A major News Focus article in the March 15th edition of Science recalls the first pandemic of the 21st century and features comments by M&I Professor Ralph Baric. See PubMed to access the article.

In March, 2013, three UNC SoM M&I faculty members were elected as 2013 Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Selection for fellowship is a highly competitive annual peer review process, based on scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced the field … Read more

PNAS featured an article from Matt Redinbo’s group, and the focus is on the role of a relaxase encoded on an antibiotic resistance plasmid in S. aureus. The authors identify structural features important in conjugation and discuss the implications for how drug resistance is transferred between bacteria. Get the article through PubMed link below. Molecular … Read more

. . . for studying KSHV-B cell persistence, hyperplasia, and lymphoma. Hoon Sin and Dirk Dittmer constructed a transgenic mouse that expresses the complete complement of core KSHV latent genes under control of a B cell-specific promoter, creating the first in vivo model that allows functional assessment of the viral micro RNAs. Visit PubMed to … Read more

In the February 13 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Blossom Damania’s group uses a cellular kinome siRNA screen and other knockdown experiments to prove that TLKs are involved in control of gammaherpesvirus latency. See the UNC News article here.

The Lemon lab paper, “Competing and noncompeting activities of miR-122 and the 5′ exonuclease Xrn1 in regulation of hepatitis C virus replication,” was published in the December 17 PNAS Early Edition. Access the paper in PubMed. See the UNC News story, “UNC researchers discover how hepatitis C virus reprograms human liver cells.”

In the 2/22/2013 issue of Science, Ed Miao‘s group demonstrates a protective role for caspase-11 in responding to intracellular bacteria that escape the phagosome. See the UNC News article here. Dr. Miao’s paper was recently featured in a “Research Highlight” article in Nature Reviews Microbiology. And Cell Host & Microbe (Volume 13, Issue 3, 13 … Read more

That’s the title on the cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, featuring an intriguing story about how a particularly hot strain of Staphylococcus aureus has evolved to combat host polyamines and alter the wound-healing response. See the article here and also the preview by Alonzo and Torres in the … Read more

Congratulations to Jenny Ting, who will be receiving this American Association of Immunologists career award for “outstanding research contributions to the field of immunology.” Jenny has been on the M&I faculty since 1984, and her research explores basic mechanisms of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. She will be recognized with this prestigious award at Immunology 2013, … Read more

Early in 2013, Bill Cromartie, Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology, passed away in his 100th year. Bill was also at various times Chief of Infectious Disease Services in the Department of Medicine, Associate Dean for Clinical Sciences, and North Carolina Memorial Hospital Chief of Staff. For over 30 years, he was one … Read more