2013, July 17 - Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology

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July 31, 2013 Volume 4, Issue 2 Department Faculty: David Andes, MD

Medical Microbiology & Immunology It’s a Wrap!

James Bangs, PhD Curtis Brandt, PhD Joseph Dillard, PhD Jenny Gumperz, PhD Christina Hull, PhD Anna Huttenlocher, MD Nancy Keller, PhD Bruce Klein, MD Laura Knoll, PhD Miroslav Malkovsky, MD, PhD John Mansfield, PhD Margaret McFall-Ngai, PhD Andrew Mehle, PhD Donna Paulnock, PhD Caitlin Pepperell, MD Edward Ruby, PhD JD Sauer, PhD Ronald Schell, PhD Robert Striker, MD, PhD Rodney Welch, PhD, Dept. Chair Jon Woods, MD, PhD Emeritus Instructors: Julie Franz, MS Judith Manning, PhD Janet Schrader, PhD Joanne Weber, BS, MT Emeritus Faculty: James Bangs, PhD Harry Hinze, PhD Richard Proctor, MD William Weidanz, PhD Dept Administrator: Tracy Wiklund Newsletter Editor: Alicia Hamilton

Well, we’ve completed the 20122013 school year… and this seems a very good time to reflect on some of the academic achievements that the Department has accomplished. The first I will mention is one of our most important missions: the training and matriculation of graduate students. Over the course of the past 12 months we have seen 6 students from MMI labs successfully defend their doctoral theses, and take the next step in their career as ‘Drs.’. We have also seen the strong revitalization of our Friday noon MMI research seminar series. This year, under the guidance of Dr. Jenny Gumperz, the series hosted 15 (8 extramural and 7 UW) speakers, including two Paul Clark honorary lectures. These seminars have provided department members, as well as other interested UW scientists, with an opportunity to learn about new and important research discoveries in our field. In addition, in April, the department hosted our annual David Perlman Symposium under the direction of Dr. David Andes and with the assistance of Alicia Hamilton and Tracy Wiklund. This symposium brought 4 renowned speakers to our building for a day of science and discussion that included a graduate student and postdoc poster session. But there is more to our academic mission than simply learning what others have done: Our department is also an impressive source of new knowledge and concepts in the fields of microbiology and immunology. The most tangible indication of this impact is the >135 research papers and scholarly reviews that MMI faculty, staff, postdocs and students have published within the past year. This is a formidable output by the 21

research groups that make up our department. To support the research efforts that result in these publications, the department’s faculty continues to compete for funding from federal, state and private sources. As a group, in fiscal 2012 we submitted 26 grant applications and had 10 funded. These applications represent a large effort by teams of scientists, including scientists from other national and international institutions that were led by MMI faculty. While not all submissions were funded, the success rate we achieved is well above the national average and, as the economy continues to recover, we look forward to accomplishing even more. Taken together, there’s a lot we have to be proud of as members of MMI. And I’d like to take this opportunity to point out how fortunate we are to have an outstanding group of colleagues who provide us with intellectual, technical, and administrative support throughout the year. On a personal note, I want to thank everyone who has made my few months as acting chair go so very smoothly. Finally, let me wish you all a safe and productive summer of research as we anticipate the coming of a new academic year! Ned Ruby Acting Chair

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Medical Microbiology & Immunology

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Retirement: Does a Professor Ever Retire? Over the next few newsletters we will be featuring articles from our emeritus faculty members. We asked a few of them to share how retirement has impacted their lives. In this newsletter we feature Richard Proctor. Not only has he shared with us what retirement has meant for him, but he has also put together an amazing reading list. Enjoy!

When I decided to become an academic, it was in no small measure to be able to live a life of learning and creating new knowledge. A quote that became a standard for my years as a professor was from Mahatma Gandhi: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”. Thus, at my retire-ment party from Medical Microbiology & Immunology (2008), the number of people that said “Congratulations!” struck me. This usual salutation is usually met by more than mixed emotions. Retirement is giving up: University committee meetings, writing grants, and faculty politics (hooray!), but it is also giving up interactions with students, and in my case, patients. However, my retirement was not abrupt, as I continued to work as Global Director of Infectious Diseases in Merck Research Labs (MRL) for 2.5 years. With the merger of Merck with Schering-Plough, my position moved out of MRL, and I fully retired in 2010. Retirement is not giving up intellectual pursuits. Publishing over 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 4 book chapters, serving on PhD committees at several universities and on grant-review study sections, lecturing around the world, and working as a consultant on five grants has kept

me involved in biomedical research. In addition, I formed my own consulting company where I help several biotech and diagnostic companies partner with large pharma as well as consult for large pharma. Retirement does bring more time to pursue things in a broader intellectual space. There is time to travel with my wife, read, join a Shakespeare group (readingsdiscussion, but no acting), fly fish, pursue nature photography, have more time with grandchildren (a granddaughter and three grand-sons!), bird watch, organize wine dinners in our >55 year old community, bike/canoe/cross country ski, learn about the very big (astrophysics) and the very small (particle physics). The latter is a return to my undergraduate years where I was a philosophy major, but now I want to make an attempt at understanding the origins of the universe on a much more physical rather than the more philosophical metaphysical emphasis of my younger days. For books, I would recommend: § Slavery by Another Name (Douglas Blackmon…the end of

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§ § § §

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slavery came after World War II) Abraham-A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths (Bruce Feiler) The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing (Kirk Deeter and Charlie Meyers) Handbook of Hatches (Dave Hughes) Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World (Jack Weatherford) should be read along with Marco Polo (Laurence Bergen…These books on China reveal how the Western world impacted the Mongols wherein feudal systems were smashed and achievement and individualism promoted) 1491 (Charles C. Mann) [The impact of infectious diseases is carefully documented, but it was probably leptospirosis rather than hepatitis A that cleared the New England coast line of First Nations Peoples for the Pilgrims (otherwise, Mann seems to get it right)…See Marr JS, Cathey JT. New hypothesis for cause of epidemic among Native Americans, New England, 16161619. Emerg Infect Dis. 16(2): 281-286, 2010] Spice: The History of Temptation (Jack Turner…Which places spices in another sensory realm) A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking) should be read before starting on Elementary Particle Physics (David Griffiths) Wine and War (Don and Petie Kladstrup) A History of the World in 6 Glasses (Tom Standage…this shows the dramatic impact of beverages on the development of the world,

including how the English introduced opium into China to redress the balance of trade from tea). Travel: bike tours in Italy (Pugilla and the Dolomites) and Germany (along the Elbe River), southern Africa, crosscountry skiing with daughter and future son-in-law in the Laurentians (he is from Montreal and we survived the December 2012 blizzard, but without power or running water in our cabin for 80 hours), winter with our grandson at Lake Tahoe, Outback Bowl in Tampa/Sanibel Island, hiking/bird watching at Point Reyes, CA, and trips to see friends in Madison, Germany, Switzerland and France. So, in addition to avoiding congratulating a person that is retiring, never assume that a retired person has a lot of free time “to kill”. The retiree might live by Henry David Thoreau’s words “As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Thoreau also wrote: “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” Thus, I carry my turned off cell phone in a waterproof, floatable case, which makes it a really smart phone. I miss my friends and the students in Madison tremendously, but I have not had to retire my pursuit of new knowledge and world wonders. Also, it’s not so bad to have time to read the morning newspaper. Richard A. Proctor, M.D. Professor Emeritus Departments of MMI and Medicine University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health


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Keller Lab Update The Keller lab has been very busy with many comings and goings in the past year. Although all lab personnel are involved in aspects of fungal biology, there are many different perspectives of the field represented in the scientific projects currently underway in the lab: • • •

Scientist Dr. Erwin Berthier explores the application of microfluidic devices in understanding the roles of fungal metabolites in crosskingdom communication and disease exacerbation. Post-doctoral scientist Dr. Philipp Wiemann is elucidating the mechanism of a novel small peptide involved in metal chelation in the pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Graduate students in the lab are addressing epigenetic regulation of fungal gene clusters (Ali Soukup, Genetics PhD candidate), G protein coupled receptors and their role in A. flavus colonization of host seed (Kate Affeldt, MDTP PhD candidate), toxin production in A. fumigatus spores (Fang Yun Lim, MDTP PhD candidate), contribution of fungal lipoxygenases to asthma development (Greg Fischer, Genetics PhD candidate), fungal/bacterial cross talk affecting disease development on plant hosts (Joe Spraker, Plant Pathology PhD candidate), zebrafish model of invasive aspergillosis (Ben Knox, joint MDTP PhD candidate with Anna Huttenlocher), a lung microfluidic model for asthma (Kurt Throckmorton, Genetics PhD candidate), transcription factors important in fungal development (Sachin Jain, MS candidate) and ligand/G protein coupled receptor associations in A. flavus (Meareg Amare, MS candidate).

Dr. JinWoo Bok, the Keller lab Senior Scientist, oversees research in the lab. The lab also is host to several excellent undergraduate students who work with the graduate and postdoctoral students above.

From Left to Right: Meareg Amare, Kathryn Affeldt, Fang Yun Lim, Austin Prichard, Mary Rood, Ali Soukup, Kendra Hogan, JinWoo Bok, Wenbing Yin, Nancy Keller, Greg Fisher, Sachin Jain, Liz Miller and Nina Keller in the front.

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In Depth Alumni Update: Murat Kalayoglu Embodies the Spirit of the Wisconsin Idea Last year Murat Kalayoglu, MMI graduate, was nominated for and awarded the Forward Under 40 Award in the area of Healthy Business This award is presented by the Wisconsin Alumni Association to UW grads under age 40 who are making an impact on the world by living the Wisconsin Idea (the principle that the university should improve people’s lives beyond the classroom). Murat’s career springs from the heart of the Wisconsin Idea — or maybe from its liver. A founder of HealthHonors Corporation and now president and CEO of Topokine Therapeutics, Kalayoglu has done research at Harvard and now lives outside Washington, D.C., but he credits his success to the opportunities that the UW gave him. A native of Turkey, Kalayoglu came to Madison when his father, Munci, joined the School of Medicine's faculty in 1983 and helped establish the university's liver transplant program. Munci had applied to — and been rejected by — several American teaching hospitals before Folkert Belzer, the UW's chair of surgery, hired him, and the Kalayoglus have been Badgers ever since. Murat began doing research in the lab of Gerry Byrne in Medical Microbiology and Immunology after his first year on campus. "Gerry gave me — a freshman undergraduate — my own research project, allowed me to participate in lab and departmental meetings, and met with me one-on-one," Kalayoglu says. "That a busy investigator at a large university would give an 18-year-old his time and a chance to do real research is a testament to the investigator, his department and the university. I was

hooked." Kalayoglu enrolled in the UW's combined MD/PhD program and eventually became an ophthalmologist. After doing retina research at Harvard University, he earned an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 2006. Then he and colleague Michael Singer launched HealthHonors, a company based on the science of behavior change. Using algorithms, HealthHonors created what it called Personal Reinforcement Plans to help people adhere to healthy behaviors. In 2009, HealthHonors was acquired by the wellness-improvement company Healthways, and in 2010, Kalayoglu launched another venture, Topokine Therapeutics. The company develops what it calls adipomodulatory compounds — that is, chemicals designed to alter fat cells. One of its first compounds, XAF5 Gel, entered clinical trials in November. Asked what he plans to do next, Kalayoglu says his long-term passion is oncology, and he aims to use his combination of medical and entrepreneurial skills to help more cancer patients get better faster. "We're at a point in our understanding of cancer biology that will lead to the rapid development of new therapeutic candidates," he says. "My hope is to help contribute to the effort so that we can get more and better therapies to market, and get them there faster." *Interview taken from the Forward under 40 website.

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What are MMI grads doing these days? After graduation, where do our students go and what do they do? We asked a few. It turns out that anesthesiology has a few MMI fans!

Aaron Schmidt

Christopher Webb

Visit us at http://www.medmi cro.wisc.edu/alum ni to let us know what you have been doing since graduation and be featured in this section of the newsletter.

Aaron Schmidt: After graduating with my BS in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the UWMadison in 2007, I attended medical school at the University of Iowa. Academically, it was an easy transition due to my education at UW, but I had trouble getting used to all of the black and gold Hawkeye apparel in Iowa City. I was initially interested in thoracic surgery and did research on physiologic pulmonary imaging utilizing computed tomography in a sheep model. I enjoyed the clinical hands on nature of the research. During the clinical years of med school, my experience during the anesthesia rotation changed my career path. I loved the utilization of physiology, pharmacology, and critical care in one specialty that would allow me to care for all types of patients with complex medical comorbidities. I also enjoyed the immediacy of intraoperative patient management. I worked nights and weekends as an anesthesia technologist during my senior year of med school. Following graduation from med school I began my residency training in anesthesia and critical care at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. I am currently starting the third year of my residency and looking forward to where my future takes me. Christopher Webb: I graduated with my BS in MMI in December, 2004. Prior to starting Medical School at UWSMPH in August, 2005 I worked as a research associate in

the laboratory of Dr. Lynn AllenHoffmann in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. During my time at UWSMPH, I participated in the faculty development program at Harvard Medical School and did an externship at the Faculty of Medicine in Oslo, Norway. I started medical school thinking that I would pursue a subspecialty of Medicine. However, like every medical student I changed my mind a dozen times and by the middle of my 3rd year of medical school I ultimately decided on Anesthesiology and matched into the 4 year program at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons New York Presbyterian Hospital. While I used to think that Anesthesiology was a unique career path for an MMI major, I learned that 4 other MMI alums were also training to become Anesthesiologists! As an intern in the ICUs and throughout my training at Columbia, I continued to rely on my training as an MMI major to manage septic patients both in the operating room and in the SAICU (SurgicalAnesthesia Intensive Care Unit). During my time at Columbia I continued my academic pursuits and co-authored 3 book chapters and 7 papers related to pain management and critical care. At the beginning of my final year at Columbia, I was elected Chief Resident and helped with the day to day activities of running a department with over 100 residents (the second largest residency program at Columbia). Now that my time at Columbia has come to end, I will be continuing my training as a Pain Fellow with the department of Anesthesia and

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Perioperative Care at UCSF. I am very grateful for my time at UW and all of the mentoring that I received from Dr. Jon Woods and Dr. Rodney Welch, and I am excited for the next phase in my career. Kevin Luk: This year marks my 10th year anniversary of graduating from UW-Madison. Since graduating from the program, I have continued my education in the Department of Bacteriology and completed an MS with Professor Ron Schell before moving on to completing my MD at Boston University. During medical school, I found my true calling in Anesthesiology because I enjoyed solving problems by manipulating human physiology in real time. However, I had never forgotten about my roots in microbiology and my interest in infectious diseases. The marriage of my personal and clinical interests resulted in me pursuing a combined residency-

fellowship in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. Ever since the beginning of the program as an intern, I find myself being confident in interpreting microbiology lab results, targeting antibiotic treatment, and reducing hospital acquired infections, all thanks to the valuable teaching from Drs. Welch, Schrader, Manning, and Schell. There is not a day gone by in the ICU that I don't have to apply the very same principles that I learned over 10 years ago to solve complex clinical problem. I truly owe my little success to all the instructors and professors in the department. I am now in the last 18 months of my training and am taking on a more supervisory role as a clinical fellow in the ICU and working more independently in the OR. I am considering returning to Madison in the future for Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology fellowship.

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4 Annual Perlman Symposium This year’s Perlman Symposium set an attendance record with 175 registrants, four speakers focusing on the state of antibiotics (three from out of town), and 23 posters. Thankfully, there were no fireinduced mishaps this year! The only excitement was whether Alicia, one of the organizers, would have her baby before, during, or after the symposium (the baby waited until after)! Speakers and Their Titles Brad Spellberg Principal Investigator, LaBioMed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center “What is the Future of Antibiotic Research and Development”

Barry Eisenstein Senior VP of Scientific Affairs at Cubist Pharmaceuticals & Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School “The Antibiotic Pipeline: Where it is and What Needs Fixing” Jon Clardy Professor of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School “What Can We Learn about Antibiotics from Symbiotic Bacteria” Tim Bugni Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences “Using Metabolomics to Stimulate Antibiotic Discovery from Marine Invertebrate Associated Bacteria”

Kevin Luk

Perlman Poster Award Winners Joseph P. Gerdt Department of Chemistry “Quorum-sensing inhibition is a resistance-robust antimicrobial therapy” Kristin Ciezki Department of Biological Sciences, UW-Milwaukee “The role of xenorhabdicin of Zenorhabdus bovienii in reciprocal interspecies competition in a natural host environment” Carolina Sepulveda Department Bacteriology “Conserved systeines are required for Nmethyltransferase activity of cell-free produced Pseudomonas aeruginosa PilD”

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I pledge $ each year, payable for years, for a total of $ , beginning in (month/year) and ending in (month/year). Please remind me of my annual pledge payment in (month). Return form to: UW Foundation, US Bank Lockbox, Box 78807, Milwaukee WI 532780807 To make a gift online, visit http://www.medmicro.wisc.edu/alumni.php . If you have any questions, please contact Alicia Hamilton at [email protected].