Volume XI, Issue IV October 2013 CIMD Newsletter Center for Immunology & Microbial Disease at Albany Medical College CIMD Well Represented at 16th Annual NYIC Meeting Amanda McCabe Heidi Tucker Alicia Soucy The 16th Annual Upstate New York Immunology Conference was held at The Sagamore Resort and Conference Center in Bolton Landing, NY, October 20-23, 2013. There were over 130 attendees, including principle investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. The schedule included two keynote speakers, American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Young investigator Awards, six formal symposia, four oral poster presentations, a vendor fair/ poster mixer, a cruise on Lake George, and a bonfire/recreation center night. Pamela J. Fink, Ph.D., Professor of Immunology, Department of Immunology at the University of Washington and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Immunology, gave a Keynote Presentation on Sunday entitled, “Post-Thymic T Cell Maturation.” Dr. Fink also gave a workshop entitled, “Do’s and Don’ts When Writing and Publishing a Scientific Manuscript.” Following Sunday evening’s talk, Dr. Jennifer Meyers, AAI Senior Science Coordinator, and scientific members of AAI presented the AAI Young Investigator Awards to trainees. A welcome reception closed the day’s activities. Christopher A. Hunter, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman, Department of Pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania gave a Keynote Presentation on Tuesday entitled, “Imaging the Immune Response to Infection.” CIMD sent 22 members to the meeting and three faculty were chosen by the Scientific Advisory Board to give symposia talks. Dennis W. Metzger, Ph.D., gave a presentation in the Mucosal Immunity Symposium entitled, “Infections at Mucosal Sites: Viral-Bacterial Co-Infections in the Respiratory Tract.” Dorina Avram, Ph.D., gave a presentation in the Regulation of T Cell Immunity I Symposium entitled, "Increased Plasticity of Th17 cells by Expression of Th2 Cytokines Causes Diverted Trafficking and Amelioration of Autoimmune Encephalitis.” Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo, M.D., Ph.D., gave a presentation in the Immune Dysfunction Symposium entitled, “Maternal Influence on Development of Allergies in the Infant.” Two CIMD graduate students, Amanda McCabe and Heidi Tucker, received AAI Young Investigator Awards for their poster abstracts entitled, “IFNγ Limits Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cell Mobilization During an Intracellular Bacterial Infection by Maintaining BM-resident Mφs,” and “The Pathway of Antigen Processing Regulates MHC Class II Signaling and Determines B Cell Fate,” respectively. Both were also asked to give oral poster presentations. Alicia Soucy won the trainee raffle for an iPad. Plans are already being made for next year’s Conference including securing Keynote Speakers and presenters for workshops. The dates are October 19-22, 2014. Inside this issue: Annual CIMD Retreat 2 Conferences, Meetings, and Study Sections 3 Peer-reviewed Publications 3 Announcements & Seminars 4 CIMD Newsletter Page 2 CIMD Annual Research Retreat The Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease held its Annual Research Retreat at the River Stone Manor in Scotia, NY, on Thursday, August 9, 2013. gave a talk entitled, “IFNγ Limits Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cell Mobilization During an Intracellular Bacterial Infection by Maintaining BM-resident Mφs.” Members of CIMD voted for their choice of speakers. William O’Connor, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, gave a talk entitled, “On Immune-mediated Control of GI Inflammation and Restitution.” Qingxia Han, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, gave a talk entitled, “Hepatitis C Virus Hijacks the Sphingolipid Biosynthetic Machinery to Replicate Its Genome.” Amanda McCabe, graduate student, We also had an opportunity to welcome our new graduate students: Kristen Holland, Olivia Junco, Kyle Lorentsen, and Abhinit Nagar. Each student presented posters and judges viewed each and asked questions. The judges also met to discuss outcomes and vote on awards. Award winners were: Senior Students 1st Place - Amanda McCabe 2nd Place - Alan Sanfilippo 3rd Place - Brian Franz Junior Students 1st Place - Princess Rodriguez 2nd Place - Briana Lunman 3rd Place - Tiffany Zarrella Kristen Holland Kyle Lorentsen Olivia Junco Abhinit Nagar When the wind blows and the leaves fall! Volume XI, Issue IV Page 3 Conferences, Meetings, and Study Sections Dorina Avram, Ph.D., Chaired a Round Table Discussion entitled, “How to Mentor Effectively,” at the American Association of Immunologist Meeting, in Honolulu, HI, May 3-7, 2013. Dorina Avram, Ph.D., was invited to give a talk entitled, “Bcl11b Has Its Fingers in Effector CD4+ T cell Plasticity and Migration,” at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL, May 13, 2013. Kouacou Konan, Ph.D., along with postdoctoral fellow, Qingxia Han, and graduate student, Brian Lunman, attended the 2013 American Society for Virology in State College, PA, July 20-24, 2013. Both QingXia and Briana gave oral presentations entitled, “Hepatitis C Virus Hijacks the Sphingolipid Biosynthetic Machinery to Replicate Its Genome,” and “Hepatitis C Virus Co-opts Rab5 and Its Effectors Proteins to Replicate Its Genome,” respectively. Karsten R.O. Hazlett, Ph.D., was invited to serve as a member of the National Institutes of Health, Special Emphasis Panel, Centers for Excellence in Translational Research U19 grant reviews, July 2013. Mario Canki, Ph.D., was invited to serve on the National Institutes of Health, Special Emphasis Panel HIV/AIDS Innovative Research, eRA Commons Internet Assisted Review, July 24-25, 2013. Dorina Avram, Ph.D., was invited to give a talk entitled, “Increased Plasticity of Th17 Lineage Causes Diverted Trafficking,” at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology: Molecular Mechanisms of Lymphocyte Development and Function Meeting held in Steamboat, CO, July 14-19, 2013. Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, M.D., Ph.D., was invited to give a presentation entitled, “Update on food allergies,” at the 19th Annual Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY, July 25, 2013. Essential for the Mucosal Vaccine Adjuvant Activity of Cyclic di-GMP in vivo,” at the Cytokine 2013 meeting in San Francisco, CA, September 29-October 3, 2013. Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, M.D., Ph.D., was invited to give a seminar entitled, “Preventing allergy: What can be done during pregnancy and lactation?” at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, NY, October 3, 2013. Kouacou Konan, Ph.D., was invited to give a presentation entitled, “Hepatitis C Virus Hijacks the Sphingolipid Biosynthetic Machinery to Replicate its Genome,” at the 20th International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus and Related Viruses in Melbourne, Australia, October 6-10, 2013. Dorina Avram, Ph.D., was invited to give a seminar entitled, “How to Make Effector THelper Cells Go Where We Want? Plasticity is the Answer,” at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, October 16, 2013. Lei Jin, Ph.D., gave a poster presentation entitled, “MPYS/STING, Not Type I IFN, is Peer-reviewed Publications Han Q, Manna D, Belton K, Cole R, and Konan KV. Modulation of hepatitis C virus genome encapsidation by nonstructural protein 4B. J Virol. 87:7409-22, 2013. Bai Y, Yang J, Eisele LE, Underwood AJ, Koestler BJ, Waters CM, Metzger DW, and Bai G. Two DHH subfamily 1 proteins in Streptococcus pneumoniae possess cyclic Di-AMP phosphodiesterase activity and affect bacterial growth and virulence. J Bacteriol. 195:5123-32, 2013. Gupta R, Yang J, Dong Y, Swiatlo E, Zhang JR, Metzger DW, and Bai G. Deletion of arcD in Streptococcus pneumoniae D39 impairs its capsule and attenuates virulence. Infect Immun. 81:3903-11, 2013. Spence AC, McNaughton SA, Lioret S, Hesketh KD, Crawford DA, and Campbell KJ. A healthy promotion intervention can affect diet quality in early childhood. J Nutr. 143:1672-8, 2013. Franchini AM, Hunt D, Melendez JA, and Drake JR. FcγR-driven release of IL-6 by macrophages requires NOX2dependent production of reactive oxygen species. J Biol Chem. 288:25098-108, 2013. Draborg AH, Duus K, and Houen G. Epstein-Barr virus in systemic autoimmune diseases. Clin Dev Immunol. 2013:535738, 2013. (Continued on page 4) Time to rake! Center for Immunology & Microbial Disease at Albany Medical College 47 New Scotland Ave., MC-151 Albany, NY 12208-3479 Phone: 518-262-6750 Fax: 518-262-6161 Web site:www.amc.edu/research/IMD/ (Continued from page 3) Le HT and Harton JA. Pyrin- and CARD-only proteins as regulators of NLR functions. Front Immunol. 4:275, 2013. Dotson RJ, Rabadi SM, Westcott EL, Bradley S. Catlett SV, Banik S, Harton JA, Bakshi CS, and Malik M. Repression of inflammasome by Francisella tularensis during early stages of infection. J Biol Chem. 288:23844-57, 2013. Pelletier MR, Casella LG, Jones JW, Adams MD, Zurawski DV, Hazlett KR, Doi Y and Ernst RK. Unique structural modifications are present in the lipopolysaccharide from colistin-resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumannii. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 57:4831-40, 2013. Järvinen KM, Westfall JE, Seppo MS, James AK, Tsuang AJ, Feustel PH, Sampson HA, and Berin C. Role of maternal elimination diets and human milk IgA in development of cow’s milk allergy in the infants. Clin Exp Allergy. In press. Järvinen KM, Konstantinou GN, Pilapil M, Arrieta MC, Noone S, Sampson HA, Meddings J, and Nowak-Wegrzyn A. Intestinal permeability in children with food allergy on specific elimination diets. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 24:589-95, 2013. Jones DD, Jones M, Deiulio GA, Racine R, MacNamara KC, and Winslow GM. BAFF inhibition impairs bacterial immunity by reducing T cellindependent IgM secretion. Infect Immun. In press. Järvinen KM. Allergy prevention via co-administration of intact food allergen and its epitope soup? Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 161:195-6, 2013. Abdul-Sater AA, Tattoli I, Jin L, Grajkowski A, Levi A, Koller BH, Allen IC, Beaucage SL, Fitzgerald KA, Ting JP, Cambier JC, Dirardin SE, and Schindler C. Cyclic-di-GMP and cyclic-di-AMP activate the NLRP3 Inflammasome. EMBO Rep. 14:900-6, 2013. Congratulations to Irfan Khan and his wife on the birth of their daughter, Aleeza Ali Khan Monday, September 16, 2013 CIMD Seminars November 14, 2013 11:00 a.m., Huyck Auditorium December 12, 2013 Kouacou Konan, Host 11:00 a.m., Huyck Auditorium William O’Connor, Host Karla Kirkegaard, Ph.D. Beth A. McCormick, Ph.D. Professor and Chair Department of Microbiology and Immunology Stanford University School of Medicine Professor and Vice Chair Department of Microbiology & Physiological Systems University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center “Host and Viral Targets to Control RNA Virus Spread” “TBA”