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

MMG Seminars 2008-2009

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


October

October 17 - MSB B.605 | Cecilia Maria Arraiano (Univerisidae Nova de Lisboa)
"Ribonuclease II: Modus operandi of a molecular killer"

October 23 - MSB 2.103 | Maria Sandkvist (University of Michigan)
"Docking and Assembly of the Type II Secretion Complex in Vibrio cholarae"

November

November 6 - MSB 2.103 | Katy Kao (Texas A&M University)
"Molecular characterization of adaptive evolution in Saccharomyces cerevisiae"

December

December 10 - MSB 2.103 | Shinji Makino (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Suppression of host gene expression mediated by SARS-coronavirus nsp1 protein"

December 11 - MSB 2.103 | Allison O'Brien (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences)
"Shiga toxins: Potent poisons and pathogenicity determinants"

December 12 - MSB 2.103 | Jere McBride (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Ehrlichia chaffeenis: Master of manipulation revealed"

January

January 6 - MSB B.645 | Rob Davey (University of Texas Medical Branch)
“Role of P13K and calcium-mediated cell signaling in infection of cells by Ebola virus”

January 7 - MSB 2.103 | Robin Stephens (Natl Inst for Medical Research, London)
“Protective memory T cells remain activated in chronic malaria infection"

January 9 - MSB 2.103 | Alfredo Torres (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Minotaur and Chiron, tales of the zoonotic pathogens Escherichia coli and Burkholderia mallei"

January 13 - MSB B.645 | Stan Watowich (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Functional genomic and mechanistic approaches to antiviral drug discovery"

January 14 - MSB 3.301 | Arthur Gunzl (University of Connecticut Health Center)
"Trypanosome transcription factors: Extreme sequence divergence or novel proteins?"

January 15 - MSB 3.301 | Luisa Figueiredo (Rockefeller University)
"The structure and function of chromatin during antigenic variation in African trypanosomes"

January 20 - MSB B.645 | Ziyin Li (UC San Francisco)
"Chromosomal passengers and cell cycle regulation in Trypanosoma brucei"

January 22 - MSB 2.103 | Gustavo Arrizabalaga (University of Idaho)
"Adjust or die: Drug resistance and sodium homeostasis in the pathogenic parasite Toxoplasma gondii"

January 26 - MSB 2.103 | Victor Reyes (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Helicobacter pylori: A bacterial role model of persistent infection"

January 27 - MSB B.645 | Subhash Verma (University of Pensylvania)
"Autonomously replicating elements in the Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus genome: Mechanism of persistent infection"

January 28 - MSB 2.103 | Ashok Chopra (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"New virulence mechanisms in the plague (Black death)-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis: Reemerging and bioterror pathogen"

February

February 3 - MSB B.645 | Vincent Starai (Dartmouth Medical School)
"Regulating eukaryotic intracellular membrane fusion: Maintaining integrity and fusion specificity"

February 5 - MSB 3.301 | Jason Huntley (UT Southwestern Medical Center)
"The surface proteome of Francisella tularensis: From basic science to therapeutics"

February 10 - MSB B.645 | Jason Smith (Scripps Research Institute)
"Defensin-mediated neutralization of adenovirus infection"

February 12 - MSB 3.301 | Patricia Champion (UC San Francisco)
"The ESX-1 Secretion System: Substrate Recognition and Host Pathogen Interactions"

February 16 - MSB 2.103 | Lynn Soong (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Explore the dynamic cross-talk between Leishmania and its host"

February 18 - MSB 2.103 | Ellen Beswick (University of Texas Medical Branch)
"Helicobacter pylori: The path from bacterial infection to cancer"

February 19 - MSB 3.301 | Matthew Wiebe (Medical College of Wisconsin)
"Phospho-regulation of BAF by viral and cellular kinases: Implications for innate immunity against foreign DNA"

February 25 - MSB 2.103 | David Lipman (National Center Biotechnology Information, NIH)
"Evolution in Computational Biology"

March

March 5 - MSB 2.103 | Judith Berman (University of Minnesota)
“Genome dynamics in Candida albicans”

March 12 - MSB 3.301 | Xuewen Pan (Baylor College of Medicine)
"Functional genomic tools and their applications"

March 19 - MSB 3.301| Joe Pogliano (UC San Diego)
"Dynamic polymers of the bacterial cytoskeleton"

March 26 - MSB 2.103| Daniel Wozniak (Wake Forrest University)
"Evolution of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the CF airway"

April

April 2 - MSB 3.301 | Anthony Maresso (Baylor College of Medicine)
"Iron acquisition in gram-positive pathogenic bacteria and progress towards therapeutics."

April 9 - MSB 3.301 | Jill Johnson (University of Idaho)
"Plasticity of the Hsp90 molecular chaperone machine"

April 16 - MSB 3.301 | Scott Hultgren (Washington University)
"E. coli biofilms, bottlenecks and host responses in urinary tract infections"

April 23 - No seminar
MMG graduate program retreat

May

May 14 - MSB 2.103 | Carrie Harwood (University of Washington)
"Pseudomonas biofilms and c-di-GMP; forging new connections"

May 21 - MSB 3.301 | Masaya Fujita (University of Houston)
"Systems analysis of Bacillus subtilis sporulation network"

previous MMG Seminars series:

2007-2008

2006-2007 (pdf)

2005-2006 (pdf)

2004-2005 (pdf)

2003-2004 (pdf)