A short video interview with M&I faculty member Terri Tarrant is featured on the current homepage of the Rheumatology Research Foundation’s website. After navigating to the link below, scroll down to “Meet the Researchers” to hear about some of the things that have inspired Terri’s interests in autoimmunity. http://patients.rheumresearch.org

Congratulations to Nik Stasulli, winner of the 2015 D. Gordon Sharp Graduate Innovator Award. As part of his dissertation work in Bill Goldman’s lab, Nik has focused on neutrophil involvement in the process of inflammatory lesion development during pneumonic plague. This work involved fully virulent strains of Yersinia pestis and respiratory infections of mice in … Read more

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology announced that Jon Hagar is the 2015 G. Philip Manire Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award recipient. For his dissertation work in Ed Miao’s lab, Jon has sought to understand how the innate immune system interacts with microbial pathogens and how the immune system becomes dysfunctional during sepsis. Jon’s … Read more

Before M&I Professor Bruce Cairns became an immunologist, he was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. See the link below to learn about how his military experiences influenced his career and the development of the Advanced Medic Instructor Training program and the new Physicians Assistant program at UNC.   Returning the Favor

A wide variety of external awards to M&I graduate students will be featured at the Annual Graduate Student Recognition Celebration (http://gradschool.unc.edu/events/recognition/). Winners of national fellowships and research awards: Jennifer McGraw (Heise lab): NRSA Fellowship (F31), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Brandon Anjuwon-Foster (Tamayo lab): NRSA Fellowship (F31), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious … Read more

The UNC Graduate School has just announced that Megan Meyer, a graduate student working in the lab of M&I Professor Ilona Jaspers, is one of the winners of the 2014 Impact Awards. The Impact Awards recognize outstanding graduate students in a wide variety of research areas and are privately funded each year through the Graduate … Read more

Gianpietro Dotti and his wife, Barbara Savoldo, are already well-recognized for their research on immunotherapy. Thanks to a dual faculty recruitment spearheaded by M&I Professor Jon Serody, they have just moved from the Baylor College of Medicine to UNC, where their new labs are located in Marsico Hall. See the UNC News article about their … Read more

In this UNC Newsroom article, Jon discusses his choices of graduate school and Ed Miao’s lab, as well as his research on how cells detect and respond to endotoxin. See the interview at the link below.   Detecting the Sensors

In an article just published in PNAS Early Edition (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/02/17/1414272112.abstract), Beth Shank’s group demonstrates that antibiotics produced by Bacillus cereus can signal other bacteria to form biofilms, a function that is distinct from the well-known antibacterial properties of these thiazolyl peptides. See the UNC News article at the link below. Antibiotics give rise to new … Read more

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology has lost one of their most dedicated and beloved administrators, Sharon Rone, who retired after 19 years in the department, and 31 years at UNC. Sharon has dedicated her career to helping M&I faculty – she first served as the chair’s administrative assistant, then moved on to be the … Read more