2011

Blossom Damania selected to speak at the Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium

Dr. Damania discussed “Viruses and Cancer” at the 23rd Annual Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium in November…

Bill Goldman and Nancy Raab-Traub named as AAAS Fellows

The Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has announced that Bill Goldman and Nancy Raab-Traub, Professors of Microbiology & Immunology, have been selected to be 2012 AAAS Fellows…

M&I Postdoc Symposium

2011 Microbiology and Immunology Postdoc Symposium will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 16th…

UNC researchers link GATA3 to Treg function.

T regulatory cells (Tregs) are vital in the control and regulation of myriad immune functions…

Jeff Dangl has been named as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in basic plant research.

Dr. Jeff Dangl has been tagged by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF) as one of the nation’s most innovative plant scientists…

Congratulations to Cheryl Miller for poster award.

Cheryl Miller, a third year graduate student in Tom Kawula’s lab, won an award for best molecular biology poster presentation at the 2011 FASEB Microbial Pathogenesis conference…

UNC Medical School awards Bruce Alexander the Basic Science Excellence in Teaching Award

Bruce Alexander is an integral aspect of the Microbiology teaching team. Bruce organizes, instructs and supervises the Medical School Microbiology Teaching Laboratory as well labs for Medical Microbiology (MCRO 251), and Introduction to Microbiology (MCRO 114) for the Dental School…

Rodrigo Gonzalez awarded ASM Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship

Congratulations to Rodrigo Gonzalez on being a recipient of the Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship…

Researchers at UNC are leading a two-pronged assault in the battle on HIV.

A primary goal in the battle against HIV is to try to prevent transmission of HIV to uninfected partners of HIV+ individuals…

Can you develop Type 2 diabetes from eating a diet high in saturated fat?

Recent studies published by Jenny Ting’s group in Nature Immunology indicate that diets high in saturated fats (but not unsaturated fats) drive an inflammatory response that can lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes…

Congratulations to Sun-ah Kang and Erin Steinbach!

The Symposium for Basic Immune Mechanisms was held in the Lineberger Cancer Center on Thursday, July 7th. Talks covered an array of topics ranging from virulence mechanisms of plant pathogens to the impact of smoking on Inflammatory Bowel Disease…

New functions for NLR proteins

NLR proteins have been demonstrated to be important in initiating immune responses against pathogens…

Dr. Tony Richardson selected as Pew scholar

Anthony Richardson, PhD, in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, was one of twenty-two of America’s most promising scientists to be named Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts…

Mark Johnson wins a Dissertation Completion Fellowship

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology congratulates Mark Johnson (Tisch Lab) on receiving a Dissertation Completion Fellowship…

Sean Gregory is the recipient of the 2011 G. Philip Manire Graduate Student Excellence in Reserach Award

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is pleased to announce that Sean Gregory, a graduate student in Blossom Damania’s lab, is the 2011 G. Philip Manire Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award recipient. Sean has shown outstanding scientific accomplishments through his studies of a mechanism of KSHV latency reactivation and a strategy for viral inhibition … Continued

UNC researchers show how genetics influence pathogenicity

In the search for potential vaccine targets for Yersina pestis (the organism that causes the bubonic or pneumonic plague), Dr. Eric Weening and collaborators from the Virginia Miller lab have demonstrated that differences in the mouse genetic background can influence pathogenicity and virulence…

UNC and the Human Microbiome

The world of microbiology has undergone a paradigm shift regarding our view of our relationship with the microbes that live in and on us, now termed “the human biome…”

The Microbiology and Immunology Department Welcomes Dr. Cary Moody

When Cary first attended Mississippi State University for her undergraduate degree, she planned on going to medical school; but after taking a microbiology class, she decided microbiology was vastly more interesting. She then went on to get her masters studying the bovine immunodeficiency virus (BIV) with Dr. Karen St. Cyrcoats in the Department of Microbiology at MSU…

UNC Researchers Identify a Viral Homolog to a Cellular Protein that Disrupts Inflammasome Function

Recent data published in the journal Science by Sean Gregory (graduate student in the Blossom Damania Lab), along with collaborators from the Jenny Ting Lab have identified a viral protein that masquerades as a normal cellular protein important in stopping viral infections…

Nancy Fisher returns to UNC to helm UNC Flow Cytometry Core

Dr. Nancy Fisher was recently named as the new Director of the Flow Facility Core. The Flow Facility Core was one of the first of its kind in the country, and was founded in the laboratory of Geoffrey Haughton (UNC Chapel Hill, Microbiology and Immunology) while Nancy was a graduate student there…

The Microbiology department welcomes new faculty member Nat Moorman!

Nat is originally from Springfield, IL, and received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Nat then moved to St Louis, MO where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. David Leib studying herpes simplex virus pathogenesis…

Understanding Inheritable Breast Cancer

Mutation in the BCRA2 gene has been identified as a genetic marker that indicates a predisposition for the development of breast cancer. Understanding how this tumor suppressor protein functions is vital in understanding disease progression…

Micro/Immuno Graduate Student Wins Impact Award

Congratulations to Monika Schneider! Monika (from Dr. Jenny Ting’s lab) was chosen from a large pool of UNC graduate student applicants from across all aspects of research to receive a Graduate Education Advancement Board (GEAB) Impact Award…