BMI Weekly News- November 23, 2020
BMI Weekly News
November 23, 2020
News:
• Message from Phil:
Congratulations to BMI graduate students who organized and participated in yesterday’s C.P. Lee Graduate Student Research Presentation Day (GSRPD). Eight of the twelve members of the outstanding organizing committee are members of BMI graduate programs, including Madison Walton, who co-Chaired the event. Congratulations to them and everyone else on the committee for their hard work and success in bringing to life an outstanding scientific conference. Congratulations also to the three BMI students who received Honorable Mentions for their presentations (Cameron Roberts, Emma Graffice, and Yingxue Zhang). BMI was represented by three other student presentations (Dustin Farr, James Glassbrook, and Kendall Muzzarelli), and five faculty members who served as judges (Drs. He, Jackson, Pellett, Sebzda, and Theis).
• Congratulations to Ian McCusker, who successfully defended his Immunology & Microbiology Master’s thesis on Friday, November 20. Ian’s title was “Exploring human cytomegalovirus virion egress pathways”, his mentor was Dr. Phil Pellett.
• Congratulations to Dr. Bharati Mitra’s lab on the publication of a paper in Biochemistry, "Structural Role of the First Four Transmembrane Helices in ZntA, a P1B-Type ATPase from Escherichia coli", by Cameron Roberts, Sandhya Muralidharan, Fei Ni and Bharati Mitra.
The link is: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00770
• Congratulations to Dr. Yuan He’s lab on publication of their paper in the journal Cell Reports, “RACK1 Mediates NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation by Promoting NLRP3 Active Conformation and Inflammasome Assembly” by Yanhui Duan, Lingzhi Zhang, Diego Angosto-Bazarra, Pablo Pelegrin, Gabriel Nunez, Yuan He.
The NLRP3 inflammasome is a critical component of the innate immune system. Duan et al. show the receptor for activated protein C kinase 1 (RACK1) mediates NLRP3 inflammasome activation by promoting NLRP3 active conformation and inflammasome assembly, thereby establishing RACK1 as an important regulator of the NLRP3 inflammasome.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(20)31394-2?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email
• Congratulations to Dr. Phil Pellett on publication of an article in Clinical Microbiology Reviews, “Human Herpesviruses 6A and 6B in Brain Diseases: Association versus Causation”, by Anthony L Komaroff (Harvard), Philip E Pellett, and Steven Jacobson (NIH).
The paper describes new extensions of Koch’s postulates for evaluation of etiologic relationships between ubiquitous infectious agents capable of producing lifelong infection and neurologic diseases, and then examines the extent to which these criteria have been met for several herpesviruses and neurologic diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33177186/
• Mental Health Resources for students, faculty and staff. “Activities and Resources to Practice Mental Health First Aid” by BMI PhD student, Madison Walton Mental.Health.Resources.pdf
Events This Week:
• TODAY, Monday, November 23, 2020 is the Tumor Biology and Microenvironment Program Retreat. There is a section on Cancer Immunology at 10-11:30am. Heather Gibson, Eric Sebzda and Wei-Zen Wei will be presenting. See attachment for the complete TBM program details.
Zoom Link: https://wayne-edu.zoom.us/j/98400651475?pwd=SnozMW9ueEdwNGtDazFKbFNVOXh1Zz09
Meeting ID: 984 0065 1475
Passcode: 654321
• No Journal Club scheduled this week.
• No BMI Seminar scheduled this week.
Upcoming Events:
• Next Journal Club: Monday, November 30, 2020, 12:30 – 1:20pm, IMM PhD student candidate, Taylor Vensko presents title: “Adding a New Dimension to Human Cytomegalovirus Virion Maturation and Egress.”
Mentor: Dr. Philip Pellett
Zoom Link: https://wayne-edu.zoom.us/j/91636706175?pwd=cXB3R1JaUXRjTTJENnRUQUF6c1V1QT09
Meeting ID: 916 3670 6175
Passcode: 010081
• Next Immunology Focus Group (IFG) Seminar: Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 12:00-1:00 pm via Zoom.
Speaker, Cheryl Rockwell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University.
Title: “When T cells Get Stressed: Role of the Stress-Activated Transcription Factor Nrf2 in Food Allergy”
Hosted by Jennifer Jacob, PhD, Oncology Department, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University
Zoom Link: https://wayne-edu.zoom.us/j/99400914354?pwd=SXVNNGF5SVQ3endPeTlucUpWcjhkQT09
Meeting ID: 994 0091 4354
Passcode: 265397
• MI-ASM Monthly Seminar Series – Lunch-N-Learn Seminar will be live streaming on the MI-ASM YouTube page with Speaker, Elizabeth DeLorme-Axford, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Oakland University, December 11, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. presenting title: “TBA”. YouTube link: https://youtu.be/I1xUzl9h3og
Interested microbiologists or learners can also subscribe to the MI-ASM You Tube page that will show the scheduled streams: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiwPHOfOs_VZWTMHnIVPclw
Information for Students:
• Covid-19 website: https://www.med.wayne.edu/coronavirus
• Campus Operations: https://www.med.wayne.edu/coronavirus/med-campus
• SOM guidelines: https://www.med.wayne.edu/coronavirus/guidelines
• Warrior Safe Training: https://wayne.edu/coronavirus/warrior-safe-training/
• Campus Daily Screener: https://forms.wayne.edu/covid-19-screening/
• Dean of Students Office: https://doso.wayne.edu/
• Office of International Students and Scholars (OISSO): https://oiss.wayne.edu/
• Parking and Transportation Services Department
◦ The OneCard/Parking Service Center is in the Welcome Center, Room 257, Detroit, MI 48202,
313-577-CARD (2273).
◦ For 24/7 Parking Assistance or Motorist Assistance which includes
battery jumps, vehicle lock outs, and help locating your vehicle, please call 313-577-1979.
• Academic and Registration Calendar 2020-2021: https://wayne.edu/registrar/registration/calendar20-21/
• Academic and Registration Calendar 2021-2022: https://wayne.edu/registrar/registration/calendar21-22/
Lab restart information:
• Medical Campus Operations: https://www.med.wayne.edu/coronavirus/med-campus
• Warrior Safe Training: https://wayne.edu/coronavirus/warrior-safe-training/
• Campus Daily Screener: https://forms.wayne.edu/covid-19-screening/
• Scott Hall Building is open to authorized students, faculty, staff and visitors. All individuals must follow all
SOM guidelines and use their unique daily QR code to scan IN to the building.
https://www.med.wayne.edu/coronavirus/guidelines
• Gloves (all sizes) and disinfectant (qt and gallon) are available – contact Joe or Dr. Pellett; a supply will
be maintained in the office.
• Reminder: Do not throw away the disinfectant bottles & sprayers because they are reusable.
• If Parking Structure 4 is still closed, use the adjacent surface lot (Lot #75) for parking.
• Campus and U.S. Postal Service mail delivery to medical school buildings: Central Receiving
• Important new guidelines for equipment servicing – these are guidelines for any outside vendors
scheduled to work on your research equipment in a WSU building. Make sure you and your vendors
follow these instructions prior to coming to WSU campus. Contact Joe or Mary for the guidelines and
form to complete.
• From the Office of the Provost - Faculty and Staff Resources Link
• WSU Parking and Transportation Services (PTS) for employees for fall 2020 https://parking.wayne.edu
Links (as embedded in items above):
• Activities and Resources to Practice Mental Health First Aid by Madison Walton
• From the Office of the Provost - Faculty and Staff Resources:
• Central Receiving Updated Delivery information: