Public release date: 23-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology

Boost for Efforts to Prevent Microbial Stowaways on Interplanetary Spacecraft

Efforts to expunge micro-organisms from spacecraft assembly cleanrooms, and the spacecraft themselves, inadvertently select for the organisms that are often the most fit to survive long journeys in space. This has the risk of thwarting the goal of avoiding contaminating other celestial bodies, as well as samples brought back to earth, according to Myron La Duc of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, and his collaborators. Their research is published in the August issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Mars, the Jovian moon, Europa, and a few other denizens of our solar system may harbor life, and might be capable of supporting some terrestrial microbes. Contaminating planets or moons that already support extraterrestrial lifea possibility on Mars, the big Jovian moon, Europa, and the tiny Saturnian moon, Enceladuscould interfere with efforts to understand that life, and its origins. For example, life on all of these orbs may have a common originlikely on Earth or Marsand contamination of samples could confound efforts to determine which planet was the source of life, and how life arose. For these reasons, sterilization processing of spacecraft bound for such planetary bodies is a very high priority for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Species of bacteria have long been considered capable of surviving space travel, but examples of a fungal species that is capable of such survival have only recently been demonstrated, according to the report. Additionally, due to their extraordinary ability to withstand various extreme environments, some archaea "have been proposed as being capable of tolerating the Martian environment," the investigators write. "In light of this, the breadth of current spacecraft-associated microbial diversity assessments must expand to include eukaryotes and archaea."

Because of this, better methods are needed for determining microbial populations on surfaces that have a very low density of individual microbes. In this study, the researchers became the first to take the microbial census using so-called pyrosequencing studies. Pyrosequencing is a recent method of sequencing DNA from entire microbial communities that is much faster and simpler than other methods, and extremely thorough.

Further findings in the study pointed up the value of pyrosequencing in demonstrating where vigilance in sterilizing equipment is needed. Of most import, certain archaeal sequences, notably from the ammonia-oxidizing genus, Nitrososphaeraceae of the recently proposed phylum, Thaumarchaeota, appeared in ground support equipment samples, both before and after cleaning. Archaea of this phylum can survive on ammonia or urea, or other inorganic chemicals, enhancing their ability to survive extreme conditions, according to the report, so prevention of their transfer to the spacecraft is key.

"Methanobacteriaceae sequences were also observed in the spacecraft hardware samples," the researchers write. "This is particularly relevant for astrobiological issues, since members of this family have been reported to be obligate anaerobic, hydrogenotrophic, and methanogenic organisms and capable of utilizing carbon dioxide as their sole carbon source." The challenge for the JPL's spacecraft team is to ensure that the DNA sequences only arise from dead Methanobacteriaceae, and not from live ones.

(M.T. La Duc, P. Vaishampayan, H.R. Nilsson, T. Torok, and K. Venkateswaran, 2012. Pyrosequencing-derived bacterial, archaeal, and fungal diversity of spacecraft hardware destined for Mars. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 78:5912-5922.)

See more here:
August 2012 tips from the journals of the American Society for Microbiology

Public release date: 22-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

Lawrence Corey, M.D., president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been honored with the 2012 Cubist-ICAAC Award. An internationally renowned expert in virology, immunology and vaccine development, Corey's research focuses on herpes viruses, HIV, and other viral infections, particularly those associated with cancer. "Corey's work was the first to demonstrate the safety of daily antiviral treatment for immunocompetent persons," explains his nominator, Wesley Van Voorhis of the University of Washington. "His studies led to the routine use of antivirals not only for HSV-2the field he has been the dominant figure in for three decadesbut also HCV, HBV, and HIV."

Corey earned his bachelor's and medical degrees from the University of Michigan, and completed infectious diseases training at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He joined the faculty of the University of Washington in 1978, where he remains today as a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and holder of the Lawrence Corey Endowed Chair in Medical Virology. He is also an infectious disease physician at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, in addition to his duties as president and director of the Hutchinson Center.

Corey is the principal investigator of the Hutchinson Center-based HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), an international collaboration of scientists and institutions that combines clinical trials and laboratory-based studies to accelerate the development of HIV vaccines. Under Corey's leadership at the Hutchinson Center, the HVTN has become the model for global collaborative research, involving scientists on four continents and nine countries. "In this capacity, he has overseen the building of a clinical trials network infrastructure from only eight U.S. sites in 1998, to a program that has thirty clinical trial sites in fifteen countries on four continents," explains Anthony S. Fauci, NIAID, NIH. "This network is now at the forefront of clinical trials of HIV vaccine candidates."

Corey has been a pioneer in the development of antiviral therapy. In the early 1980s he worked with Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and pharmacologist Gertrude Elion to demonstrate that an antiviral that was selective and specific for a viral-specified enzyme could be safely and effectively administered to control a chronic viral infection (herpes simplex virus-2). These studies were directly responsible for the subsequent successful quest of the pharmaceutical and medical sciences communities to develop effective antiviral therapy for hepatitis B and HIV. In 1987 he directed the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, or ACTG, and under his leadership the use of the retroviral drug AZT to reduce maternal-fetal transmission of HIV and HAART (highly active retroviral therapy) were developed. His research group also was the first to identify an association between the virus that causes genital herpes (herpes simplex virus) and HIV. Through the ACTG he pioneered the integration of community members into clinical research activities.

"No one has contributed more to our understanding of herpes simplex virus pathogenesis and therapy than Corey," states Martin Hirsch, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. "From early work demonstrating that certain treatments don't work, to landmark studies of topical, intravenous and oral acyclovir and its congeners, Corey has led the way. In his elegant studies of HSV latency, he may well open up new avenues to cure, rather than suppression. He has taught us more about the pathogenesis, immunology, and treatment of genital herpes than any other investigator in the field."

In the mid-1990s, Corey increasingly concentrated his scientific and leadership skills on the area of vaccine development, and in 1998 he worked with Fauci to develop a global clinical trials group to speed the development of HIV vaccines. In 2002, Corey recognized the need to further integrate research efforts in HIV vaccine development and spearheaded the development of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, one of the few scientific programs overseen by leaders of the major industrialized countries. Fauci explains, "Corey is the only scientist in the country who had led two of our nation's major HIV clinical trials programsone in treatment and one in vaccine developmentand hence has a unique perspective on the treatment and prevention of HIV infection." Corey also conceived and led an international study that demonstrated that a daily dose of an antiviral drug cuts the transmission of the genital herpes virus by half. He currently is working to define how host immune cells control the herpes simplex virus and whether it will be possible to develop a vaccine to reduce infection reactivation.

In 2008, with funding from the Washington Life Sciences Discovery Fund, Corey founded the Hutchinson Center-based Washington Vaccine Alliance, or WAVA a virtual biotechnology coalition of nonprofit research institutions dedicated to developing novel vaccines for the prevention of human diseases ranging from typhoid to syphilis to salmonella poisoning. Corey's numerous honors and awards include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. In addition, he received the Pan American Society's Clinical Virology Award and the Parran Award of the American Society for STD Research.

###

The rest is here:
The American Society for Microbiology honors Lawrence Corey

Public release date: 22-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

William P. Hanage, Ph.D., Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, has received a 2012 ICAAC Young Investigator Award. Hanage is honored for his work studying the epidemiology and evolution of infectious disease. "Hanage has provided game changing tools and expertise in the pneumococcal field, first with MLST and now with whole genome sequencing, to reach into the world of the organism," explains Katherine O'Brien of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "His work has revealed ways in which the pathogen attempts to escape vaccine control. He is brilliant, innovative, and tangential in his thinking one of those rare people who can see connections where others do not."

Hanage graduated from the University of Bath, United Kingdom, with an undergraduate degree in Biochemistry. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from Imperial College London in the laboratory of Jonathan Cohen studying host microbial interactions, where he developed a passion for infectious disease research. After obtaining his Ph.D., Hanage worked in Brian Spratt's laboratory at the University of Oxford and later in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Imperial College London, studying the molecular epidemiology of bacterial pathogens. He joined the faculty at Harvard School of Public Health in 2010.

Over time, Hanage developed an interest in theoretical approaches to epidemiology to complement the molecular perspective gained from his formal education. He continues to combine empirical and theoretical methods in his research. "Hanage's research productivity throughout his career speaks to his creativity and ability to cross over between disciplines, pulling from one area of expertise to apply tools to another domain," says O'Brien. Especially interested in subjects that combine clinical importance with fundamental biological questions, Hanage looks at questions like how pathogens respond to novel selective pressures in the form of antimicrobials and vaccines. He has a specific interest in understanding the factors behind the response of the bacterial population to pneumococcal conjugate vaccination.

In addition to such clinically focused questions, Hanage has worked extensively on the phenomenon of homologous recombination in bacteria, which shuffles genetic material among lineages, studying how it can be detected and its consequences for how bacteria respond in the face of novel selective pressures. "He has developed new methods for data analysis and combining molecular and traditional epidemiology," says Stephen Pelton, Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Indeed, recombination or horizontal gene transfer makes the very notion of species problematic for bacteria, another of Hanage's major interests, one for which he was awarded a University Research Fellowship by the Royal Society. Hanage has also increasingly become involved with population genomic analyses of large numbers of very closely related pathogen isolates to probe in detail their patterns of transmission and diversification. His work on pathogen evolution was recognized with the 2012 Fleming Prize from the Society for General Microbiology. "Recently, Hanage has been among the pioneers of genomic epidemiology for bacterial pathogens. He exemplifies the combination of theoretical and experimental skills that will be fundamental to the future of infectious disease epidemiology," describes nominator Marc Lipsitch, Harvard School of Public Health.

"I believe Hanage's largest contributions have yet to come," says Pelton. "I think he will lead us to new insights into genetic regulation that permit specific clones of Streptococcus pneumoniae to successfully compete in the nasopharynx, to be more easily transmitted from person to person, and to evade host defenses to cause disease. I am confident that this will inform new approaches to treatment and disease prevention."

"Beyond his scientific accomplishments, for which his publication record speaks clearly, his personal and mentoring characteristics have to be emphasized," summarized O'Brien. "He is a gem of a colleagueenthusiastic, welcoming of collaborations, generous with his time toward students, and a genuine scholarly partner."

###

The ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented during ASM's 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 9-12, 2012 in San Francisco, CA. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health, economic, and environmental well-being.

More here:
The American Society for Microbiology honors William Hanage

Public release date: 22-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org American Society for Microbiology

The 2012 ICAAC Young Investigator Award designated for a researcher working in the area of HIV has been bestowed upon Mario L. Santiago, Ph.D., Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado, Denver. Santiago is honored for his varied work in virology, from field-based HIV epidemiology studies to manipulating innate immunity in his efforts to explore innovative new ways to approach the challenge of the HIV vaccine. "Already at this early stage of his career, Santiago is demonstrating that he is one of the upcoming leaders in the field of retroviral resistance genes and their fascinating mechanisms of action," explains Kim Hasenkrug, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID.

Santiago graduated from the University of the Philippines magna cum laude with a BS in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. He then worked on schistosome and malaria vaccines as part of the NIH-sponsored Tropical Medicine Research Center in the Philippines and on HIV-1 molecular epidemiology as a Fogarty AIDS International Research fellow at Brown University. Santiago went on to receive his Ph.D. in Microbiology under Beatrice Hahn at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, where he developed noninvasive methods to detect Simian Immunodeficiency Virus in wild nonhuman primates, eventually leading to the discovery of the origins of HIV-1 and HIV-2 in wild chimpanzees and sooty mangabeys, respectively. "During his tenure, he painstakingly designed, tested and optimized strategies to noninvasively screen fecal and urine samples from wild monkeys and great apes for simian immunodeficiency viruses, which aided in our breakthrough understanding of the origins of HIV-1 and HIV-2," explains Hahn. "These findings resulted in fascinating high-profile publications and have revolutionized our perspective on the AIDS pandemic."

After receiving his Ph.D., Santiago completed two postdoctoral fellowships, first at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, then at the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he discovered that a long-sought classical resistance gene that modulates the retrovirus-specific neutralizing antibody response known as Rfv3 corresponds to an innate immunity gene known as APOBEC3. In 2006, Santiago reached out to Hasenkrug to collaborate: "he emailed me with the hypothesis that a retroviral resistance gene that I had mapped (Rfv3), might be Apobec3. He trained briefly in my lab, learned the mouse retrovirus model very quickly, and in short order had the model working at the Gladstone Institute. He has pushed this research forward, innovating new techniques and technologies, and has opened the door to a very exciting and highly competitive research area."

In 2009, Santiago joined the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Denver-Anschutz Medical Campus. There he continues his work on the interplay between innate retroviral restriction and adaptive immunity in mice, monkeys and humans, with a conceptual focus on HIV vaccine development, host genetics of retrovirus resistance, and interferon-based antiretroviral therapy. He currently supervises a post-doctoral fellow and three graduate students from the Immunology and Microbiology programs, where he holds adjunct appointments.

Santiago's scientific contributions have been published in prominent journals that include Science, Nature, Cell, PNAS, PLoS Pathogens, and The Journal of Virology. "Santiago's recent work on the function of human Apobec3 has helped delineate potential genetic mechanisms behind the production of neutralizing antibodies to HIV, which are critical to preventing HIV infection," says nominator Thomas Campbell, University of Colorado, Denver. "His research findings will help to inform the discovery of HIV drugs and vaccines." He concludes, "Santiago's outstanding achievements attest to his creativity and collegiality, and his exceptional ability to successfully accomplish innovative, cutting-edge research in retrovirology."

###

The ICAAC Young Investigator Award will be presented during ASM's 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 9-12, 2012 in San Francisco, CA. ASM is the world's oldest and largest life science organization and has more than 40,000 members worldwide. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences and promote the use of scientific knowledge for improved health, economic, and environmental well-being.

The rest is here:
The American Society for Microbiology honors Mario Santiago