The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is pleased to announce that Kari Debbink, a graduate student in Ralph Baric’s lab, and Rukie de Alwis, a graduate student in Aravinda de Silva’s lab, are the 2013 G. Philip Manire Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award recipients. Kari’s research focuses on the molecular evolution of norovirus and … Read more
Twelve M&I graduate students completed their PhD work during this past academic year. Below is a short summary of the doctoral work and current activities/plans: Aadra Bhatt completed her PhD in May 2013 in Blossom Damania’s lab, working on Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesviral cancers with an emphasis on signaling and metabolism. She will perform a short … Read more
The Alliance for Lupus Research website features an article on Barb Vilen, who discusses her ALR-funded research on BAFF and lupus-associated diseases.
Dear M&I students/postdocs/faculty/staff/colleagues (past and present): If you have not already done so, please be sure this is on your calendars and register at the link below! On May 16, our Department will be hosting a full-day symposium featuring M&I alumni and new M&I faculty talking about their research in virology, immunology, and microbial pathogenesis. … Read more
Carol Folt will replace Holden Thorp as Chancellor on July 1. Folt is an internationally recognized environmental scientist who has had a series of senior academic and administrative roles at Dartmouth. See the UNC Gazette News article.
A wide variety of external awards to M&I graduate students were featured at the 2013 Annual Graduate Student Recognition Celebration Winners of national fellowships and research awards: Rodrigo Gonzalez (Miller lab): American Society for Microbiology Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship Ankunda Kariisa (Tamayo lab): American Society for Microbiology Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship … Read more
Sean Gregory won the 2013 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award. Only four of these campus-wide awards are made each year, and Sean was selected for the area of Biological & Life Sciences. Sean was a graduate student in Blossom Damania’s lab and is currently a postdoc with David Knipe at Harvard Medical School.
Reid Roberts, a graduate student in Jenny Ting’s lab, is one of the winners of the 2013 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 Education Advancement Board. On April 10, 2013, Reid presented his doctoral research and … Read more
On March 28, 2013, PLoS Pathogens online featured work from Victor Garcia’s lab, using humanized (“BLT”) mice to demonstrate the role of HIV’s vif gene in counteracting host restriction of viral replication. Access the original article, “HIV Restriction by APOBEC3 in Humanized Mice,” through PubMed and the UNC News story here.
Published March 31, 2013 in Nature Advance Online: Stan Lemon’s lab shows how a “non-enveloped” picornavirus (hepatitis A virus) can become cloaked in host-derived membranes, providing protection from antibody-mediated neutralization. Access the online article through PubMed. See the UNC News story on this article.
