The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
The Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

MMG Seminars 2007-2008

Outstanding scientists from around the world give seminars every Thursday at 4 pm in our department. Additionally, once a month, one of our faculty members will give a colloquium.


Seminars are held weekly on Thursdays at 4 pm in MSB2.103 or MSB3.301 as indicated below. Seminars by outside speakers will be followed by a reception in the MMG library with delicious menu options.

October

October 4 - MSB 3.001 | Joseph Dillard (University of Wisconsin)
"Secretion and release of DNA and peptidoglycan fragments from Neisseria gonorrhoeae"

October 11 - MSB 2.103 | Jade Wang (Baylor College of Medicine)
"Control of Elongation of DNA Replication in Bacillus subtilis"

October 18 - MSB 3.301 | Christina Hull (Univeristy of Wisconsin)
"Fungal Sexual Development, Infectious Particles, and the Host Immune Response"

October 25 - MSB 2.103 | Scott Landfear (Oregon Health Sciences University)
"An essential role for glucose transporters in the life cycle of Leishmania parasites"

November

November 1 - MSB 2.103 | Oleg Igoshin (Rice University)
"Graded and bistable switches in bacterial development and stress response"

November 8 - MSB 2.103 | Petra Anne Levin (Washington University)
"Sugar shock: A metabolic sensor controlling bacterial cell size"

November 15 - MSB 3.301
Faculty Colloquium - Heidi Kaplan
TBA

November 29 - MSB 2.103 | Susan Egan (University of Kansas)
"Transcription activation b the AraC family transcription activators RhaS and RhaR of E. coli"

December

December 6 - MSB 2.103 | Eric Skaar (Vanderbilt University)
"The battle for metal between Staphylococcus aureus and its host"

December 13 - MSB 2.103 | Vanessa Sperandio (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
"Inter-kingdom signaling in bacterial pathogenesis"

December 20 - MSB 3.301
Faculty Colloquium -TBA

January

January 10 - MSB 2.103 | Juan C. de la Torre (Scripps Research Institute)
“Deconstructing the prototypic arenavirus LCMV: Implications for understanding and combating acute and chronic viral infections and associated diseases”

January 17 - MSB 3.301 | Alison Criss (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
“Subversion of host immune responses by Neisseria gonorrhoeae"

January 24 - MSB 2.103 | Hung Ton-That (University of Connecticut Health Center)
"Pili in gram-positive bacteria: Assembly, involvement in colonization, and biofilm development."

January 31 - MSB 2.103 | Sasha Shafikhani (University of California at San Francisco)
"Pseudomonas aeruginosa and host cell interactions. New insights into Pseudomonas pathogenesis and mammalian cell biology"

February

February 7 - MSB 2.103 | Jess Leber (University of California - Berkeley)
"Manipulation of innate immune signaling by Listeria monocytogenes"

February 14 - MSB 2.103 | Lorena Navarro (UCSD School of Medicine)
"Identification of a molecular target for the Yersinia protein kinase A: Insights into the molecular mechanism of Yersinia pathogenesis."

February 21 - MSB 3.301 | Paul Brett (Rocky Mountain Laboratories)
"Interactions of Burkholderia mallei with murine macrophages"

February 28 - MSB 2.103 | Victor Torres (Vanderbilt University)
"Staphylococcus aureus senses host environments to modulate virulence"

March

March 6 - MSB 2.103 | Richard Brennan (UT MD Anderson Cancer Center)
“Structural mechanism of organic hydroperoxide induction of the transcriptional regulator OhrR”

March 13 - MSB 2.103 | Jaenette Kunz (Baylor College of Medicine)
"PI4,5P2 signaling to the actin cytoskeleton: A yeast perspective"

March 27 - MSB 2.103 | Maria Sandkvist (University of Michigan)
"The ins and out of type II secretion"

April

April 3 - MSB 2.103 | Tricia Serio (Brown University)
"Prion dynamics and protein-only inheritance"

April 10 - MSB 2.103 | Beth Lazazzera (University of California, Los Angeles)
"Formation of multicellular biofilms by Bacillus subtilis"

April 17 - MSB 3.301 | Michael Caparon (Washington University)
"The ExPortal of Streptococcus pyogenes"

April 24 - MSB 2.103 | No seminar
MMG graduate program retreat

May

May 8 - MSB 2.103 | Ursula Jakob (University of Michigan)
"Redox regulation of protein activity"

May 15 - MSB 2.103 | Hye-Jeong Yeo (University of Houston)
"Towards structural mechanisms of secretion and virulence in Gram-negative pathogens"

May 22 - MSB 3.301 | Gabriela Bowden (Texas A&M Health Science Center)
"The Panton Valentine Leukocidin is a virulence factor in S. aureusnecrotizing pneumonia"

May 29 - MSB 2.103 | Kim Orth (UT Southwestern)
"Black death, black spot, black pearl: Tales of bacterial effectors"

June

June 12 - MSB 2.103 | Jun Liu (UTHSC-Houston, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine)
"A tale of two pathogens: HIV and Borrelia burgdorferi"

June 26 - MSB 2.103 | Barrett Harvey (UTHSC-Houston, Institute for Molecular Medicine)
"Passive protection from Enterococcal infection"

previous MMG Seminars series:

2006-2007 (pdf)

2005-2006 (pdf)

2004-2005 (pdf)

2003-2004 (pdf)