurochko for being awarded two new grants!

On the first grant, Dr. Yurochko is a Co-PI who will be collaborating with colleagues at Oregon Health and Science University and The University of Arizona. This grant will look at human cytomegalovirus's (HCMV) dysregulation of host hematopoietic progenitor cell signaling pathways to modulate latency, reactivation, and hematopoiesis during transplantation.

On the second grant, Dr. Yurochko is a Co-PI who will be collaborating with colleagues at The University of Massachusetts. This grant will look at the role of OR14I1, a new receptor in HCMV pathogenesis.

Way to go, Dr. Yurochko!

Happy Day-Sad Day!
Dr. Julia Myers, a recent graduate from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, scored a postdoctoral position in the lab of Dr. Christine O'Connor at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio!
Today is her last day so stop by the Scott Lab and wish her well!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, junior student Oluwamuyiwa Amusan in Dr. Bodily's lab will present his second library seminar titled "Understanding the Inflammasome and Pyroptosis Activation Mechanisms in Streptococcus pyogenes".
Good luck today, Oluwamuyiwa!

NOTE: Library seminars are part of the Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology curriculum. This type of seminar gives students the opportunity to discuss an area of research that is not directly related to their dissertation research.

Happy Birthday to
Ms. Ruth Black!

Happy Birthday to
Dr. Bailey Mosher!

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is the oldest and largest single life science membership organization in the world. The ASM South Central Branch was founded in 1947 and has a long history of providing opportunities for microbiologists, immunologists, and virologists from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas to share their work, network, and collaborate.

The LSU Health Shreveport Department of Microbiology and Immunology will host this year's annual meeting on October 27-29, 2022 at the Shreveport Convention Center. The program will consist of keynote talks, oral and poster sessions, and social opportunities. This meeting is an especially good opportunity for students to present their work.

For details, please see the attached flyer and visit our website: https://southcentralbranchasm.com/annual-meeting/.

Happy Birthday to
Ifeoluwa Ogungbemi!

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, junior student Oluwakemi Igiehon in Dr. Woolard's lab will present her second library seminar titled "Modulation of Antiviral Immunity by Commensal Microbiota".
Good luck today, Kemi!

NOTE: Library seminars are part of the Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology curriculum. This type of seminar gives students the opportunity to discuss an area of research that is not directly related to their dissertation research.

Happy Birthday, Oluwakemi!

Photos from LSU Health Shreveport School of Graduate Studies's post

Today at 4pm in Room 4-326, three summer interns in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology will present seminars on the work they have been doing over the past few months.
Pablo Maseda Fernandez has been working in the Woolard Lab and his seminar is titled "Proper Lipid Metabolism is Required for Protein Glycosylation in Pro-resolving Macrophages".
Jose Pedreira Lopez has been working in the Gestal Lab and his seminar is titled "VIP/VPAC2's Role in Bordetella spp. Clearance".
Mireya Represa Perez has been working in the Sapp Lab and her seminar is titled "HPV16 Maintenance Replication".

Good luck this afternoon Pablo, Jose, and Mireya!

Happy Birthday to
Dr. Jason Bodily!

Happy BELATED Birthday to
Dr. Stanimir Ivanov and Timothy Amusan!

Congrats to Anthony Domma, a doctoral candidate in the Kamil lab for being selected as the August 2022 Graduate Student of the Month!

The August Graduate Student of the Month is Anthony Domma. He is a doctoral candidate in Dr. Jeremy Kamil’s lab in the LSU Health Shreveport - Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Originally from Baton Rouge, Anthony is known amongst his peers as a devoted fan of the LSU football team. Besides his undying love for the Tigers, Anthony excels at cloning, bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) recombineering, and teaching. His dissertation project is titled “Human cytomegalovirus protein UL38 shuts off PI3K/AKT pathway via mTORC1-mediated insulin receptor substrate 1 degradation”. Congratulations, Anthony!

Please join me in welcoming the 2022 Microbiology and Immunology first-year students!

Katelyn Parrish - B.S. in Biological Sciences (emphasis in Microbiology and Molecular Biology) and a minor in Chemistry from Southeastern Louisiana University

Victoria Filloon - B.S. in Biological Sciences and a minor in Philosophy from LSU Baton Rouge

Ridwan Arinola - B.S. in Microbiology from Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria

Ifeoluwa Ogungbemi - B.S. in Microbiology from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

Tareque Muzahid Zamee - M.S. and B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Congratulations to the 2022 Microbiology and Immunology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows who just presented posters over the research that they have been doing over the last eight weeks!

Special recognition and thanks go out to Danielle Schaal and Dr. Matthew Woolard for organizing this program.

Graduate Studies Orientation begins today!!! Please join us in welcoming 17 incoming students to the basic sciences, IGP, and MD-PhD programs!