ANTIVIRAL RESEARCH - McMillen and Hartman discuss the historical role of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) as a biological weapon and conclude with an outline of the important unanswered questions for ongoing research into this important zoonotic disease.
JANE CAULEY, who has served as the associate dean for research, will be stepping down from that position to take on additional responsibilities as the executive vice chair of EPI. Cauley is also a distinguished professor of epidemiology. VELPANDI AYYAVOO, currently associate dean for faculty affairs and IDM professor, will become the associate dean for research and faculty affairs. Congratulations!
The 2018 Pittsburgh Summer Institute (PSI), a collaborative internship program between the Allegheny County Health Department and Pitt Public Health, welcomed 16 students at orientation yesterday. The students will be addressing real-world public health problems and completing a group project about the tobacco retail environment.
JOURNAL OF VIROLOGY - Delucia, Rinaldo, Rappocciolo demonstrate that the use of SIMV to decrease macrophage-mediated virus transfer should be considered for future HIV therapeutic development.
JOURNAL OF NEUROINFLAMMATION - Guha, Wagner, Ayyavoo conduct first study evaluating the potential role of Ng in the context of HIV-1 neropathogens and conclude that synaptic damage in HAND+ patients could be a result of abrogation of Ng through HIV-1 induced inflammation that dysregulates Ng-CaM interaction and downstream signaling cascades associated with synaptodendritic functions.
The MidAtlantic AIDS Education and Training Center hosted a conference that brought together regional experts to explore ways to increase awareness of the opioid and Hepatitis C epidemics affecting women and infants in Southwestern Pennsylvania. One outcome of note: they identified solutions to improve the current care model of clinical and behavioral health care for women of childbearing age who are opioid users.
The 2018 grand award judge for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for the microbiology category is JENNIFER BOWLING (IDM ’21). The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, is a Society for Science and the Public and is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition. Thousands of volunteers and judges are recruited for an education outreach day serving over 3,000 middle and high school students.
To ensure the continuity of the Chicago Women in STEM and Academia Initiative, and represent postdoctoral women, Northwestern University welcomed IDM's COLLEEN ZACCARD to the Northwestern University Postdoctoral Forum (NUPF) Executive Board as the Chair of the Chicago Women in STEM Initiative.
Pitt Medicine grad Kellie Smith leads a group at John's Hopkins that has developed a novel technique to detect and monitor anti-tumor T cells using a simple liquid biopsy approach. The technique is termed MANAFEST (mutation associated neoantigen functional expansion of specific T cells). Smith is an instructor of Oncology in the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who worked with IDM chair ...
A $500 Student Travel Award has been awarded to MIKE KUJAWA (IDM '21) to attend the 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology. The conference is hosted by the University of Maryland and will take place July 14-18, 2018.