Fall 2024 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Fall 2024 Coordinator: Sloan Siegrist
Seminar Series Organizational Meeting
Tuesday, September 3 - 11:30am
222 Morrill Science Center II
Chalk Talk: Thermophilic Anaerobic Metabolisms as Analogs to Early Earth and Ocean World Processes
James Holden, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, September 24 - 11:30am
112 Skinner Hall
Understanding and Supporting Neurodiversity in the Workplace
Rita Curley
Investigator, Equal Opportunity and Access Office, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, October 1 - 11:30am
Host: Erika Hamilton
222 Morrill Science Center II
ClpXP Degradation in Caulobacter crescentus and Beyond
James Russo
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 3 - 11:30am
222 Morrill Science Center II
The Anatomy of the Interface Between Enteric Pathogens and the GI Mucosa
Saul Tzipori, D.V.M, Ph.D, DSc, FRCVS
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University
Thursday, October 10 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Rich
222 Morrill Science Center II
Microaggressions, Intervention, & Workplace Culture
Jules Purnell, Rita Curley
Equal Opportunity and Access Office, UMass Amherst
Thursday, October 24 - 11:30am
Host: Erika Hamilton
222 Morrill Science Center II
Fantastic Shapes and Where to Find Them: Diverse Modes of Growth and Division in Alphaproteobacteria
Amelia Randich
Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Scranton
Thursday, October 31 - 11:30am
Host: James Russo
222 Morrill Science Center II
Synergistic Tumor Eradication: Harnessing Cytotoxic and Immune-Modulatory Proteins via Salmonella-Mediated Delivery
Kashif Chowdhury
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 7 - 11:30am
222 Morrill Science Center II
Interleukin 6: A Tale of Two Transcripts in the KSHV RNA Decay Saga
Yahaira Bermudez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 7 - 11:30am
222 Morrill Science Center II
Chalk Talk: Temporally Defining Mechanisms of Endothelial Barrier Dysfunction Induced by Malaria Parasites
Selasi Dankwa, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, November 14 - 11:30am
112 Skinner Hall
High-Throughput Genetics Functionally Defines Divergent Cellular Machinery in the Fungal Meningitis Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans
Michael Boucher, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Fellow, University of California San Francisco
Tuesday, November 19 - 11:30am
Host: Michele Klingbeil
222 Morrill Science Center II
Circulating Cholesterol Fuels SARS-CoV-2 Replication via ORF3a
Jennifer Hayashi, Ph.D.
Scientist, University of California San Francisco
Thursday, November 21- 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
222 Morrill Science Center II
Something’s Fishy: Chlamydia and Epitheliocystis in Fish
RoseAnn Vik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 26 - 11:30am
222 Morrill Science Center II
Modulation of Homologous Recombination and DNA Damage by an Integrative and Conjugative Element
Alam Garcia Heredia, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tuesday, December 3 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
222 Morrill Science Center II
Exploring Novel Roles of Fungal Biofilms in Flow and Transport Dynamics within Porous Media
Sang Hyun Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, December 5 - 11:30am
112 Skinner Hall
Using Liquid Infusion to Create Anti-Fouling Urinary Catheters
Junie Fong, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, December 10 - 11:30am
112 Skinner Hall
Spring 2024 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Caulobacter Adapts to the Loss of Lipid A Using an Alternative Lipid and Envelope Stress Responses
Kathleen Ryan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Plant & Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley
Thursday, February 1, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Damage Control: Deciphering Mechanisms of Barrier Dysfunction and Repair
Selasi Dankwa, Ph.D.
Research Scientist III, Seattle Children's Hospital, Center for Global Infectious Disease Research
Tuesday, February 6, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Michele Klingbeil
Silent Recognition of Flagellins from Human Gut Commensal Bacteria by Toll-like Receptor 5
Sara Clasen, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Inflammation, Immunity & Infection, Georgia State University
Thursday, February 8, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Erika Hamilton
From Parasitism to Mutualism: Investigations Into the Molecular Bases of Drosophila-microbe Symbioses
Jessamyn Perlmutter, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas
Tuesday, February 13, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Barbara Osborne
Integrating Systems Biology Approaches to Dissect Neisseria gonorrhoeae Metabolism, Pathogenesis, and Antimicrobial Resistance at the Host-Pathogen Interface
Aimee Potter, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Virginia
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Characterizing Protein Export Machinery in Malaria Parasites
Manuel Fierro, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University
Thursday, February 22, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Briana Kubik
Due to Monday class schedule, Dr. Fierro's seminar will be held in room 112 Skinner Hall
Articulated and Actualized Biotech Learning Pathways: Preparing our Students for the Future
Jared Auclair, Ph.D.
Director of Bioinnovation, Northeastern University
Thursday, March 7, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
Revolutionizing Healthcare: Innovations in Antimicrobial Development to Combat Antibiotic Resistance
Margaret Riley, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Targeted Cancer Therapy with Engineered Salmonella
Neil Forbes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Separate but Connected: Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genome Stability
Agnel Sfeir, Ph.D.
Paine Webber Chair in Cancer Genetics, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Ketting Cancer Center
Thursday, April 4, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
Disentangling the Dual Carbon Fixation Strategy in Hydrothermal Vent Tubeworm Endosymbionts
Jessica Mitchell, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Ecophysiology, Biogeochemistry, and Engineering, Harvard University
Tuesday, April 16, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
Microbiome After Menopause: Recurrent UTI and Estrogen Shape the Urobiome of Postmenopausal Women
Nicole De Nisco, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biological Sicences, University of Texas Dallas
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Christi Kim
Increasing STEM Identity and Academic Success through Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Emily Rabinsky, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Holyoke Community College
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Beyond Liquid Cultures: Introducing Surface Density as a Measure for Microbial Growth Rates
Skyler Jabbour
UMass AMB Master's Program
Thursday, March 14, 2024 - 11:30am
Phos-For-Us: Metagenomic Insights into Biofilm Sequencing Batch Reactors for Phosphorus Resource Recovery and Water Remediation
Lucca Mancilio
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 14, 2024 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 11, 2024 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 18, 2024 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 25, 2024 - 11:30am
Community Assembly and N2O Metabolism in Photosynthetic Granular Biofilms
Eddy Hernandez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:30am
A Dual Induction System to Identify the Specialized Role(s) of POLIB in kDNA Maintenance
Raveen Armstrong
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:30am
It's No Laughing Matter: Reducing Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Agricultural Soils
David Ahlberg
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 - 11:30am
The Role of TSLP in Infectious Asthma Pathogenesis
Joanne Wang
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 - 11:30am
Fall 2023 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Why Trans Inclusion Leads to Better Science
Anna Marie LaChance, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Chemical Engineering, UMass Amherst
Thursday, September 21, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Carbon Incorporation in Methane-Producing Anaerobes
Michel Geovanni Santiago-Martinez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Connecticut
Thursday, September 28, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Nucleic Acid Maintenance in Hyperthermophilic Archaea
Kelly Zatopek, Ph.D.
Group Leader, New England Biolabs
Thursday, October 19, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Michele Klingbeil
Genomics and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Anna Greene, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
POSTPONED to Spring 2024
Jared Auclair, Ph.D.
Director of Bioinnovation, Northeastern University
Thursday, October 26, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
Vectorial Capacity of Ticks Determines Disease Risk and the Success of Tick Control Strategies
Isobel Ronai, Ph.D.
Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
Thursday, November 2, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Rich
Bent Out of SHAPE: Using Structural Probing and Mutational Profiling to Explore RNA That Resist Viral Decay
Jacob Miles
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - 11:30am
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Investigating Cell Wall Recycling in Mycobacteria
Stefanos Stravoravdis
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 - 11:30am
Semiochemical Use in Tick Control, Reimagined
Eric Siegel
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 31, 2023 - 11:30am
Microbial Growth and Competition in Resource-Limited Environments Using Experimental and Theoretical Approaches
Briana Kubik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 9, 2023 - 11:30am
Relationship Between kDNA Replication & Repair: Role of DNA Polymerase ß
Andy Rodriguez-Sanchez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 9, 2023 - 11:30am
Postponed
Lucca Mancilio
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 28, 2023 - 11:30am
Cell Envelope Components of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Affect Host Immune Response
Christi Kim
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 28, 2023 - 11:30am
Membrane Intrinsic Factors that Control the Dynamics of Mycobacterial Membrane Compartments
Malavika Prithviraj
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 11:30am
Something's Fishy: Chlamydiales and Epitheliocystis in Fish
RoseAnn Vik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 30, 2023 - 11:30am
Lipoarabinomannan Maintains Cell Wall Integrity During Cell Division and Cell Envelope Elongation in Mycobacteria
Ian Sparks
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 5, 2023 - 11:30am
Spring 2023 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Gut Microbiota Mediated Biotransformation of Food Components: the Key for their Biofunctions
Hang Xiao, Ph.D.
Professor of Food Science, UMass Amherst,
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Using Synthetic Biology to Understand and Control Living Electronics Across Scales
Joshua Atkinson, Ph.D.
Visiting NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Aarhus University
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 - 11:30am
From Laboratory to Field: Developing Innovative Environmental Biotechnology through Microfluidic Analysis of Biofilm-Flow Interactions
Sang Lee, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota
Tuesday, February 28, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Systematic Identification of Molecular Mediators Underlying Polymicrobial Interactions
Tiffany Zarrella, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Research Associate Training Fellow, National Institutes of Health
Thursday, March 2, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Jeff Kane
Honey Bees as Models to Investigate How Environmental Stressors Shape Gut Microbial Communities
Erick Da Silva Motta, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Texas Austin
Thursday, March 9, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Lili He
Biofilms, Wastewater, and COVID-19 - How Microbiology Can Inform How We Protect Our Water and Community Health
Caitlyn Butler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UMass Amherst
Thursday, April 27, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: MGSG/Andy Rodriguez
Microbial Natural Product Biosynthesis in Extreme Environments
Lesley-Ann Giddings, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Smith College
Thursday, May 11, 2023 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Spectral Detection of High-Temperature Microbes in Synthetic and Hydrothermal Vent Mineral Samples
Gema Garcia
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 16, 2023 - 11:30am
Final Doctoral Examination: A Biochemical Approach to Characterize a Divergent Trypanosoma brucei Mitochondrial DNA Polymerase POLIB
Stephanie Delzell
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 - 10:00am
Location: 112 Skinner Hall
Final Doctoral Examination: A Shift in RNA Fate: Investigating the Role of C19ORF66 during KSHV Lytic Replication
William Rodriguez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Friday, March 31, 2023 - 10:00am
Location: S240 Integrated Learning Center
Final Doctoral Examination: The Role of Serum-Mediated Killing in the Borrelia burgdorferi Infectivity Phenotype
Patrick Pearson
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 - 11:30am
Cell Wall Recycling in Mycobacteria
Stefanos Stravoravdis
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 6, 2023 - 11:30am
Environmental Factors Affect the Relationship Between Long-Term Warming, Ecosystem Function, and Microbial Diversity
Melissa Shinfuku
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 6, 2023 - 11:30am
Bent Out of SHAPE: Using Structural Probing and Mutational Profiling to Explore RNA That Resist Viral Decay
Jacob Miles
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 13, 2023 - 11:30am
A Dual-Control Induction System to Study the Role of POLIB in kDNA Maintenance
Raveen Armstrong
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 13, 2023 - 11:30am
Community Assembly in Photosynthetic Granular Biofilm
Eddy Hernandez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 11:30am
Exploring Structure to Function Dynamics of RNA Transcripts Evading Viral-Induced RNA Decay
Yahaira Bermudez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations: Aaron Beckett, Jared Yeung, Jaysica Ramirez, Jen Tedeshi, Brendan Maher
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations: Allison Gibbons, Ed York, Vidya Natarajan, Mohammad Essaihi
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations: Matthew Ryan, Adam Czubinski, Jamie Day, Evan Latowsky
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations: Daniel Kotlyar, Hanna Nguyen, Rafael Moraes, Abhishek Trivedi
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 - 11:30am
No Laughing Matter: Reducing Microbial Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Soils
David Ahlberg
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 11:30am
The Story of Hydrogen and Formate - A Hydrothermal Vent Edition
Harita Sistu
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 11:30am
Fall 2022 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Viral Takeover of the Host RNA Stability Pathways
Mandy Muller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, September 8, 2022 - 11:30am
Discovery, Biochemistry and Evolution of the Cruciviruses: Products of Unprecedented RNA-DNA Recombination?
Kenneth Stedman, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology Portland State University
Tuesday, September 13, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden, Steve Sandler
Targeting Cell Wall Biosynthesis for Tuberculosis Drug Discovery
Tanya Parish, Ph.D.
Professor of Pediatrics, Seattle Children's Hospital
Thursday, October 6, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Malavika Prithviraj; Co-Sponsored with UMass Chemistry-Biology Interface Program
Engineering Platforms for Infectious Disease Research
Joel Freundlich, Ph.D.
Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience and of Medicine, Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
One-Health Monitoring for Zoonotic Diseases and Vectors Across Climate Zones in the Americas
David Bruce Conn, Ph.D.
Henry Gund Professor of Biology, Berry College
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Gender and Sexuality 101
UMass Stonewall Center
Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Giant Sponge Grounds of Central Artic Seamount are Associated with Extinct Seep Life (via Zoom)
Teresa Morganti, Ph.D.
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
Tuesday, December 6, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Verena Carvalho
Microbial Growth and Competition in Resource-Limited Environments
Briana Kubik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 17, 2022 - 11:30am
Spring 2022 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Signals to Stick: Cell Adhesion of Kinetoplastid Parasites
Megan Povelones, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Villanova University
Thursday, February 17, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
Microbial Growth Drive Carbon and Nutrient Cycling in Soil (Zoom)
Andreas Richter, Ph.D.
Head of the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Head of the Division of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research, University of Vienna
Tuesday, March 1, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Melissa Shinfuku
Teaching: It Shouldn't Be This Hard
Chris Hakala, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, Springfield College
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
Genes to Ecosystems, Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Soil Microbiomes
Mallory Choudoir, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, March 29, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
ABC's of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Jennifer Moyston
Assistant Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Town of Amherst
Thursday, March 31, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Peer Advisors
The Living Dead: The Microbiome of Human Cadavers and Its Forensic Implications
Aaron Lynne, Ph.D.
Department Head and Professor, Biological Sciences, Sam Houston University
Thursday, April 7, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
Cellular Innovation by Rational Design and Evolution
Ahmad Khalil, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Thursday, April 14, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Bacterial Effector Protein Mechanisms in Pathogenesis or Host Protection
James Bliska, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
The Cellular Transcription Factor ATF3 Regulates Autophagy to Restrict Zika Virus Gene Expression
Cara Pager, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, University at Albany
Tuesday, April 26, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller; Co-Sponsored with the Chemical-Biology Interface (CBI) Program
Other Factors in the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance
Michael Baym, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School
Thursday, April 28, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
The Role of Race in Medical Education
Mondonna Mojahed
UMass Microbiology Senior
Tuesday, May 3, 2022 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
Applied and Molecular Biotechnology Presentations
Thomas Laskarzewski, Matthew Papp, Jared Schneider
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 24, 2022 - 11:30am
Applied and Molecular Biotechnology Presentations
Su Ao, Jennifer Le, Vasudha Sharma,
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 3, 2022 - 11:30am
Applied and Molecular Biotechnology Presentations
Kelly Malyszka, Ashtyn Parker-McDermott, Liam Rooney
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 10, 2022 - 11:30am
Investigating the Division of Labor for Bacterial Cell Wall Biosynthesis
Stefano Stravoravdis
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 24, 2022 - 11:30am
Keeping Nitrogen in the Soil: Mediating Microbial Metabolism to Reduce Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions
David Ahlberg
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - 11:30am
U Better SHAPE Up: Improving Nucleotide Reporting In RNA Mapping
Jacob Miles
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - 11:30am
Consequences of Long-Term Warming on the Relationship Between Ecosystem Multifunctionality and Microbial Diversity
Melissa Shinfuku
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 - 11:30am
Title TBD
Ian Sparks
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 - 11:30am
Oil Based Delivery Systems for Controlling Salmonella Contamination in Low-Moisture Food Processing Facilities
Mrinalini Ghoshal
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 21, 2022 - 11:30am
Something's Fishy: Chlamydia and Epitheliocystis in Fish
Roseann Vik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 21, 2022 - 11:30am
Fall 2021 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Quantitative Aquatic Microbial Ecology Through Stable Isotope Probing
William Orsi, Ph.D.
Professor, Ludwig Maximilians University, München, Germany
Tuesday, September 21, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Verena Carvalho
Stress Responses at the Virus-Host Interface
Craig McCormick, Ph.D.
Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, Dalhousie University
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Structual Studies on PriA and PriB replication Restart Proteins
James Keck, Ph.D.
Professor and Assoc. Dean for Basic Research Training, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
CANCELLED Microbial Growth Drive Carbon and Nutrient Cycling in Soil
Andreas Richter, Ph.D.
Head of the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Head of the Division of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research, University of Vienna
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Melissa Shinfuku
Predicting Infectivity in SARS-CoV-2 Clinical Samples
Emily Bruce, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont
Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Causal Links Between Human Gut Bacterial Metabolites and Host Functions
Sloan Devlin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School
Tuesday, November 2, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
ESX-5 Secretion in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Physiology and Pathogenesis
Anna Tischler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Minnesota
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Metabolic Interactions in the Soil Microbiome
Elizabeth Shank, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, UMass Medical
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
CANCELLED Bacterial Effector Protein Mechanisms in Pathogenesis or Host Protection.
James Bliska, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor, Dartmouth College, Geisel School of Medicine
Thursday, December 2, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
POSTPONED
Sloan Siegrist, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 - 11:30am
Microbial Growth and Competition Dynamics in Resource Limited Environments
Briana Kubik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 28, 2021 - 11:30am
The Role of Tuberculostearic Acid in Membrane Stress Response in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Malavika Prithviraj
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 4, 2021 - 11:30am
The Crossroads of RNA Stability: Understanding Targeting and Escape from Virus-Induced RNA Decay
Yadi Bermudez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 18, 2021 - 11:30am
The Host Strikes Back! C19ORF66 Restricts KSHV Lytic Reactivation by Targeting Viral Gene Translation
William Rodriguez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 11:30am
Spring 2021 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Chasing the Elusive: Accessing the Rare and Relevant Bacteria with Gel Microdroplets
Armand Dichosa, Ph.D.
Scientist, Lost Alamos National Laboratory
Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
The Fault in Our Viruses: Polyamines in Promoting and Maintain Infectivity
Bryan Mounce, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Loyola University
Tuesday, March 9, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Illuminating the Micro-World to Understand Viral Infections
Efraín Rivera-Serrano, Ph.D.
American Scientist, American Society for Cell Biology
Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: RoseAnn Vik, Mandy Muller & BRiDGE Scholars Program
Microbial Degradation of Biological Macromolecules: Uncultured Thermophilic Heterotrophs and Their Role in the Carbon Cycle of Hydrothermal Sediments
Emil Ruff, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Verena Carvalho
Notes on Viral Discovery, Evolution and More: From the Tropics to the Frozen Continent
Arvind Varsani, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Arizona State University
Thursday, April 15, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: William Rodriguez
New Insights Into the Streptococcal Membrane
Kelli Palmer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, University of Texas Dallas
Thursday, April 29, 2021 - 11:30am
Host: Harita Sistu
Mycobacterial Lipoglycan Biosynthesis Contributes to Cell Envelope Integrity Specifically in Biofilm Growth Conditions
Ian Sparks
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 11:30am
Mycobacterial Lipoglycan Biosynthesis Contributes to Cell Envelope Integrity Specifically in Biofilm Growth Conditions
AMB Presentations
Sam Bender, Tracy Debenport, Alfred Samkutty, Connor Whittle
Thursday, March 11, 2021 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations
Alex Gekas, Wendy Hao, Julia Meredeth, Anton Pritchard,
Thursday, March 18, 2021 - 11:30am
AMB Presentations
Qin Chen, Amanda Luttig, Jack Reilly, Karolyne Warny
Thursday, March 25, 2021 - 11:30am
Characterizing the Enzymatic Activity of a PolI-like kDNA Replication Protein
Stephanie Delzell
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 1, 2021 - 11:30am
It's Getting Hot in Here: Warming Effects on Ecosystem Multifunctionality and Microbial Diversity
Melissa Shinfuku
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 1, 2021 - 11:30am
ThermoRem - A thermophilic waste-to-energy anaerobic digestion system!
Harita Sistu
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 8, 2021 - 11:30am
Characterizing the Enzymatic Activity of a Pol I-like Mitochondrial DNA Replication Protein
Stephanie Delzell
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 11:30am
Keeping Soil Nitrogen in the Soil: An Investigation of the Biological Nitrification Inhibition of Sorghum
David Ahlberg
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - 11:30am
Fall 2020 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
When Two Viruses are Better Than One: Coinfection in the Respiratory Tract
Tanya Miura, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University of Idaho
Thursday, September 10, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Driving Big Ideas With Catalytic Science and Innovation
Tom Evans, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Research, New England Biolabs
Tuesday, September 22, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Jeffrey Blanchard
Big ideas such as long-read sequencing of whole genomes, widespread molecular diagnostics, and easily assembling a hundred kilobase fragment of synthetic DNA in a test tube have supplied goals for which to strive. Achieving these goals requires not only the single massive breakthrough, but also the equally important surrounding innovations that maximize the potential of that idea. This talk will cover some of the less well known, but catalytic, innovations that have had surprisingly large impacts.
A Cell-to-Cell Perspective on Microbial Interactions in the Open Ocean
Alexandra Worden, Ph.D.
Professor, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, DE and University of California Santa Cruz
Tuesday, September 29, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Jeffrey Blanchard, James Holden
Life in a Tight Spot: How Bacterial Biofilms Grow Under Confinement
Jing Yan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Molecular, Cellular & Develoopmental Biology, Yale University
Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Maria Santore, Sloan Siegrist
Epitranscriptomic Code of Viral lncRNA
Joanna Sztuba-Solinska, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Auburn University
Thursday, October 8, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: William Rodriguez
Giant Sulfur Bacteria Host Intracellular Endobionts
Beverly Flood, Ph.D.
Research Associate, University of Minnesota
Tuesday, October 13, 2020 - 11:30am
Title TBD
Blossom Damania, Ph.D.
Boshamer Distinguished Professor, Vice Dean, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Tuesday, November 17, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Fantasia on a Theme: A Blend of Residues at a Historically Familiar RecA Mutant Locus
Steven Van Alstine
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 15, 2020 - 11:30am
Can an Antifibrinolytic Impact the Dissemination of Borrelia burgdorferi in vivo?
Patrick Pearson
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 29, 2020 - 11:30am
The Role of Polyprenol Biosynthesis in the maintenance of Mycobacterial Membrane Domain
Malavika Prithviraj
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - 11:30am
Something's Fishy: Chlamydia & Epitheliocystis in Fish
RoseAnn Vik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 12, 2020 - 11:30am
A Shift in the Tide: Characterizing the Mechanism of Action of C19ORF66 against KSHV Lytic Reactivation
William Rodriguez
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 19, 2020 - 11:30am
Spring 2020 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Using Cell Membranes to Concentrate Molecules in Life Processes
Sarah Keller, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry, University of Washington
Tuesday, January 21, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Emily Melzer
Using Natural Variation to Study Function in the Human Microbiome
Patrick Bradley, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics Fellow, University of California, San Francisco
Thursday, January 23, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
Time Management for Graduate Students
Bryan Monesson-Olson, Ph.D.
Assistant Director of Professional Development, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Melissa Shinfuku
Host Genes, Microbes, and Development: Diversity Matters
Kathryn Milligan-Myhre, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, University of Alaska, Anchorage
Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Emily Melzer
Exploring Microbial Phenotypic Diversity with Single-Cell RNA Sequencing
Anna Kuchina, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Washington
Thursday, February 6, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Patrick Flaherty
Designing Programmable Biosensors
Elizabeth Libby, Ph.D.
Research Fellow in Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Alternative Splicing Reveals Novel Influenza Virus Co-Factors
Steven Baker, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Thursday, February 13, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Introducing Spacing and Retrieval Practice into the Classroom
Megan Sumeracki, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rhode Island College
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
In the presentation, Dr. Megan Sumeracki will talk about spacing and retrieval practice, explaining both evidence supporting their effectiveness and practical applications. Free resources will also be provided for faculty to learn more about these and other effective learning strategies.
New Insights into the Mechanism of Herpes Simplex Virus DNA replication: Roles of a Nuclease and an ssDNA Annealing Protein (exo/SSAP)
Sandra Weller, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Connecticut School of Medicine
Thursday, March 12, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
CANCELLED
Beverly Flood, Ph.D.
Research Associate, University of Minnesota
Tuesday, March 31, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Verena Carvalho
CANCELLED
Tom Evans, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Research, New England Biolabs
Tuesday, April 7, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Jeffrey Blanchard
CANCELLED
Joanna Sztuba-Solinska, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Auburn University
Thursday, April 16, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
CANCELLED
Steven Kembel, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal
Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
CANCELLED
Mo Khalil, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
AMB Progress Reports
Emily Argo and Alan Lin, Nia Housen, Priya Bhagurka, Danielle Tyler
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 20, 2020 - 11:30am
AMB Progress Reports
Sage Workman, Kyle Sandman, Anthony Young, Jody Singh
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 27, 2020 - 11:30am
AMB Progress Reports
Mike Savoire, Audry Della Valle, Shelby Tonelli, Kyle Yeh
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 5, 2020 - 11:30am
CANCELLED
Patrick Pearson
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 9, 2020 - 11:30am
CANCELLED
Miralini Ghoshal
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - 11:30am
CANCELLED
Jacob Miles
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 14, 2020 - 11:30am
CANCELLED
Malavika Prithviraj
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - 11:30am
CANCELLED
RoseAnn Vik
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 23, 2020 - 11:30am
Fall 2019 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Ecology of N20-Reducers in Arable Soils
Luiz Domeignoz-Horta, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, UMass
Thursday, September 19, 2019 - 11:30am
Oncogenic Activities of Human Papillomaviruses
Karl Munger, Ph.D.
Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine
Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Identification of Environmental Bacteria from Colonies by MALDI
Kenneth C. Parker, Ph.D.
Virgin Instruments/SimulTOF Systems (www.simultof.com)
Thursday, October 3, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Fungal Responses to Climate Change and Consequences to Biogeochemical Cycles
Adriana Romero-Olivares, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Research Associate, University of New Hampshire
Tuesday, October 8, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Hitting Malaria and Tuberculosis with the Same Bullet? Dxr Inhibitors as Antimicrobials
Cynthia Dowd, Ph.D.
George Washington University
Thursday, October 17, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Host-Microbe Interactions in an Evolutionary Model Organism
Kat Milligan-Myhre, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, University of Alaska Anchorage
Thursday, October 24, 2019 - 11:30am
The Science of Learning..Tricks to Easily Implement in the Classroom
Chris Hakala, Ph.D.
Professor, Springfield College
Tuesday, November 5, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Heather Reed
The Deep Biosphere of the Costa Rica Margin
Jennifer Biddle, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment, University of Delaware
Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Re-Invasion of Lyme Disease in the Northeastern U.S.
Dustin Brisson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology, University of Pennsylvania
Thursday, December 5, 2019 - 11:30am
A Shift in the Right Direction? The Role of C19ORF66 in KSHV Lytic Replication
William Rodriguez
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 11:30am
Balancing Structure with Function: Insights on Recombination
Steven Van Alstine
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 11:30am
Investigating the Role of Mannosyltransferases in Mycobacterial Biofilm-Associated Cell Lysis
Ian Sparks
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 7, 2019 - 11:30am
Leaf it up to Bacteria: Understanding Plant Microbe Interactions in Grasslands
Emily Bechtold
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 - 11:30am
When is a DNA Polymerase Not a Polymerase?
Stephanie Delzell
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 - 11:30am
Spring 2019 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Next Steps in Understanding and Controlling Foodborne Viruses
Matthew Moore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Food Sciences, UMass Amherst
Thursday, January 31, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Protein Nanowires: Interspecies Electrical Communication and a Sustainable Electronic Material with Novel Energy Harvesting and Biomedical Applications
David Walker, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - 11:30am
The Role of a Viral RNase and Host RNA Processing in Influenza A Virus Takeover of Infected Cells
Marta Gaglia, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Tufts University
Thursday, February 7, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Fungal Redox Enzymes Involved in the Degradation of Plant Cell Wall Polysaccharides -Auxiliary Activities Family 9 and 12 Enzymes
Makoto Yoshida, Ph.D.
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Thursday, February 21, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Barry Goodell
Investigating the Early Earth through Comparative Biology: Case Studies from the Chloroflexi
Lewis Ward, Ph.D.
Agouron Institute Fellow, Dept of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University
Thursday, February 28, 2019 - 11:30am
Revealing the Hidden Lifestyle of an Ultra-Small Bacteria TM7
Batbileg Bor, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, The Forsyth Institute, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - 11:30am
Master Microbial Manipulators: How Bacteria Shape Host and Microbial Biology
Tera Levin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 11:30am
Ancient Molecules in Modern Agriculture: Pleiotropic Consequences of Hopanoid Loss on a Legume-Rhizobia Symbiosis
Brittany Belin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, California Institute of Technology
Tuesday, March 19, 2019 - 11:30am
Evolving Together and Apart: New Tools and Perspectives on Symbiotic Rhizobia
Liana Burghardt, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Researcher, Plant & Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota
Thursday, March 21, 2019 - 11:30am
Synthesis of Membrane Lipids in Archaea
Paula V. Welander, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Earth System Science, Stanford University
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Diet-Manipulation of the Microbiome to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Ana Luisa Maldonado-Contreras, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Microbiology and Physiological Systems, UMass Medical School
Thursday, April 4, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Sensing More than a Quorum: The Role of Pheromones in the Light-Organ Symbiont Vibrio fischeri
Eric Stabb, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, University of Georgia
Thursday, April 11, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Combating Antibiotic Resistance: Lex Marks the Spot
Rahul Kohli, M.D. & Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Thursday, April 18, 2019 - 11:30am
Host: Steven Van Alstine/MGSG
Microbial Symbiosis in Boring Clams: Sulphur Oxidation, Methanotrophy and Lignocellulose Carbon Cycling
Reuben Shipway, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, UMass
Thursday, May 2, 2019 - 11:30am
Bacterial cGAS-like Enzymes at the Host-Pathogen Interface
Aaron Whiteley, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School
Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - 11:30am
Note: This seminar will take place in Skinner 12
Dissecting the Functions of a Divergent Mitochondrial DNA Polymerase in Trypanosoma brucei
Stephanie Delzell
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 14, 2019 - 11:30am
AMB Progress Reports
(1) Gitanjali Dandekar, (2) Thomas McNamara, (3) Ciara Rea, (4) Esrath Santha
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 - 11:30am
AMB Progress Reports
Amy Bui, Alexander Desantis, Alden Richter
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 9, 2019 - 11:30am
AMB Progress Reports
Harshkumar Patel, Varija Shah, Kimberly Wojeck
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - 11:30am
AMB Progress Reports
Alexander Haesaert, John Morris, Zane Ruehrwein
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 11:30am
Soils: Microbial Graveyards
Melissa Shinfuku
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 11:30am
Investigating Borrelia burgdorferi Strain Diversity and Repurposing Antifibrinolytics for use Against Lyme Disease
Patrick Pearson
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 25, 2019 - 11:30am
Exploring the role of secreted metabolites in the formation of cryptococcoma by Cryptococcus neoformans
Mrinalini Ghoshal
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - 11:30am
Mechanisms of Iron Reduction in a Hyperthermophilic Crenarchaeon
Srishti Kashyap
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - 11:30am
Fall 2018 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Bacterial Pathogens Hijack Host Machinery to Promote Cell-to-Cell Spread
Rebecca Lamason, Ph.D.
Robert A. Swanson Career Development Assistant Professor, MIT
Thursday, September 13, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Evidence-Based Undergraduate Teaching in STEM
Kristen DeAngelis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, UMass Microbiology
Tuesday, September 18, 2018 - 11:30am
Tracking Influenza in Wild Animal Hosts and Preparing for the Next Pandemic Virus
Jonathan Runstadler, Ph.D.
Professor, Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Thursday, September 20, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
The Surface Coat of Mycobacteria: Greasy and Sweet Outside and Dappled Inside
Yasu Morita, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UMass Microbiology
Tuesday, September 25, 2018 - 11:30am
Probing Mechanisms of RNA Chaperones with a Bacterial Three-Hybrid Assay
Katie Berry, Ph.D.
Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Mount Holyoke College
Thursday, October 4, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Dynamics, Feedback, and Transient Antibiotic Resistance in Single Cells
Mary Dunlop, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Thursday, October 18, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Peter Chien
Of Mice, Microbes, Toxins and More...
Jean Mukherjee, DACVM, DVM, PhD
Extension Associate Professor, UMass Microbiology
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 - 11:30am
Vaccine Development Against Cryptococcus: The Baker Delivers the Antigens
Stuart Levitz, M.D.
Professor, UMass Medical School
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Barry Goodell
Mechanical Biology of Microbes
Enrique Rojas, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology, New York University
Thursday, November 1, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Diet-Manipulation of the Microbiome to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Ana Luisa Maldonado-Contreras, Ph.D.
Instructor, UMass Medical School
Thursday, November 8, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
THIS SEMINAR IS POSTPONED TO SPRING 2019.
Characterization and Control of Bacteria Motion with Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystal
Shuang Zhou, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UMass Physics
Thursday, November 8, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Wilmore Webley
Life Can be Stressful: How Pathogenic and Commensal E. coli Adapt to Host Environmental Conditions
Christine White-Ziegler, Ph.D.
Professor of Biological Sciences, Smith College
Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Wilmore Webley
Bacterial Interactions with Bio-inspired Immobilized Liquid Interfaces
Caitlin Howell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, University of Maine
Tuesday, November 27, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Barry Goodell
Models for Recombination, Replication, and Horizontal Gene Transfer in Bacteriophage T4
Scott Morrical, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont
Thursday, November 29, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
The Genetic Intractability Barrier of Bacteria—and How to Overcome it
Christopher Johnston, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Investigator, Forsyth Institute
Thursday, December 6, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
The Ecology of Microbial Communities
KC Huang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering Department, Stanford University
Tuesday, December 11, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist & Peter Chien
Mechanisms and control of polar surface attachment in Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Clay Fuqua, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington
Thursday, December 13, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Peter Chien
Sustainable Solution to Problem Affecting Bee Health
David Mota
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 11, 2018 - 11:30am
Attempts to Map LexA-RecA Interactions and Potential Alternative Cleavage Models
Steven Van Alstine
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 16, 2018 - 11:30am
Fluorescence Imaging-Based Discovery of Membrane Domain-Associated Proteins in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Corelle Rokicki
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 25, 2018 - 11:30am
Role of Lipoarabinomannan in Mycobacterial Biofilms
Ian Sparks
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 6, 2018 - 11:30am
Life on the Leaves: Understanding Dynamic Plant-Microbe Relationships on Pasture Grass
Emily Bechtold
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - 11:30am
Bacterial Biotransformation of Lignin in Anoxic Environments
Gina Chaput
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 - 11:30am
Spring 2018 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Our Evolving View of Cell Motility
Lillian Fritz-Laylin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Thursday, February 1, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Exploiting the Brain Invasion Tactics of Cryptococcus neoformans for the Development of a Brain-Specific Drug Delivery System
John Uhrig, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin Medical School
Tuesday, February 13, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Barry Goodell
Restoring the Prairie Microbiome
Wesley Swingley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University
Tuesday, March 6, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
From HIV-1 NEF to Human SERINC5 to Epidemic Ebola Virus
Jeremy Luban, M.D.
Professor, Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Tuesday, March 20, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Roles and Regulation of Phosphatidic Acid Phosphatase in Lipid Metabolism
George Carman, Ph.D.
Board of Governors Professor of Food Science, Rutgers
Tuesday, April 3, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Regulation of Cell Wall Biosynthesis in the Bacterial Plant Pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens
Pam Brown, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences, University of Missouri
Tuesday, April 10, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Genome-Scale Models: from Marine Microbes to Host-Microbe Associations
Ying Zhang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island
Tuesday, May 1, 2018 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Lym1/2 Ectodomain Expression for Ligand Binding (1) PDK1 Overexpression in Human Cells (2) Fluorescent Imaging of Tetracycline using an RNA Aptamer Sensor (3)
Priya Anandakoniraj (1), Ingrid Barbosa (2) & Cato Prince (3)
Microbiology AMB Program
Thursday, February 15, 2018 - 11:30am
LexA-Mediated Regulation of RecA Filaments
Steven Van Alstine
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 22, 2018 - 11:30am
Cloning of Salp15 for the Evaluation of Binding Interactions with OspC Variants (1) Cloning of LmeA Homologs for Assessment of Lipid Binding Properties (2) Estrogen Agonists and their Effects on SMOC1 Expression (3)
Alyssa Cousineau (1), Christina Crivello (2) & Dilnar Mahmut (3)
Microbiology AMB Program
Thursday, March 1, 2018 - 11:30am
Mineral Transformations of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxides by Hyperthermophilic Archaea
Srishti Kashyap
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 8, 2018 - 11:30am
Title (1): TBD Cloning and Expressing Different Genotypes of Borrelia burgdorferi, Outer Surface Protein C (ospC) to develop a binding assay with Ixodes scapularis, salivary gland protein 15 (salp15) (2) Novel pINDUCER/FLAG Tag Lentiviral Toolkit for the Study of Estrogen Receptor Action and Breast Cancer Risk (3)
Paige Bell (1), Ellen Gulezian (2) & Puneet Singh (3)
Microbiology AMB Program
Thursday, March 22, 2018 - 11:30am
Passive Surveillance Studies and Investigating Novel Features of Borrelia burgdorferi
Patrick Pearson
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - 11:30am
Save Our Ship: ClpXP-regulated Protein Suppresses Requirement for Essential Gene in Dam Mutants of E. Coli K-12
Amie Savakis
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 29, 2018 - 11:30am
Role of Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenases in S. homoeocarpa for Chlorothalonil Biotransformation (1) Construction of the Ice Nucleation Protein with a Norovirus Binding Peptide (2) TRIM46 and its Effect on Microtubule Fascicle Formation (3)
Will Chen, Kristina Graham & Krutika Nayak
Microbiology AMB Program
Thursday, April 5, 2018 - 11:30am
Getting in Shape: Mycobacterial Protein DivIVA and Cell Envelope Synthesis Come Together to Make a Rod
Emily Melzer
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 12, 2018 - 11:30am
Construction of Vangl2 mCherry Reporter Cell Lines to Investigate the Planar Cell Polarity Signaling (1) Effector Molecules of Fusarium oxysporum (2) Regulation of ATP Synthase by Inhibitory Factor 1 (3)
John Daly, Johny Lisitu & Ivy Rivers
Microbiology AMB Program
Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 11:30am
kDNA Polymerases: Functional Questions About Divergent Family A Paralogs
Stephanie Delzell
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 26, 2018 - 11:30am
Fall 2017 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Microbial Conversion of Lignocellulose in the Anthropocene
Kristen DeAngelis, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, UMass Microbiology
Tuesday, September 12, 2017 - 11:30am
Small Game Hunting
Ian Lipkin, M.D.
John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University
Thursday, September 14, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Unearthing the Microbial Ecology of the Soil Carbon Cycle
Daniel Buckley, Ph.D.
Professor of Soil & Crop Sciences, Cornell University
Tuesday, September 19, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Probing Protein and mRNA Surveillance Mechanisms at the Ribosome
Wali Karzai, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Stony Brook University
Tuesday, September 26, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
The Microbial Ecology of Xenobiotic Metabolism
Libusha Kelly, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
From Artemisia annua to Plasmodium spp. to Mosquito Repellents
Stephen Duke, Ph.D.
Research Leader, US Department of Agriculture
Thursday, October 19, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
How the Ice Ages May Explain Contemporary Patterns of Bacterial Diversity and Geography
Cheryl Andam, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology Ecology, University of New Hampshire
Tuesday, October 24, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Control of Virulence and Anti-Virulence Factors in Francisella tularensis
Kathryn Ramsey, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Boston Children's Hospital
Thursday, November 2, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
How Chlamydia Causes Disease in the Female Genital Tract
Rebeccah Lijek, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Wilmore Webley
The Great Nuclear Escape: Mechanism of Membrane Budding During Nuclear Escape of Herpesviruses
Katya Heldwein, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Tufts University
Tuesday, November 14, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Mandy Muller
Buried Alive: Life Beneath the Seafloor
Beth Orcutt, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: James Holden
Using Genetic Approaches to Dissect Interactions Between Regulators of the Quorum Response in Bacillus subtilis
Emily Roy
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, October 26, 2017 - 11:30am
Growth Phase Regulation of Phospholipid Biosynthetic Genes in Yeast
Bryan Salas-Santiago
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 31, 2017 - 11:30am
The Cell Envelope-Associated Phospholipid-Binding Protein LmeA is Required for Mannan Polymerization in Mycobacteria
Kathryn Rahlwes
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 9, 2017 - 11:30am
The Love Triangle Between T. lignolytica, Iron, & Lignin: Effects on Bacterial Growth and Lignin Structure
Gina Chaput
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 16, 2017 - 11:30am
Consequences of Amazon deforestation on Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling Microorganisms
Marie Kroeger
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, November 30, 2017 - 11:30am
The Spatial Organization of Mycobacterial Membrane
Julia Puffal
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, December 7, 2017 - 11:30am
Spring 2017 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Opportunities After Education: A Candid Conversation from the Biotech Community
Gregory R. Chiklis, Ph.D.
President and CEO, ZeptoMetrix
Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Microbial Nanowires: A Revolutionary Sustainable Electronic Material
Derek Lovley, Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor, UMass Amherst
Thursday, March 2, 2017 - 11:30am
Drug Use on a Single Cell Level
Hesper Rego, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine
Tuesday, March 21, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
A Personal Journey Through the Resurgence of Therapeutic Microbiology
Paul Miller, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer, Synlogic Inc.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
Control of M. tuberculosis Pathogenesis by Regulated Intramembrane Proteolysis
Michael Glickman, M.D.
Physician & Scientist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Ctr
Thursday, April 13, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Fat Makes Cells Fatter: Lipid Synthesis Sets Microbial Cell Size
Petra Levin, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis
Thursday, April 20, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Revealing Novel Bacterial Structures with Electron Cryotomography
Megan Dobro, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Human Biology, Hampshire College
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Understanding DNA Transactions During S-phase in Trypanosoma brucei
Maria Rocha Granados
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, February 23, 2017 - 11:30am
LexA Effects RecA Filament Dynamics
Steven VanAlstine
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 9, 2017 - 11:30am
Biogenic Transformations of Nanophase Iron Oxides by Hyperthermophilic Archaea
Srishti Kashyap
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 - 11:30am
Potential Roles of Lignin within Anaerobic Bacterial Communities.
Gina Chaput
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, March 30, 2017 - 11:30am
Hydrogen Inhibition Drives Formate Hydrogenlyase Expression and Formate Secretion in a Hyperthermophilic Heterotroph
Begum Topcuoglu
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 6, 2017 - 11:30am
Spatiotemporal Visualization of Cell Envelope Metabolism in Mycobacteria
Emily Melzer
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 11, 2017 - 11:30am
Understanding Transmission Dynamics of Borrelia miyamotoi
Emily Bechtold
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 25, 2017 - 11:30am
Life Without kDNA
Stephanie Delzell
Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 27, 2017 - 11:30am
Fall 2016 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
The Role of Bacterial Proteases During Stress Responses.
Peter Chien, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, September 29, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Tracking Spatial and Temporal Changes in Microbial Metabolic Potential and Gene Expression Across Geochemical Gradients at Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents.
Caroline Fortunato, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Life on the Inside: Exploiting Reporter Strains to Understand Mycobacterium Tuberculosis-Host Interactions.
Shumin Tan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Tufts University, School of Medicine
Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Macromolecular Machines: Motors, Rings, Springs and Things.
Brian Kelch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, UMass Medical School
Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Immunometabolism and the M. tuberculosis Host-Pathogen Interaction.
Sarah Stanley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, University of California Berkeley
Thursday, October 27, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
What Lies Beneath: The Microbial World of Deep Bedrock.
James Holden, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, November 3, 2016 - 11:30am
Bacterial Cell Wall: Putting it all Together.
Suzanne Walker, Ph.D.
Professor, Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School
Thursday, November 10, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Photogranules and Energy Recovery from Wastewater Treatment.
Chul Park, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UMass Amherst
Thursday, November 17, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Chemoproteomic Discovery of Host and Pathogen Enzymes Active in Cholera.
Stavroula Hatzios, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University
Thursday, December 1, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Using Stress-Responsive E. Coli as Biosensors.
Amy Cheng Volmer, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Swarthmore College
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Peter Chien
Compost Microbiome and Suppression of Plant and Human Pathogens.
Deborah Neher, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Plant & Soil Science, University of Vermont
Thursday, December 8, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Density-dependent regulation of a novel iron acquisition activity in B. subtilis.
Emily Roy
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 11:30am
Microbial 'Dark Matter' in Amazon Soil.
Marie Kroeger
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - 11:30am
A Novel Periplamsic Protein is Involved in Lipomannan Biosynthesis in Mycobacterium smegmatis.
Kathryn Rahlwes
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 15, 2016 - 11:30am
POSTPONED
Maria Rocha Granados
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 - 11:30am
Multiple mechanisms of kDNA maintenance by Polymerase IC in Trypanosoma brucei.
Jonathan Miller
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 13, 2016 - 11:30am
Spring 2016 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
A Streamlined Method for Systematic Analysis of the Genetic Determinants Underlying Drug Resistance.
Patrick Flaherty, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, UMass Amherst
Thursday, January 28, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Designing Biomimetic Interfaces for Efficient Electron and Water Transport.
Manish Kumar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University
Thursday, February 4, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Derek Lovley
Microbial Regulatory Networks - from Binding to Biology.
James Galagan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Microbiology, Boston University
Thursday, February 25, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Viral-induced host shutoff: an RNase escape element against multiple viral endonucleases.
Mandy Muller, Ph.D.
Danyon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
Tuesday, March 1, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Unraveling the Impact of Environmental Dynamics on the Microbial Pangenome.
Rika Anderson, Ph.D.
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign & Marine Biological Lab
Thursday, March 3, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Host Control of Intracellular Bacteria in a Model Symbiotic System.
Dong Wang, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, March 24, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
New Insights Into RecA Protein Mediated DNA Recombination and Repair.
Mara Prentiss, Ph.D.
Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Harvard University
Thursday, March 31, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Microbiology of the Air.
Christine Rogers, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor & Assistant Director of Academic Safety & Environmental Health
Thursday, April 7, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Beyond the Catastrophe: Microbial Benefits of Meteorite Impact Events.
Haley Sapers, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist, Planetary Science Institute
Thursday, April 14, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Jim Holden
Mechanism and inhibition of pheromone signaling in Gram-positive bacteria.
Matt Neiditch, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Thursday, April 21, 2016 - 11:30am
Host: Kevin Griffith
In search for life here & elsewhere: Biosignatures of hyperthermophile-mineral transformations.
Srishti Kashyap
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, February 23, 2016 - 11:30am
Spe2: A Novel Protein Involved in Lipomannan and Lipoarabinomannan Biosynthesis in Mycobacteria.
Kathryn Rahlwes
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 8, 2016 - 11:30am
Potential Regulation of Lipomannan and Lipoarabinomannan Biosynthesis by a Novel Cell Envelope Protein in Mycobacterium smegmatis.
Stephanie Ha
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 - 11:30am
Membrane domain-mediated maturation of menaquinone in Mycobacteria.
Julia Puffal
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 29, 2016 - 11:30am
Uncovering DNA replication proteins in Trypanosoma brucei.
Maria Rocha Granados
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 5, 2016 - 11:30am
Growth Phase regulation of Phospholipid Biosynthetic Genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Bryan Salas Santiago
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 12, 2016 - 11:30am
Microbial dark matter: from soil to genomes.
Marie Kroeger
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - 11:30am
Elucidating the Anaerobic Lignin Degradation Mechanisms of Tolumonas lignolytica BRL6-1:A Proteomic Analysis.
Gina Chaput
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - 11:30am
Fall 2015 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Unraveling Mechanism(s) of Xenobiotic Detoxification in Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, the Causal Agent of Dollar Spot on Golf Courses.
Geunwha Jung, Ph.D.
Stockbridge School, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: John Burand & Klaus Nüsslein
Baculovirus Infections: A Global View of Competing Viral and Host Gene Expression Through the Infection Cycle.
Gary Blissard, Ph.D.
Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University
Thursday, September 17, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: John Burand
Latency Gene Knockouts and Virulence Effects in the Helicoverpa zea nudivirus.
Bruce Webb, Ph.D.
Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky
Thursday, September 24, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: John Burand
Malaria - Tackling the Tsunami of Drug Resistance.
David Fidock, Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University
Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Stephen Rich
Dissecting Lipid Transport Mechanisms in Mycobacteria.
Jessica Seeliger, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Pharmacological Sciences, Stonybrook University School of Medicine
Thursday, October 15, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Direct Visualization of HIV-1 Replication Intermediates shows that Viral Capsid and Host Factors Modulate HIV-1 Intra-nuclear Invasion and Integration.
Abraham Brass, M.D., Ph.D.
Microbiology & Physiological Systems, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Thursday, October 22, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: John Burand
Essential Mechanisms of Regulating Transcription and Pathogenesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Christina Stallings, Ph.D.
Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
Thursday, October 29, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita & Peter Chien
Immune Priming and Transgenerational Effects in Insect-Pathogen Interactions.Note: this seminar is cosponsored with the UMass Graduate Program in Organismic & Evolutionary Biology.
Jenny Cory, Ph.D.
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: John Burand
Protection from oxidative stress and cell death by the OXR family of eukaryotic genes.
Mike Volkert, Ph.D.
Microbiology & Physiological Systems, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Thursday, November 19, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
From Non-Stop Ribosomes to New Antibiotics and Back Again.
Kenneth Keiler, Ph.D.
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University
Thursday, December 3, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Peter Chien & Kevin Griffith
The Power of Drugs: Altering Membrane Dynamics in Mycobacteria.
Jennifer Hayashi
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 17, 2015 - 11:30am
Mitochondrial Maintenance by kDNA Polymerase IC in Trypanosoma brucei.
Jonathan Miller
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - 11:30am
Thermophilic Life in Hydrothermal Vents: Cooperation Among Microbes.
Begum Topcuoglu
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 1, 2015 - 11:30am
A Phosphosignaling Adaptor Primes the AAA+ Protease ClpXP to Drive Cell Cycle-Regulated Proteolysis.
Joanne Lau
Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - 11:30am
Spring 2015 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Baby's First Microbiome.
Doyle Ward, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Thursday, February 26, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid: A Model Host for Studying Interactions with Beneficial Bacteria.
Spencer Nyholm, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Univ of Connecticut
Thursday, March 5, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: James Holden
Honey Bee Pathogen and Immune Pathway Discovery.
Michelle Flenniken, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, College of Agriculture, Montana State University
Thursday, March 26, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
A CRISPR Immune Response to Viruses that Infect Bacteria.
Blake Wiedenheft, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Microbiology & Immunology, Montana State University
Thursday, March 26, 2015 - 4:00pm
Host: Sloan Siegrist
From Higher Plants to Pond Scum: Investigating the Chaperone Function of Small Heat Shock Proteins.
Elizabeth Vierling, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, April 2, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Shigella Manipulation of Cellular Signaling Pathways.
Marcia Goldberg, Ph.D.
Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health
Thursday, April 9, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Sloan Siegrist
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Proteasomes, Pupylation and…Plant Hormones?
Heran Darwin, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, NYU School of Medicine
Thursday, April 16, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
The Role of Microbial Diversity in Biogeochemical Cycles.
Jennifer Talbot, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology, Boston University
Thursday, April 23, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Exploring the Microbial World Through Information Theory: Tales of Subtle Nucleotide Variation.
Murat Eren, Ph.D.
Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - 11:30am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
Tree Belly.
Daniel Yip
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 11:30am
Biochemical Compartmentalization of Menaquinone Biosynthesis in Mycobacteria.
Julia Puffal
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - 11:30am
A Novel Membrane Protein Involved in Lipomannan and Lipoarabinomannan Biosynthesis in Mycobacteria.
Kathryn Rahlwes
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - 11:30am
Unzipping Trypanosoma brucei kDNA with TbPif1.
Maria Rocha Granados
Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 11:30am
Characterization of membrane protein complexes in the cellulosic microbe Clostridium phytofermentans.
Jesus Alvelo
Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - 11:30am
Understanding the Choreography of kDNA Replication.
Sylvia Rivera
Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - 11:30am
Investigation of Anaerobic Degradation of Lignin for Improved Lignocellulosic Biofuels.
Gina Chaput
Tuesday, April 14, 2015 - 11:30am
Regulation of the iron acquisition response by a novel iron-chelating activity in Bacillus subtilis.
Emily Roy
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - 11:30am
Fall 2014 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Anaerobes Getting Their Fix: A New Source of Nitrogen in Estuarine Sediments.
Bethany Jenkins, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island
Thursday, September 11, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: John Lopes
A Novel IL-15-based Immunotherapeutic for Cancer.Note day, time and location of seminar: Friday 9/26, 221 Integrated Sciences Building.
Hing C. Wong, Ph.D.
President & Chief Executive Officer, Altor BioScience Corporation
Friday, September 26, 2014 - 11:15am
The Roles of Quorum Sensing in Vibrio cholerae Virulence and Physiology.
Wai-Leung Ng, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Tufts University
Thursday, October 2, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Breast Milk as the Template for Rational Manipulations of One’s Microbiota.
David Sela, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science, UMass Amherst
Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Developmentally Programmed Changes in Gene Copy Number: Insights into Chromosomal Fragility and DNA Replication Control.
Jared Nordman, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Whitehead Institute
Thursday, October 30, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Structural Mechanisms of DNA Replication Restart.
James Keck, Ph.D.
Professor of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin Madison
Thursday, November 6, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: Steve Sandler
Decomposter Fungi in a Warmer, Fertilized World.
Serita Frey, Ph.D.
Professor, Soil Microbial Ecology, University of New Hampshire
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Chemical Biological Approach to Infection Using Whole Organism Screening.
Deborah Hung, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School
Thursday, November 20, 2014 - 11:30am
Host: Yasu Morita
Seeing is Believing: Imaging Charge Flow along Geobacter Pili Reveals A Novel Mechanism of Bacterial Electron Transport.
Nikhil S. Malvankar, Ph.D.
Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI Fellow, UMass Amherst
Thursday, December 4, 2014 - 11:30am
Evaluationg the Role of Arginine Mathylation in the Regulation of kDNA Polymerase IC.
Jonathan Miller
Tuesday, September 30, 2014 - 11:30am
Go or No Go: A Decision-Making Protease Adaptor.
Joanne Lau
Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - 11:30am
Interspecies Hydrogen Transfer Among Thermophiles in Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents.
Begum Topcuoglu
Tuesday, October 21, 2014 - 11:30am
Title TBD
Kelly Haas
Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - 11:30am
Growth Phase Regulation of Gene Expression.
Bryan Salas-Santiago
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 - 11:30am
The PMf: A Novel Membrane Domain in Mycobacteria.
Jennifer Hayashi
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 - 11:30am
Hydrogenotrophs and the Hydrothermal Subsurface Biosphere.
Lucy Stewart
Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - 11:30am
The Power of Stress: Does Climate Change Influence Nitrogen Cycling Microbial Communities in Temperate Forest Soil?
George Hamaoui
Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - 11:30am
Spring 2014 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Swarming Motility and the Cell Biology of Peritrichous Flagella in Bacillus subtilis.
Daniel Kearns, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Biology, Indiana University Bloomington
Thursday, February 13, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Microbial Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes and Their Application in Enzymatic Biotransformation.
Cheon-Seok Park, Ph.D.
Dept. of Food Science & Biotechnology, KyungHee University, Korea
Thursday, February 27, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: James Holden
Combating hemorrhagic fevers by tracking the evolution of host-pathogen interactions.
Kristian Andersen, Ph.D.
Postdoc, Harvard University & Broad Institute
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - 11:15am
DNA Recombination and Stress Responses in Mycobacteria.
Pallavi Ghosh, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - 11:15am
Sibling Rivalry and Stress Tolerance: the Single Cell Biology of Mycobacteria.
Bree Aldridge, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Tufts University
Thursday, March 13, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: Yasu Morita
POSTPONED
Bethany Jenkins, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island
Thursday, March 27, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: John Lopes
Tear down this wall! Peptidoglycan dynamics during infection.
M. Sloan Siegrist, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - 11:15am
Gene-Centric Modeling of Oxygen Minimum Zones. A Case-Study in Merging Genomics and Biogeochemical Models.
Chris Algar, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Thursday, April 3, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: James Holden
Establishing Immunity Using Centralized Antigen Design and Novel Viral Vectors.
Eric Weaver, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Associate Consultant, Mayo Clinic
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - 11:15am
New Insights Into the Intracellular Life Style of Trypanosomatid Parasites.
Norma Andrews, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland
Thursday, April 10, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
Diversity and Distribution of Avian Malaria Parasites: A Model System for the Evolution of Pathogen-Host Interactions.
Robert Ricklefs, Ph.D.
Curators' Professor of Biology, University of Missouri at St. Louis
Thursday, April 17, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Rich
Next Generation Probiotics for the Prevention and Treatment of Disease.
Robert Britton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University
Thursday, April 24, 2014 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Modelling Methanogenesis in the Subseafloor Environment.
Lucy Stewart
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - 11:15am
POSTPONED
David Luo
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - 11:15am
POSTPONED
James Llewellyn
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - 11:15am
POSTPONED
Emily Moreira
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - 11:15am
POSTPONED
Begum Topcuoglu
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - 11:15am
Deciphering the Players of Mitochondrial DNA Replication in Trypanosoma brucei.
Maria Rocha Granados
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - 11:15am
Characterization of pimE deletions in Mycobacterium smegmatis.
Lisa Baumoel
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - 11:15am
Fall 2013 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Systematic Exploration of Relationships Between Genotype, Phenotype, and Experimental Fitness.
Daniel Bolon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology, UMass Medical School
Thursday, September 12, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Organizing a Cell.
Jennifer Ross, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, UMass Amherst
Thursday, September 19, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Discovering and Developing New Drugs to Treat Infectious Diseases: Choices and Challenges for 'Big Pharma'.
Cameron Douglas, Ph.D.
Merck & Company
Thursday, September 26, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: John Lopes
Capsule Synthesis and Regulation in the Pathogenic Yeast Cryptococcus neoformans.
Tamara Doering, Ph.D.
Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University
Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: John Lopes
Rhizosphere Life in the Swoosh and Ooze.
Zoe Cardon, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Thursday, October 17, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Please note: Dr. Gilbert's seminar has been POSTPONED. The Home, Human, Hospital and Earth Microbiome Projects.
Jack Gilbert, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago
Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Wilmore Webley
Underfoot and Underappreciated – Subsurface Microbial Communities in the Hanford Site.
Allan Konopka, Ph.D.
Director of Microbiology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Yin and Yang of Lipid Esterases in Chronic Infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Anil Ojha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases & Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh
Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Yasu Morita
Peering Into the Mechanism of Bacterial Growth by Watching the Motions of the Cell Wall Synthesis Machinery.
Ethan Garner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University
Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Microbial Biogeochemistry and Maximum Entropy Production: How Does Life Differ from Fire?
Joseph Vallino, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, MBL, Assistant Professor, Brown University
Thursday, November 21, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: James Holden
Carbon Cycle Processes and Microbial Diversity in Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems: From Genomes to Biomes.
David Kirchman, Ph.D.
Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor, University of Delaware
Thursday, December 5, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Lignin' It Up: The Life of Soil Microbes in a Toastier World.
Grace Pold
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - 11:15am
Understanding Microbes through Math: Constrain-Based Metabolic Reconstruction of the Anaerobic Acetogen Clostridium ljungdahlii.
Roberto Orellana
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 - 11:15am
Adapting the AAA+ protease ClpXP.
Joanne Lau
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - 11:15am
Subsurface Monitoring of Microbial Metabolism in Real Time.
Colin Wardman
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 11:15am
A Genetic Screen to Identify Essential Genes in Yeast that Regulate Phospholipid Biosynthesis.
Bryan Salas-Santiago
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - 11:15am
Protein Localization to a Membrane Subdomain in Mycobacterium smegmatis.
Jennifer Hayashi
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - 11:15am
Going with the Flow: The Electrochemical Gradient and its Role in Clostridium phytofermentans.
Jesus Alvelo-Maurosa
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - 11:15am
Going wireless: a PilA independent mechanism for Fe(III) oxide reduction by Geobacter sulfurreducens.
Jessica Smith
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 - 11:15am
Explorations Into the Biochemistry, Phylogeny, and Genomics of a Novel Lignin Degrading Bacterium.
Andrew Billings
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - 11:15am
Spring 2013 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Anaerobic Digestion: From Mini to Mega Watt Power.
Willy Verstraete, Ph.D.
LabMET, Ghent University , Belgium
Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Derek Lovley
The Genetics of Growth and Biofuel Efficiency of the Energy Crop Model System Brachypodium distachyon.
Samuel Hazen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, February 7, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Where are the Microbes in New Microbial-Based Concepts of Soil Organic Matter Formation?
Stuart Grandy, Ph.D.
Soil Biogeochemistry & Fertility Lab, University of New Hampshire
Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
Capsids unhinged – the role of disulfide bonds, the stress response and UL32 in Herpes Simplex Virus assembly.
Sandra K. Weller, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center
Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Wilmore Webley
Mechanisms Underlying DNA Polymerase Management in Bacteria.
Mark Sutton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biochemistry, University of Buffalo
Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Energy Conservation and Sulfur Isotope Fractionation by Sulfate Reducing Bacteria.
Shuhei Ono, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Geochemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
Cell Division in E. coli: Architectural Remodeling of the Division Ring.
Jodi L. Camberg, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, College of the Environment and Life Sciences, University of Rhode Island
Thursday, March 14, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Anticipating Sudden Transitions in Biological Populations: Cooperation, Cheating and Collapse.
Jeff Gore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Candida albicans Gene Regulation During Infection.
Aaron Mitchell, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
Thursday, April 4, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: John Lopes
The Enterococcal Sex Pheromone System: Functions and Evolution of a Complex, Robust Biological Switch.
Gary Dunny, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota
Thursday, April 11, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Drosophila as a Model Organism to Study the Genetic Basis of Vibrio cholerae Interactions with Environmental Hosts.
Alexandra Purdy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology, Amherst College
Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Sporulation and Germination in the Nosocomial Pathogen Clostridium difficile.
Aimee Shen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont
Thursday, April 25, 2013 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Title: TBD
Kelly Haas
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 11:15am
Inositol Mediated Transcriptional Regulation of Two Tandem Genes - INO1 and SNA3.
Isabel Chang
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 - 11:15am
Understanding Energy Demands in Hydrothermal Vent Systems.
Lucy Stewart
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - 11:15am
Biogenic Coalbed Methane: Assessing the Role of Trace Elements on Methanogenesis and Microbial Community Composition in Deep Subsurface Coal.
Burcu Unal
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 5, 2013 - 11:15am
The Role of POLIC Arginine Methylation in Trypanosoma brucei kDNA Replication.
Jonathan Miller
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - 11:15am
Rapid Diagnostics in Resource Limited Settings.
Jeff Grimes
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 - 11:15am
The Function and Evolution of Bacterial Microcompartments.
Farah Abdul-Rahman
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 11:15am
Enzymatic Assessment of Butanol and Butyrate Production in Engineered Strains of Clostridium ljungdahlii.
Robert Delgado
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - 11:15am
Metatranscriptomic Analysis of Microbial Community in Laboratory-Scale Reactor.
Devesh Shrestha
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 - 11:15am
Characterizing the Response of Nitrogen Cycling Microbial Communities to Increased Temperature and Nitrogen Deposition in Temperate Forest Soils.
George Hamaoui
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 11:15am
Microscopic visualization of membrane domains in Mycobacterium smegmatis.
David Luo
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - 11:15am
Fall 2012 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
The tangled bank of experimentally evolved biofilms reflects selection during chronic infections?
Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular & Biomedical Sciences, University of New Hampshire
Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Fishing in Rhode Island: the molecular basis of virulence in Vibrio anguillarum, a bacterial pathogen of fish.
David Nelson, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology & Director, RI Genomics and Sequencing Center, University of Rhode Island
Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Wilmore Webley
An Immunological Surprise: Human T Cells Recognize Mycobacterial Bacterial Lipid Antigens.
D. Branch Moody, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Thursday, September 27, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Yasu Morita
Ecophysiological Modelling of a Microaerophile in the Termite Hindgut.
Jorge Rodrigues, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Texas Arlington
Thursday, October 4, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
Bacillus subtilis Cell Envelope Stress Responses and Antibiotic Resistance.
John Helmann, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology, Cornell University
Thursday, October 11, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Do we have to consider microbes to understand and predict carbon cycling in terrestrial systems?
Mark Bradford, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology, Yale University
Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
The Involvement of the Translation Factor BipA in Bacterial Stress Processes.
Victoria Robinson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Connecticut
Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Wilmore Webley
POSTPONED: Capsids unhinged – the role of disulfide bonds, the stress response and UL32 in Herpes Simplex Virus assembly.
Sandra K. Weller, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center
Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Wilmore Webley
POSTPONED: The Enterococcal Sex Pheromone System: Functions and Evolution of a Complex, Robust Biological Switch.
Gary Dunny, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology, University of Minnesota
Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Kevin Griffith
Manipulation of the host cell cytoskeleton by enterohemorrhagic E. coli O157.
Ken Campellone, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut
Thursday, November 15, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
On a Mission to Civilize: Adaptive Evolution of Non-Native Vibrio fisheri to Squid Symbiosis.
Cheryl Whistler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular & Biomedical Sciences, University of New Hampshire
Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Wilmore Webley
Mechanistic regulation of cell cycle protease ClpXP through the response regulator CpdR.
Joanne Lau
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 11:15am
Identifying bacteria associated with starch induced laminitis and colic with the potential to attenuate lactate in the equine gut.
Amy Biddle
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - 11:15am
Direct Image-Based Enumeration of a Cellulosic Microbe Decomposing Biomass Feedstocks.
Jesús Alvelo
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - 11:15am
Outer Cell Surface Components Essential for Fe(III) Oxide Reduction in Geobacter metallireducens.
Jessica Smith
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 2, 2012 - 11:15am
Plasmid encoded cell-cell signaling regulates competence development and sporulation in Bacillus subtilis.
Kristina Boguslawski
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 - 11:15am
Using Microbial Fuels Cells to Determine Metabolic Rates.
Colin Wardman
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - 11:15am
Final Doctoral Examination: Evidence of an Infectious Asthma Phenotype: Chlamydia Driven Allergy and Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Pediatric Asthma
Katir Patel
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - 11:15am
Optimizing Bioremediation of Complex Organic Compounds using Hyperthermophiles.
Sarah Hensley
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 - 11:15am
Energy Metabolism of the Sulfate Reducing Bacteria Desulfobacter postgatei: Physiological and Genomic Bases for In Silico Metabolic Reconstruction.
Roberto Orellana
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - 11:15am
Final Doctoral Examination: Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Mitochondrial DNA Polymerases in Trypanosoma Brucei.
Jeniffer Concepción
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Friday, November 16, 2012 - 2:00pm
Linking biotic iron reduction, mineral transformations and sulfide mineralogy with novel hyperthermophilic iron reducers.
Jennifer Lin
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - 11:15am
Final Doctoral Examination: Validation of a novel multi-subunit vaccine delivery system for Chlamydia trachomatis using recombinant gas vesicles derived from Halobacterium salinarium.
Tawanna Childs
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 - 11:15am
Mechanism of protein targeting to membrane sub-domains in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Jennifer Hayashi
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - 11:15am
Final Doctoral Examination: RecA filament dynamics & the SOS response in Escherichia coli: Cellular limitation of SOS expression.
Shawn Massoni
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Wednesday, December 5, 2012 - 2:00pm
Spring 2012 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Transcription Termination and the Maintenance of Chromosome Integrity
Robert S. Washburn, Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Columbia University Medical Center
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Horizontal Transfer of Pathogenecity Chromosomes Determines Host Specificity in Fusarium Oxysporum Species Complex
Li-Jun Ma, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - 11:15am
Disease-Associated and Beneficial Gut Microbiota in Colitis and Colorectal Cancer
Wendy Garrett, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Department of Genetics
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - 11:15am
Persister Cells, Uncultured Bacteria, and the Quest for New Antibiotic
Kim Lewis, Ph.D.
University Distinguished Professor, Director, Antimicrobial Discovery Center, Department of Biology, Northeastern University
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Community Assembly Dynamics in the Arabidopsis phyllosphere
Sheri Simmons, Ph.D.
Assistant Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Kristen DeAngelis
Extremophiles of Cerro Negro Volcano, Nicaragua: An Analog for Hydrothermal Environments on Mars
Karyn Rogers, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: James Holden
The Bacterial Stringent Response and Chromosome Dynamics
Susan Lovett, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Biology, Brandeis University
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Tweeners: What Are They And How Did They Force An Assay Redesign?
John Jackson, Ph.D.
Manager, Genetic Quality Assurance Laboratory Monsanto Company
Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 4:00pm
Host: Cosponsored with the Department of Plant Soil & Insect Sciences, Plant Biology Graduate Program and the Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE)
222 Morrill Science Center II
Organizational Meeting
Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 11:15am
Genetic Engineering of Clostridium ljungdahlii for Biofuel Production
Toshi Ueki, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow, UMass Microbiology
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 11:15am
To Be or Not to Be: Factors that limit SOS expression in Escherichia coli
Shawn Massoni
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 11:15am
Evidence of Infectious Asthma Phenotype: Chlamydia-induced Allergy in a Neonatal Mouse Model
Katir Patel
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - 11:15am
The Rising Cost of Living: Methanogen Growth Energies in Hydrothermal Vent Systems
Lucy Stewart
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - 11:15am
Title: TBA
Kelly Haas
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 19, 2012 - 11:15am
Transcription Regulation from Downstream of a Gene
Isabel Chang
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - 12:00am
The Effect of Land Use Change on Ammonia Oxidizers in Amazonian Soils: The Journey Continues....
George Hamaoui
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Thursday, April 26, 2012 - 11:15am
Fall 2011 Microbiology Seminar Series and Graduate Student Colloquiums
Surprises from the genome of Pelobacter carbinolicus
Muktak Aklujkar, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 11:15am
Development of a Fish TB Model: Mycobacterium marinum is Transmitted Amongst Fish by Ingestion
Don Ennis, Ph.D.
Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Discovery of a Curable, Infectious-Asthma Phenotype
Wilmore Webley, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Thursday, October 6, 2011 - 11:15am
Developing Cancer Therapies at the Interface of Engineering and Microbiology
Neil Forbes, Ph.
Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, UMass Amherst
Thursday, October 13, 2011 - 11:15am
Activation of gamma delta T cells in responses to zoonotic bacterial infections (Leptospira and Mycobacterium)
Cynthia Baldwin, Ph.D.
Professor of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 11:15am
Evidence and Detection of Microbial Life on Mars
Samuel Kounaves, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Chemistry, Tufts University
Thursday, November 3, 2011 - 11:15am
Host: Microbiology Graduate Student Group
An Ecological Perspective on Microbial Dormancy
Jay Lennon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - 11:15am
Host: Klaus Nüsslein
DNA Repair in E. coli: from Genomes to Single Cells
Meriem El Karoui, Ph.D.
Visiting Scientist in Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - 11:15am
Host: Steve Sandler
Microbiology Welcome Reception
Thursday, September 8, 2011 - 11:15am
POSTPONED - Anaerobic benzene oxidation by Geobacter spp.
Tian Zhang, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Microbiology, UMass Amherst
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 - 11:15am
All About Bee-ing at UMass; Prevalence and Specificity of Viral Infection in Honey Bees
Ajanta De
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 11:15am
Soil Microbiota Related to Carbon, Nitrogen and GHG Cycles Across Different Land Uses in Southwestern Amazonia
Daniel Lammel
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 11:15am
Investigation of Uranium Reduction Mechanism(s) in Geobacter sulfurreducens
Roberto Orellana
UMass Microbiology Graduate Program
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 - 11:15am