Volume XIII, Issue III

Oct/Nov 2015

Center for Immunology & Microbial Disease at Albany Medical College

CIMD Newsletter Inside this issue:

Annual Retreat 2

Grant Awards 2

Peer-reviewed Publications 2

Conferences, Meetings, and

Study Sections 3

Thoughts to Share 3

Seminars 4

18th Annual Upstate New York Immunology Conference

The 18th Annual Upstate New York Immunology Conference was held October 25-28, 2015 at The Sagamore Resort and

Conference Center in Bolton Landing, NY. The event was attended by over 100 participants and included two keynote speak-

ers, Dr. Kristin A. Hogquist (University of Minnesota) and Dr. Yasmine Belkaid (NIAID/NIH). There were also symposium

presentations, American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Young Investigator Awards and eBioscience Trainee Travel

Awards (given to trainees based on the scientific content of their poster abstracts), short oral poster presentations, a cruise

on Lake George, and several team-building activities.

Financial support was provided by corporate sponsors (including three platinum level sponsors - BD Biosciences, BioLegend,

Inc., and Taconic Biosciences), supporting academic institutions, and an R13 NIH Conference grant.

Next year’s Conference is schedule for October 24-27, 2016 at The Sagamore Resort. Check the website in the Spring for

more information at: http://www.amc.edu/NYIC/index.cfm

Two recent Theobald Smith Lecturers have been elected to the highly prestigious National Academy of Medicine.

Keith Paul Klugman, M.D., Ph.D., director for pneumonia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle; emeritus William H. Foege

Professor of Global Health, Emory University, Atlanta; and honorary professor, University of the Bitwatersand Respiratory and

Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, Johannesburg, South Africa

Jean-Laurent Casanova, M.D., Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and professor and senior attending phy-

sician, St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, The Rockefeller Institute, New York City.

Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine, recognizing individuals

who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

Theobald Smith Lecturers Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

American Association of Immunologists

Young Investigator Awards

eBioscience/affymetrix

Trainee Travel Awards

CIMD Newsletter

CIMD Annual Research Retreat

Page 2

Metzger DW, Furuya Y, Salmon SL, Roberts S, and Sun K. Limited efficacy of anti-bacterial vaccination against secondary serotype 3 pneu-

mococcal pneumonia following influenza infection. J. Infect. Dis. 212:445-452, 2015.

Zmijewski PA, Gao LY, Saxena AR, Chavannes NK, Hushmendy SF, Bhoiwala DL and Crawford DR. Fish oil improves gene targets of Down

syndrome in C57BL and BALB/c mice. Nutr Res. 35:440-448, 2015.

Nguyen Q-T, Furuya Y, Roberts S, and Metzger DW. The role of interleukin-12 in protection against pulmonary infection with methicillin-

resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 59:6308-6316, 2015.

Barrosa M, Tucker H, Drake L, Nichol K, and Drake JR. Antigen-B cell receptor complexes associate with intracellular MHC class II mole-

cules. J Biol Chem. In press, 2015.

Furuya Y, Furuya AK, Roberts S, Sanfilippo AM, Salmon SL, and Metzger DW. Prevention of influenza virus-induced immunopathology by

TFG-β produced during allergic asthma. PLoS Pathog. 11:e1005180, 2015.

Babadjanova Z, Wiedinger K, Gosselin EJ, and Bitsaktsis C. Targeting of a fixed bacterial immunogen to Fc receptors reverses the anti-

inflammatory properties of the gram-negative bacterium, Francisella tularensis, during the early stages of infection. PLos One

10:e0129981, 2015.

Franz BJ, Li Y, Bitsaktsis C, Iglesias BV, Pham G, Sunagar R, Kumar S, and Gosselin EJ. Downmodulation of vaccine-induced immunity and

protection against the intracellular bacterium Francisella tularensis by the inhibitory receptor FcγRIIB.

J Immunol Res. 2015:840842, 2015.

Ting JP and Harton JA. NLRP3 moonlights in Th2 polarization. Nat Immunol. 16:794-796, 2015.

Reynolds TD, Buonocore L, Rose NF, Rose JK, and Robek MD. Virus-like vesicle-based therapeutic vaccine

vectors for chronic hepatitis B virus infection. J Virol. 89:10407-10415, 2015.

Peer-reviewed Publications

The Center for Immunology and Microbial Disease

held its Annual Research Retreat on August 3, 2015,

at Birch Hill Catering, Castleton-on-Hudson, NY.

This year’s format included short presentations by

faculty member, Dr. Michael Robek, postdoctoral fel-

low, Dr. Julianne Smith, and graduate student, Travis

Walrath. We also welcomed Ph.D. student,

Carolina Chiale Ferreira.

Poster presentations were viewed and feedback was

provided by faculty and postdoctoral fellows.

Lunch was followed by a number of activities including

volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, and board games. Everyone gathered for the yearly CIMD group picture and raffle winners

were presented a variety of prizes.

Grant Awards

Yoichi Furuya, Ph.D., received a one-year, $40,000 Biomedical Research Grant from the American Lung Association for

his research entitled, “Identifying protective immune mechanisms against viral-bacterial co-infections.”

Thomas Andersen, Ph.D., James A. Bennett, Ph.D., and Herbert I. Jacobson, Ph.D., received a three-year, $1,075,420

grant from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity for their work entitled, “Prevention and Treatment of

Breast Cancer.”

Conferences, Meetings, and Study Sections

Edmund J. Gosselin, Ph.D., served on the

National Institutes of Health Vaccines

against Microbial Disease Study Section

in Washington, DC, June 18-19, 2015.

James R. Drake, Ph.D., was invited to

serve as a reviewer for the NIH Immunolo-

gy Fellowship and Academic Research

Enhancement Award (AREA) R15 grant

applications for predoctoral and postdoc-

toral trainees, in Rockville, MD, June 25-

26, 2015.

Kouacou V. Konan, Ph.D., gave an oral

presentation entitled, “Hepatitis C Virus

Requires the Function of Distinct Glyco-

sphingolipid Biosynthetic Proteins for

Genome Replication and Virus Produc-

tion,” at the American Society for Virology

2015 Meeting in Ontario, Canada, July 10

-15, 2015.

Dennis W. Metzger, Ph.D., was invited to

present a lecture on Vaccines at the

2015 AAI Advanced Course in Immunolo-

gy, in Boston, August 7, 2015.

Carlos de Noronha, Sc.D., gave a seminar

at Retropath 2015; 27th Workshop of

Retroviral Pathogenesis entitled,

“Sulforaphane Inhibits HIV Infection of

Macrophages through Nrf2,” in Wolfs-

burg, Germany, August 24-28, 2015.

Dennis W. Metzger, Ph.D., was invited to

serve as a Symposium Speaker and Work-

shop Director at the 1st International

Meeting on Respiratory Pathogens, in

Singapore, September 2-4, 2015.

Jonathan A. Harton, Ph.D., served as the

American Association of Immunologists

(AAI) Committee on Public Affairs (CPA)

representative at the Federation of Ameri-

can Societies for Experimental Biology

(FASEB) Roundtable on Reproducibility in

Research Using Antibodies, held Septem-

ber 10, 2015.

William O’Connor, Ph.D., was invited to

give a seminar in honor of Dr. Richard A.

Flavell entitled, “Gene Regulation and Cell

Signaling in Immunity and Pathophysiolo-

gy,” at Yale School of Medicine in New

Haven, CT, September 10-11, 2015.

Michael D. Robek, Ph.D., chaired the In-

nate Immune Response Session at the

2015 International Hepatitis B Virus

Meeting in Germany, October 5-9, 2015.

Edmund J. Gosselin, Ph.D., served on the

National Institutes of Health Vaccines

against Microbial Disease Study Section

in Washington, DC, October 14-16, 2015.

James R. Drake, Ph.D., served on the

National Institutes of Health Cellular and

Molecular Immunology—Area B (CIMB)

Study Section in Washington, DC, October

15-16, 2015.

Dana R. Crawford, Ph.D., was invited to

give two lectures at the Nutrition Science

Department of Sage College entitled,

“Basic Concepts in Nutrigenomics and

Nutrigenetics,” and “The Future of Nutri-

genomics and Nutrigenetics,” in Albany,

NY, October 22, 2015.

James R. Drake, Ph.D. and Michael D.

Robek, Ph.D., each gave symposium talks

entitled, “MHC Class II Subsets in B-Cell

Biology,” and “Virus-based Therapeutic

Vaccine Vectors to Cure Chronic HBV

Infection,” respectively, at the 18th Annu-

al Upstate New York Immunology Confer-

ence in Bolton Landing, NY, October 25-

28, 2015. Postdoctoral Fellow, Julianne

N.P. Smith, Ph.D., was also invited to give

an oral and poster presentation entitled,

“Type I IFNs Directly Promote Hematopoi-

etic Progenitor Cell Death and Lead to

Bone Marrow Failure in Severe Bacterial

Infection.”

Michael D. Robek, Ph.D., served on the

National Institutes of Health Virology

Study Section—Area B in Washington, DC,

October 29-30, 2015.

Dana R. Crawford, Ph.D., was invited to

give a seminar at the Down Syndrome

Innovations 2015 Conference entitled,

“Dietary Targeting of RCAN1 and Chromo-

some 21 Genes to Treat Individuals with

Down Syndrome,” at the Arkansas Chil-

dren’s Hospital in Little Rock, AK, October

29, 2015.

Dennis W. Metzger, Ph.D., served as Act-

ing Chair for the NIH Special Emphasis

Panel on Adaptive and Innate Immune

Response in Bethesda, MD, November 5,

2015.

Kate C. MacNamara, Ph.D., was invited to

give a seminar to the Microbiology & Im-

munology Department at the University of

Rochester entitled, “Macrophages: Key

Regulators of Hematopoiesis in Disease

and at Steady State,” in Rochester, NY,

November 9, 2015.

Page 3 Volume XIII, Issue III

Congratulations to

Andrea and Yoichi Furuya

on the birth of their son, Kai Marias Furuya,

born July 23, 2015, 8 lbs., 8 oz.

Congratulations! CIMD Annual Holiday Party

REMINDER: Mark your calendars for the Annual CIMD

Holiday Party, being held December 1, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. at

the Albany Shaker Ridge Country Club, in Albany, NY.

If you haven’t already done so, please RSVP to Joanne

George, x25908 or email her at georgej4@mail.amc.edu

CIMD Seminars

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/

November 9, 2015—2:00 p.m., Huyck Auditorium Dr. Dennis W. Metzger, Host

CIMD Faculty Candidate

Patricia Q. Cortes, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Medicine, Immunology Institute

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

“Insights into the Mechanism of V(D)J Recombination”

November 12, 2015—11:00 a.m., Huyck Auditorium Dr. Wil liam O’Connor, Host

Christian Jobin, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Medicine

Division of Gastroenterology, College of Medicine

University of Florida

“Microbes and Colorectal Cancer: The Search for a Drug Target”

January 14, 2016—11:00 a.m., Huyck Auditorium Dr. Kouacou V. Konan, Host

Guangxiang Luo, Ph.D.

Professor

Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine

University of Alabama at Birmingham

“Cellular Factors Important for Hepatitis C Virus Infection and Replication in vitro and in vivo”