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.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN - Working with dendrites, what he calls "the quarterbacks of the immune system," IDM's ROBBIE MAILLIARD and colleagues are applying the budding field of TNT research to HIV. Now, they are investigating whether drugs that are commonly used to lower cholesterol levels could be repurposed to control viral infections.
Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology awards during our annual Dean's Day student research competition were given to KELSEY MESSERSCHMIDT (MPH '19), BETHANY FLAGE (MS '18), ROBERTA METTUS (MS '19), and RENEE ANDERKO (PhD '22).
On April 28, 2018, Pitt Public Health celebrated recent graduates with awards given upon the culmination of a degree program. Delta Omega's honor society inductees were announced and outstanding thesis/essay and dissertation awards were conferred. Outstanding Student Awards were also given at both the master's and doctoral level, as well as Dean's Service Awards.
NEW YORK TIMES - Researchers created a device that can test a drop of blood to tell, in about half an hour, who's immune to certain infections and who's not. The goal is to find groups of people at risk of outbreaks, especially in impoverished and remote areas, in time to save lives. "We need to develop cheaper and more efficient ways to detect outbreaks earlier," said IDM's ERNESTO MARQUES. “This may be one step in that direction.”