Obituary: Kenneth L. Temple, 1918 – 2013

Kenneth Temple, emeritus professor of microbiology at Montana State University, died of pneumonia at age 95 on September 30, 2013, at home in Bozeman.

Ken Temple was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 22, 1918, the third child of Sterling Temple and Isabella Matchett Temple. At an early age his family moved to New York state where Ken grew up, first on Staten Island in New York City and then in Niagara Falls. He developed his lifelong love of reading, gardening, nature, and the outdoors early on, and adopted his younger sister's accordion after she lost interest. He was raised in the Methodist church. His collegiate undergraduate years were spent at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Ken developed many outdoor interests including downhill and cross-country skiing, camping, hiking in the Adirondacks, horseback jumping, and working as a camp counselor. In those days ski lifts were rare enough, so he said, that skiers generally had to work their way up the slopes by sidestep or herringbone to reach the top. Ken had an old pair of hickory skis dating from that time that he kept for many years.

Ken majored in chemistry, as had his father and an older brother before him, earning his degree in 1940. He then received an M.S. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was in Madison that he learned to square dance. With the imminent entry of the United States into World War II, Ken became an employee of the U.S. Navy, working at Naval Research in Washington, D.C. In Washington, at a square dance, he met his lifelong love and partner, Ruth Remsberg. They were married September 4, 1943. Their marriage continued for 55 years until Ruth's death in 1998.

After the war Ken switched fields and earned a PhD in microbiology from Rutgers University. After receiving his degree, Ken became a post-doctoral researcher at West Virginia University. There he did groundbreaking work on sulfuric acid runoff from coal mines. Prior to this, no one had identified microbial action as the source of that pollution. Ken discovered and named the organism responsible, thiobacillus ferrooxidans.

After five years, Ken relocated to Houston, Texas to work for Texaco. Two years later, in 1955, he moved to Montana to join the Department of Botany and Bacteriology in what was then Montana State College. The Bozeman area suited him perfectly, offering as it did both interesting research opportunities in microbiology, as well as a wealth of opportunities for hiking in the mountains, summer and winter camping, skiing, hunting and fishing, and canoeing.

While at Montana State, research on microorganisms in Yellowstone geothermal waters became one of Ken's main professional interests. He was the first person to identify what are now called extremophiles, in this case thermophile organisms living in water previously thought to be too hot to support life. The study of extremophiles has become a major scientific enterprise since that time.

Ken lived in Bozeman for the rest of his life, except for a two-year research sabbatical in Australia, another year-long sabbatical in England, and two years late in life in a retirement community near his daughter Susan in the Seattle area.

Ken enjoyed a wide range of activities. His love of square dancing and playing the accordion continued all his life. He loved dogs and was very interested in all wildlife, whether that meant watching a nearby mountain lion, building bluebird houses, or videotaping wildflowers. Ken joined colleagues in winter ski-camping across parts of northern Yellowstone, hiking up Blackmore and in the Spanish Peaks, and climbing Granite Peak. He was also very family-oriented and enjoyed joining his children in recreational activities such as skiing, hiking, chess, and word games like Scrabble and Jotto. Ken and Ruth delivered Meals on Wheels together for decades. Especially after his retirement from MSU, Ken enjoyed playing and eventually teaching bridge (although he was never as good at it as Ruth). He read widely in literature, science, religion, and other areas. Science fiction was among his favorites. He had a good understanding of language, and would grimace if someone used a word incorrectly. Ken and Ruth enjoyed taking the family on long road trip vacations, including visiting relatives on the east coast, exploring national parks, and on one occasion venturing into southern Mexico.

Kenneth was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Ralph and Willard, and his wife Ruth. He is survived by his three children, George of St. Paul, MN, Judson of Oklahoma City, OK, and Susan of Bellevue, WA; five granddaughters, Anya Temple, Sarah Temple, Kate O'Donnell, Kirsten Temple, and Julie Whitten, two great-grandsons, Connor and Alexander Whitten; and by his sister, Winifred Schumacher of PA.

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Obituary: Kenneth L. Temple, 1918 - 2013

Got beer? Thank a microbiologist

Beauty and the yeast

Rebecca Newman, quality control manager with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery says the microbiology of yeast is crucial to a beer's taste. (4:02)

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WASHINGTON - A beer drinker looking to quench his thirst might not give a second thought to what microbiologists call "the master ingredient" in beer.

"I think the typical consumer doesn't really think about the yeast, but if it goes wrong they'll definitely know it was a yeast problem," says Rebecca Newman, quality control manager for Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.

Newman was recruited by Anheuser-Busch right out of college in the mid-'80s, armed with a degree in food science and technology.

She and Charlie Bamforth, Ph.D., Anheuser-Busch Endowed Professor of Malting and Brewing Sciences, University of California - Davis, will be speaking Thursday evening at the headquarters of the American Society for Microbiology, in an event called "The Microbiology of Beer."

The American Academy of Microbiology produced a report entitled "If the yeast ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

"I look at yeast as being the conductor of an orchestra, with all the ingredients as the instruments that would go into making the different beers," says Newman.

And I look at the yeast as conducting all those ingredients to come up with a final beer flavor," says Newman.

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Got beer? Thank a microbiologist

PathoGenetix Research Shows Rapid Identification of Multiple Salmonella Serovars in Food Samples

Woburn, MA (PRWEB) October 09, 2013

PathoGenetix, Inc., a commercial-stage developer of an automated system for rapid bacterial identification, will present new research today demonstrating the use of Genome Sequence Scanning (GSS) technology to confirm and identify multiple serovars of Salmonella in enriched food samples in less than five hours. The data, included in a poster presentation at the 4th American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Conference on Salmonella in Boston, add to a growing body of research demonstrating the use of PathoGenetixs proprietary genotyping technology to reliably identify pathogens of public health and food safety significance, including Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STECs).

The study evaluated the use of GSS in molecular serotyping and sub-typing of Salmonella, and as a tool for simultaneous detection of multiple serovars of Salmonella in complex mixtures. The study results show that GSS can be used to infer the serotype of an unknown Salmonella strain, based on the location of the strain on the GSS tree and the identity of its neighbors. The results also demonstrate the ability of GSS to shorten the time to just five hours for pathogen subtyping and serotype determination from an enriched food sample, including those containing multiple serovars.

Because Genome Sequence Scanning is culture independent, and fully automated from sample preparation to final report, the technology greatly reduces the time, complexity and skill required when compared to other molecular and next generation sequencing (NGS) identification approaches. The strain-type information provided by GSS is comparable to pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the current standard for pathogen typing in foodborne outbreak investigation and response. As a result, GSS offers a powerful new tool for epidemiological investigations and outbreak monitoring that can enable quicker decisions affecting food safety and public health. The GSS technology will be commercially available in 2014 in the RESOLUTION Microbial Genotyping System.

According to the American Society of Microbiology, Salmonella infections continue to be a major public health problem in many parts of the world. In the U.S., Salmonella is the leading cause of foodborne illnesses leading to hospitalization and death. The Salmonella genus has more than 2,500 serotypes or serovars, based on the antigens that the organism presents on its surface. In the U.S., Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium are the most common serotypes, accounting for half of all Salmonella infections in people.

The 4th ASM Conference on Salmonella brings together scientists from a variety of backgrounds to present the most recent research and discoveries in the field, including new approaches in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infections. PathoGenetixs research, entitled Evaluation of Genome Sequence Scanning technology for molecular (sub)-serotyping of Salmonella and simultaneous detection of multiple Salmonella serovars in complex mixtures is being presented in a poster session on October 9.

The research tested the strain typing capability of GSS using more than 400 strains and genome sequences representing the most frequently encountered Salmonella serovars from food products associated with human illness. The results show that Genome Sequence Scanning clustered Salmonella strains into serovar-specific branches on the GSS tree, clearly demarcating the major serovars from each other. Polyphyletic lineage serovars like S. Newport and S. Saintpaul formed more than one distinctly separated branch on the tree, reflecting the genetic heterogeneity within these serovars. GSS assigned correct serovar designations to strains untypeable by conventional serotyping and to antigenic variants of serovars based on genetic similarity. Genome Sequence Scanning also reliably detected the presence of up to three different serovars of Salmonella in the presence of complex background flora, demonstrating the technologys ability to provide strain information directly from complex mixtures.

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About PathoGenetix, Inc.

PathoGenetix, Inc. is a commercial-stage developer of an automated system for rapid bacterial identification from complex samples. PathoGenetix is a venture-backed company that has received more than $50 million in technology development funding from the Department of Homeland Security. The core Genome Sequence Scanning (GSS) technology analyzes DNA from an enriched biological samplewithout the need for a cultured isolateand provides results in five hours. GSS has broad applicability in food safety, industrial microbiology, and clinical diagnostics and research. The GSS technology will be available in the RESOLUTION Microbial Genotyping System in 2014 for use in food safety testing and foodborne illness outbreak investigations. Learn more at http://www.pathogenetix.com.

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PathoGenetix Research Shows Rapid Identification of Multiple Salmonella Serovars in Food Samples

Carmel Valley mom heads growing full-service microbiology laboratory

By Kristina Houck

Kim Lim at Ultimate Labs / Courtesy photo

Kim Lim saw the need for a company in San Diego that offered a variety of laboratory services. Although she was a new single parent and the country was in the midst of a recession, the Carmel Valley woman decided to fill that need by founding Ultimate Labs in 2008.

The full-service microbiology laboratory provides environmental monitoring, microbial water and food testing to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and food industries.

It was extremely difficult, said founder and CEO Lim, who has lived in the community for about 15 years. There wasnt a lot of funding or outside help with the banking industry, so we really bootstrapped it. Its really my own personal investment.

Ultimate Labs opened its doors with four employees and 10 clients. It has since grown to nearly 20 staff members and more than 200 clients across the United States.

The company, which was recently named one of the Best Places to Work by the San Diego Business Journal, offers the latest laboratory technology. In fact, it recently acquired the Vitek Mass Spec system to provide clients with the most rapid mass spectrometry method available to detect microbial pathogens in food and pharmaceutical production. Ultimate Labs is one of only two laboratories with the equipment, with the other on the East Coast.

Were always striving to be more innovative and be problem solvers rather than just a testing service, so I think that is why weve grown so much, Lim said. Were really looking for solutions for our clients as opposed to just doing cookie-cutter testing.

Before founding Ultimate Labs, Lim worked as an engineering consultant in the biotech industry for more than a decade. Originally from Boston, she came to San Diego as a traveling consultant.

Shortly after the birth of her son, Lim divorced. She once again became a consultant before she decided to launch her own business. She also adopted her second son.

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Carmel Valley mom heads growing full-service microbiology laboratory

Leishmania parasites with greater infectivity associated with treatment failure

Public release date: 8-Oct-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

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

Relapses after treatment for Leishmania infection may be due to a greater infectivity of the parasite rather than drug resistance, as has been previously thought, according to a study published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Visceral leishmaniasis, also called kala-azar, is a parasitic disease that strikes 400,000 people every year and kills around 1 in 10 of its victims. The disease has proven difficult to treat, in part because a large percentage of patients who take the drug of choice, miltefosine, relapse after treatment, coming down with the same disease all over again. Doctors and scientists have long suspected that drug resistance was behind the failure of miltefosine, but that's not so, according to the researchers. The study reveals that parasites in patients who relapse after leishmaniasis treatment have a greater infectivity than parasites from patients who were treated successfully. They are essentially a worse, more dangerous form of the parasite.

"Parasites from relapsed patients show an increased capacity to infect host cells," says co-author Manu Vanaerschot of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp,Belgium. The authors write that it remains to be seen whether miltefosine treatment causes the increased infectivity of the parasite, or if parasites with greater infectivity are capable of escaping treatment.

Miltefosine is at the heart of a vast program aimed at ending visceral leishmaniasis on the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh and Nepal), but 6.8% of Indian patients redevelop symptoms of the disease within 6 months after treatment and 20% of Nepalese patients relapse within 12 months after miltefosine treatment. Parasites collected from patients before and after treatment have been fingerprinted and are very close genetic matches, indicating that these patients are not simply re-infected with new parasites once their treatment ends, they are still carrying the same strain that sickened them before treatment. Other work revealed another surprising fact: parasites from relapsed patients were sensitive to miltefosine, so the failure of treatment was not due to drug resistance, a common suspect in cases where infectious disease treatment fails.

With re-infection and drug resistance now crossed off the list of possible reasons for the high relapse rate, the researchers set out to see what factors might really be at work. They examined the morphology of parasites taken from visceral leishmaniasis patients who were treated successfully and patients who relapsed. They found a significant association between the number of parasites in the metacyclic stage of their life cycle and patient treatment outcome. In other words, patients who relapsed were infected with parasites that have a greater infectivity, meaning they were more capable of infecting human cells.

The precise link between infectivity and treatment failure is not known, write the authors, but they propose that parasites with greater infectivity might cause a greater parasite load in the patient, making the case more difficult to treat, or perhaps they are able to evade the drug by hiding in parts of the body it doesn't easily penetrate, like the skin.

Vanaerschot says he and his colleagues saw a similar correlation between infectivity and treatment failure in patients who had been treated with the types of drugs that used to be favored in the region, pentavalent animonials. "At the time we thought that it was a very special case. But now that we've also seen this in parasites treated with other drugs, this indicates that it might be a more common problem than we originally thought."

Co-author Jean-Claude Dujardin, of the Institute of Tropical Medicine and the University of Antwerp, in Belgium, says regardless of the underlying cause-and-effect relationship, the findings are a wake-up call about the possible effects a therapy might have on pathogens it's supposed to kill.

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Leishmania parasites with greater infectivity associated with treatment failure

Vaccination campaign doubles HBV mutations

Public release date: 7-Oct-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Garth Hogan ghogan@asmusa.org 202-942-9389 American Society for Microbiology

WASHINGTON, DC October 7, 2013 A universal infant vaccination campaign in China has led the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) to more than double its rate of "breakout" mutations. These mutations may enable the virus to elude the vaccine, necessitating new vaccination strategies. Researchers at the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, report their findings in an article published ahead of print in the Journal of Virology.

Until a universal vaccination program for infants was implemented in 1992, nearly ten percent of Chinesechildren includedwere infected with HBV. The vaccination campaign has protected an estimated 80 million children, dramatically reducing the percentage of children under 5 who are infected, from nearly 10 percent in 1992 to less than one percent in 2005. But these gains are in danger of being eroded as the virus develops surface mutations.

Taking advantage of 1992 and 2005 survey, investigators found that the prevalence of HBV escape mutants in children rose from 6.5 percent in 1992, before the start of the universal vaccination program, to nearly 15 percent in 2005. Among the control group of adults unaffected by the universal vaccination campaign, the rate of break-out mutants was virtually unchanged.

Hepatitis B is an infectious illness of the liver which can cause vomiting, inflammation, jaundice, and, rarely, death. About a third of the world's population has been infected at some point in their lives. Transmission of hepatitis B virus results from exposure to infectious blood or bodily fluids containing blood. The infection is preventable by vaccination, which has been routinely used since the 1980s.

Researcher Tao Bian of Chapel Hill says that the vaccine remains quite effective, but that because escape mutants are likely to increase, public health officials need to track the rise of escape mutants, in order to know when it becomes time to consider new vaccination strategies. Measures that might be taken include boosting doses, adjusting the timing of vaccinations, or improving the vaccine. A next generation HBV vaccine has been invented, containing a second antigen in addition to the virus' surface antigen. That means that both antigens would have to develop breakout mutations in order to elude the vaccine.

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A copy of the manuscript can be found online at http://bit.ly/asmtip0913e. Formal publication is scheduled for the November 2013 issue of the Journal of Virology.

The Journal of Virology is a publication of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). The ASM is the largest single life science society, composed of over 39,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to advance the microbiological sciences as a vehicle for understanding life processes and to apply and communicate this knowledge for the improvement of health and environmental and economic well-being worldwide.

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Vaccination campaign doubles HBV mutations