Medical Microbiology and Immunology

 Dr. Saurabh Chattopadhyay, a viral immunologist and assistant professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, was recently interviewed for a story in Knowable Magazine.

Titled "It's not just the germs — it's also the genes," the article discusses how sick pathogens can make us, depending on genetic variations.  It also references an article in Annual Review of Virology, to which Dr. Chattopadhyay contributed.

Knowable Magazine is from Annual Reviews, a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.

Click Here to Read the Article

Searching for new ways to address the growing threat to drinking water in northwest Ohio and across the globe, Dr. Jason Huntley discovered that native freshwater bacteria can destroy toxins produced during harmful algal blooms.

The University of Toledo scientist has now received a $1.1 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to advance that research into real-world solutions.

The Chattopadhyay Lab has recently been involved in state-wide COVID-19 surveillance in the wastewater collected from the wastewater treatment plants from the Toledo area.

A large number of growing evidence, including reports from the CDC, suggest that the COVID-19-causing virus, i.e., SARS-CoV-2, can be shed from the feces of COVID-19 patients. This led to the possibility that the infectious virus itself or its gene fragment can be detected in the raw sewage. Therefore, the SARS-CoV-2 signature in the wastewater can be a leading indicator of the pandemic's progression.

The Chattopadhyay Lab is analyzing the wastewater samples for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 gene fragment. Drs. Dae-wook Kang (Civil Eng.), Travis Taylor (MMI), and Ritu Chakravarti (Phys. Pharm.) are closely collaborating in this project.

 UT Health Science Campus Retirees Scholarship Endowment Fund is able to grant two $1,000 scholarships for students in the Health Science Campus Graduate College’s Doctor of Philosophy Degree programs in the Biomedical Sciences or Master of Science in Biomedical Science degree programs.   The candidates were selected based on academic excellence and valuable contributions to the campus and/or community.  

MMI Faculty member awarded $1M NOAA grant

As Northwest Ohio residents are well aware, HAB toxins, including microcystin-LR (MC-LR), pose major public health risks. MC-LR can cause a range of illnesses in humans and animals, including liver cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, skin lesions, neurological disorders, hypovolemic shock, and death. The 2014 Toledo water crisis and increasing incidence of HABS around the world have highlighted the urgent need for research and development of new methods to remove/degrade HAB toxins from drinking water. Although municipal water treatment plants have methods to remove MC-LR from drinking water, those methods are expensive, have limited capacity, and generate additional waste products that must be properly treated and disposed of.



In previous studies funded by Ohio SeaGrant and the Ohio Department of Higher Education, the Huntley laboratory published on the isolation and use of naturally-occurring Lake Erie bacterial isolates to degrade MC-LR into non-toxic breakdown fragments. In follow-up studies, Huntley's group also found that these bacteria could remove MC-LR from contaminated water as it was pumped through a biologically-active water filter (biofilter). More recently, in collaboration with Drs. David Kennedy and Steven Haller from the UToledo Department of Medicine, Huntley's group found that these MC-LR degrading bacteria could be safely fed to both normal and immunocompromised mice and MC-LR degrading bacteria blocked both the uptake and toxic effects of MC-LR in those mice (bacteria functioned as a probiotic).

This new grant will:
1. Examine how Huntley's MC-LR degrading bacteria can be used in the Toledo water treatment plant to degrade MC-LR from drinking water and treatment waste products;
2. Use genomic and transcriptomic approaches to identify MC-LR degrading enzymes from these bacteria; and
3. Generate recombinant MC-LR degrading enzymes for commercial and industrial applications.
A large team of investigators will be collaborating on this project, including Drs. Dragan Isailovic (UToledo Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), Crystal Jaing (U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and Ashik Sathish (Pennsylvania State University).

Hallie Dolin, Ph.D.

Email: Hallie.Dolin@utoledo.edu

MMI students selected to present at conferences, now canceled due to coronavirus

Smrithi Sugumaran Menon, a third-year graduate student in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and trainee of Dr. Viviana P. Ferreira, was awarded a travel support of $1,500 to present a poster, also at the AAI's annual IMMUNOLOGY 2020 meeting in May in Hawaii.

Her abstract will be published in a special online supplement to The Journal of Immunology late April or early May. The title of her abstract is "Assessment of function of neutrophil-derived properdin in a novel functional assay."


Brenden Tully, a second-year graduate student in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, mentored by Dr. Jason Huntley, was selected to present a poster at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe Conference, which was scheduled to be held June 18-22, 2020 in Chicago. ASM Microbe typically is attended by 10,000 – 12,000 microbiology and infectious disease experts from around the world.

Brenden's abstract, entitled "Infection and transmission of Francisella tularensis by the American dog tick and lone star tick," describes how he has been examining infection and bacterial persistence of F. tularensis in two different U.S. tick vectors over time, with additional studies comparing bacterial transmission by both infected ticks to naïve hosts.

The Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology welcomes new faculty member:

Tomoaki Ogino, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

On April 1, 2020 Dr. Ogino joined the department from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH.  Dr. Ogino's skills, expertise, and research, as a virologist, will be demonstrated as he will play a very important role in the current COVID-19 research collaboration project with our outstanding group of virologist on campus. 

Dr. Ogino's laboratory has been focused on understanding the fundamental molecular mechanisms of gene expression of nonsegmented negative strand (NNS) RNA viruses. NNS RNA viruses include many important human pathogens, such as rabies, human parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial, measles, and Ebola; however, at present there are no effective drugs against these viruses. He brings with him an R01 NIH grant.

WELCOME!

MMI Staff members named Women of Week by the UToledo Eberly Center

The UToledo Catharine S. Eberly Center for Women recognizes outstanding students, faculty, and staff by highlighting a woman of the week in its weekly newsletter.  "We want to applaud the women on campus who make a difference every day in the work that they do, the people they interact with, and the communities they serve," according to the center.

Laura Brown and Pam DeWalt, two staff members from the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, were recently featured in the Eberly Center's weekly newsletter.

Faculty members participate in UToledo panel on coronavirus outbreak

On March 4, The University of Toledo hosted a public forum on the coronavirus outbreak with top scholars from the College of Medicine and Life Sciences and the College of Nursing with specific expertise in public health, infectious diseases, immunology, and microbiology.

As a public research university, UToledo regularly shares our scholarly and research expertise on major issues impacting the public.

The discussion was moderated by Dr. Joan Duggan, professor of medicine, an infectious disease specialist, and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs & Development.

UToledo experts on the panel include: Dr. Jennifer Hanrahan, associate professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Disease; Dr. Jason Huntley, associate professor of medical microbiology and immunology; Dr. Linda Lewandowski, professor and dean of the College of Nursing; and Dr. R. Travis Taylor, assistant professor of medical microbiology and immunology.

Watch highlights from the discussion below. Watch a report by NBC 24.

 Congratulations to our MD/PhD candidate, Sara!

Sara Moore, a MD/PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Viviana P. Ferreira in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology was recently awarded a Microgrant from the Joint Biology Consortium, an NIH-funded collaborative network supporting innovative research in arthritis. This grant will support Sara’s research on the role of the complement system, an essential part of the adaptive and innate immune response, in rheumatoid arthritis. Specifically, Sara is interested in characterizing a protein called properdin, an enhancer of complement activity, to better understand how complement facilitates a proinflammatory environment in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. 

MMI Researcher Co-Chairs Biothreats Conference


Dr. Jason Huntley, Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, recently served as co-chair for the 2020 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Biothreats Conference in Washington, D.C.

Over the course of the last year, Dr. Huntley and a team of national experts in infectious diseases, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccine development organized and invited over 60 speakers to present their latest breakthroughs to prevent and treat viral and bacterial diseases.

ASM Biothreats 2020 featured an opening keynote presentation by Dr. Anthony Fauci (NIH-NIAID), who spoke about U.S. government efforts to diagnose, contain, and quickly develop a DNA-based vaccine against the novel 2019 coronavirus that is of worldwide concern. ASM Biothreats 2020 also featured presentations by Avril Benoit from Doctors Without Borders, Christopher Houchens from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and Douglas Bryce from the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND), among other presenters.   Nearly 700 physicians, scientists, and government policy makers attended this three-day conference.

MMI faculty member Dr. R. Mark Wooten and Department Chair Dr. Kevin Pan were recognized for their contributions to preventing and treating global health challenges




Click Here to learn about how UToledo is developing solutions to prevent and treat global health challenges

Huntley Lab Research Published in Ohio Sea Grant magazine on producing safe drinking water

Click Here to Download the Article
Research from the laboratory of Dr. Jason Huntley, associate professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, was featured in a recent issue of the Ohio Sea Grant magazine, Twine Line.The article on pages 16 and 17, titled "Produce Safe Drinking Water: Using Bacteria to Remove Microcystin from Drinking Water," highlights efforts by Dr. Huntley's research group to develop new methods to remove the microcystin toxin, MC-LR, from drinking water.Harmful algal blooms and their toxins cause serious threats to human health here in Ohio and around the world. MC-LR, in particular, is known to cause liver cancer, as well as respiratory and gastrointestinal distress, skin rashes, and other complications in humans.  Federal and state agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Ohio EPA, and the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) have emphasized the need for new water treatment technologies to aid in MC-LR removal from contaminated water sources.  Dr. Huntley's group has isolated naturally-occurring bacteria from Lake Erie that degrade MC-LR into non-toxic breakdown products.The Huntley research group currently is working on two main projects to produce safe drinking water: First, they are using these MC-LR degrading bacteria in biologically-active water filters – biofilters – to remove the MC-LR toxins and produce safe drinking water; Second, they are performing whole-genome sequencing on their MC-LR degrading bacteria to identify MC-LR degrading enzymes, which could be purified for water treatment.

Researchers Seek New Treatment for Sepsis Through Innovative Approach
New research from The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences suggests it may be possible to treat septic shock with drugs that are already part of the clinical repertoire.  Screening existing pharmaceutical agents for unexpected applications is increasingly seen as a valuable tool for establishing new treatments, particularly within the field of oncology research.
Dr. Kevin Pan, professor and chair of the UToledo Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, is applying that innovative approach to sepsis, a life-threatening condition in which the body’s extreme immune response to infection damages its own organs.  By exploring new ways to modulate that immune response, Pan and his collaborators hope to provide a complimentary treatment to go along with antibiotics that can prevent damage to critical organ systems.
Click Here to Access the full UToledo Article

MMI Department Chair speaks to student group about his journey to becoming a physician

MMI University of Toledo 2019-2020 Graduate Research Awardees

Congratulations to Gayatri Subramanian!

Gayatri Subramanian, PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, was recently awarded the University of Toledo 2019-2020 Graduate Research Award.  This UToledo Graduate Student Association (GSA) Graduate Research Award will provide $2,000 towards Gayatri’s research project that focuses on understanding how herpes simplex virus – 1 (HSV-1), a major human pathogen, hijacks host proteins to its benefit. Current approach to address this question is by using cellular and molecular techniques, such as genetic and pharmacological inhibition of the host protein, which HSV-1 depends on. The target protein was identified in the process of understanding the antiviral mechanisms of a novel interferon stimulated gene (ISG), Tudor domain containing protein 7 (Subramanian et al, PLoS Pathogens, 2018). The GSA award will help investigate the molecular mechanisms of this novel host-virus interaction.

Congratulations to Brenden Tully!

Brenden Tully, MSBS student in Dr. Jason Huntley’s lab in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, recently was awarded the University of Toledo 2019-2020 Graduate Research Award.  This UToledo Graduate Student Association (GSA) Graduate Research Award will provide $2,000 towards Mr. Tully’s research project to study how the highly-infectious and deadly bacterium, Francisella tularensis – the causative agent of tularemia, infects different U.S. tick species and identify which tick species poses the greatest risk to human health.  Climate change has led to significant expansion of the geographic ranges of different tick species in the U.S.  Ticks are known to harbor and transmit dozens of infectious diseases to humans, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and tularemia.  Two ticks, the American dog tick and the Lone Star tick, are believed to be the primary tick vectors for tularemia but actual data is severely lacking.  Mr. Tully has developed a mouse-tick-F. tularensis infection model to naturally infect both American dog ticks and Lone Star ticks ticks with F. tularensis, examine bacterial replication in each tick, and test transmission efficiency of infected ticks to naïve mice.