Comments from M&I Professor Jeff Dangl in an AP story on the evolution of coffee (http://tinyurl.com/mdh6ty2) and a National Geographic article on agricultural genetic engineering and the plant microbiome (http://tinyurl.com/mjjk7s7).   The buzz on caffeine in coffee: A genetic quirkbigstory.ap.org WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have woken up and smelled the coffee — and analyzed its … Read more

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/11/07/361219361/how-a-tilt-toward-safety-stopped-a-scientists-virus-research

For the first time, U.S. News has published rankings of the “Best Global Universities,” designed to provide international context for a university’s academic research and reputation. Surveys and metrics were used to rank the top 500 institutions spanning 49 countries and also to assess the strengths of 21 subject areas. For the subject area of … Read more

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is pleased to announce that Martha Clark, a graduate student in the lab of Steve Meshnick and Carla Hand, is the 2014 G. Philip Manire Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award recipient. 


 
Martha’s doctoral research has focused on how host iron status affects Plasmodium falciparum and the susceptibility … Read more

Congratulations to M&I faculty member Maureen Su, winner of a Jefferson-Pilot Fellowship that recognizes outstanding junior faculty. It’s been a good month for Maureen, who also just learned that she has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. See the link below for an engaging interview in which she describes her path from valley girl … Read more

In this interview, M&I Assistant Professor Ed Miao talks about his choices in education and career, as well as his research interests in innate immune responses to microbes. Don’t miss his analogy that explains caspase-11 in the context of a home alarm system.   The Battle against Microscopic Bugs Edward Miao, MD, PhD, earns a … Read more

A UNC Newsroom article on Ellen Perkowski (Miriam Braunstein’s lab) discusses her background, some key life choices, and her research on Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Read the interview/story at the link below.   Taking on Tuberculosis Graduate student Ellen Perkowski created a new tool to study how tuberculosis survives, thrives, and escapes our immune system defenses.

A PNAS article from Dirk Dittmer’s group demonstrates how targeted next-generation sequencing allowed them to identify single nucleotide variants in patients with primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), a herpesvirus-associated cancer. One of the consistent mutations is in the gene encoding IL-1 receptor-association kinase 1 (IRAK1) and introduces a novel phosphorylation site. See the article at the … Read more

Congratulations to Youssef (postdoc in Ed Miao’s lab) and Vineet (postdoc in Ralph Baric’s lab) for being selected as 2014 recipients of these awards that recognize outstanding postdocs throughout the UNC campus. The awards will be presented in a ceremony on November 17. See the article at the link below.   Postdoc Awards for Research … Read more

For this year’s FASEB BioArt competition, the Griffith lab generated one of the award-winning images using single particle reconstruction of the ICP8 protein from HSV-1. See all the winning images and videos at http://www.faseb.org/About-FASEB/Scientific-Contests/BioArt/2014-BioArt-Winners.aspx