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2014-2021 News Archive

Department News prior to Fall 2021.

Fall 2021

Congratulations to Christos Dogrammatzis for successfully defending his dissertation!


April 2021

Congratulations to Dr. Amara Seng for being awarded the Lawrence E. Lamb Prize for medical research!

Congratulations to Zach DeMars for successfully defending his dissertation!

Congratulations to Dr. Maria Kalamvoki on her promotion to Associate Professor with tenure!


January 2021

Congratulations to Huan He & Hope Waisner for receipt of a 2020-21 BRTP Award!


December 2020

Congratulations to Sachith Polpitiya Arachchige for successfully defending his dissertation!


November 2020

Congratulations to Graduate Student, Siyuan Hao for completing his Comprehensive Exam!

September 2020

New Grant Awards:

Indranil Biswas, Administrative Supplement (Equipment), Role of Clp proteins in pathophysiology of Streptococcus mutans, 3R01GM128241-03S1

Ed Stephens and Maria Kalamvoki, NIH R21 AI158229, Immunomodulatory effects of coronavirus membrane proteins E, M, and S, 08/17/2020 – 07/31/2022

Mary Markiewicz, Beatson Foundation, The mechanism of autoimmune diabetes protection mediated by NKG2D-induced CD8+ Tcm, 07/01/2020 – 06/30/2022

Mary Markiewicz, Frontier’s Pilot, The role of NKG2D in SARS-CoV-2 clearance by Vγ9Vδ2 T cells, 06/15/2020 – 06/14/2021

Ed Stephens and Maria Kalamvoki, Frontier’s Pilot, Immunomodulatory effects of SARS-CoV-2 transmembrane proteins E, M, and S, 06/15/2020 – 06/14/2021 

Mary Markiewicz, Diabetes Institute, The mechanism of autoimmune diabetes protection mediated by NKG2D-induced CD8+Tcm, 06/01/2020 – 05/31/2021

Mary Markiewicz, The V Foundation, The effect of cytokine treatment and NKG2D ligand expression on NK cells on tumor immunotherapy, 06/01/2020 – 05/31/2021

Jeff Bose, NIH R21 AI153773, Redefining fatty acid degradation by Staphylococcus aureus, 06/01/2020 – 05/31/2022

Wolf Zueckert, University of Kentucky Subaward (NIH R01 AI144126), SpoVG and PlzA Regulation of Lyme Disease Spirochete Infection Processes, 04/01/2020 – 03/31/2025

Jianming Qiu and Ziying Yan, NIH R21 AI151542, Mechanisms Underlying the Transduction Polarity of AAV in Polarized Human Airway Epithelium, 02/13/2020 – 01/31/2022


July 2020

Congratulations to Drs. Jeffrey Bose and Mary Markiewicz on their promotion to Associate Professor with tenure!


February 2020

New Grant Award:

Maria Kalamvoki, NIH R21 AI144883, Alterations in the surfaceome of the herpes simplex virus 1 infected cells via the Cbl/CIN85 endocytic machinery and the role of the Infected Cell Protein No 0 (ICP0) in endocytosis, 02/20/2020 – 01/30/2022


January 2020

New Grant Award:

Jianming Qiu, NIH R01 AI150877, Viral and Host Determinants of Parvovirus Replication, 01/27/2020 – 12/31/2024

New Grant Award:

Maria Kalamvoki, RI Winter Enhancement Award, Effect of Extracellular Vesicles on Neurons and Glial Cells During Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Infection


December 2019

Congratulations to Christos Dogrammatzis for receipt of a 2019-2020 BRTP Award!


November 2019

Congratulations to Andrew Trembath for successfully defending his dissertation!


October 2019

New Grant Award:

Wolf Zueckert, KU COBRE, Small Molecule Inhibitors of Bacterial Surface Lipoprotein Secretion, 5/28/2019-4/30/2020


September 2019

New Grant Award:

Maria Kalamvoki, Fall Enhancement Award, The interplay between HSV-1 ICP0 and the Cbl/CIN85 endocytic machinery and the benefits for HSV-1 infection, 10/1/2019 - 9/30/2020

New Grant Award:

Joe Lutkenhaus, 2 R01 GM029764-34A1, Regulation of Cell Division, 09/15/2019 - 07/31/2023


August 2019

Welcome New Microbiology Graduate Students!

Çağla Aksu Küz
Brandon Grieshaber
Bryan Murphy


June 2019

New Grant Award:

Severin Gudima and Steven Weinman, 1 R21 AI142028-01A1, HBV RNAs produced by viral replication and derived from integrated HBV DNA as potential biomarkers predicting the efficiency of clinical response to nucleos(t)ide analogs, 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2021

New Grant Award:

Severin Gudima, R21 AI144923, Regulation of HDV infection in humans, 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2021

New Grant Award:

Ed Stephens, Effect of HIV-1 and Cocaine on EVs and the Impact on Astrocyte Infection, SOM Bridge Funding, 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2020

New Grant Award:

Wolf Zueckert, Functional Analysis of Essential Borrelia burgdorferi Outer Membrane Proteins using tCRISPRi, KUMC Research Institute Lied Grant, 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2020.

New Grant Award:

1R21AI144624-01A1, Wolfram Zueckert, Chaperone-Mediated Secretion of Borrelia Lipoproteins, 06/01/2019 – 05/31/2021

New Grant Award:

1F32AI145158-01A1, Crystal Austin (Bose Lab), Contribution of YjbIH to Virulence Factor Regulation and Host Colonization in StaphylococcusAureus, 09/08/2019


April 2019

Congratulations to Amara Seng for successfully defending her dissertation!


March 2019

In a recent article in PNAS, Shishen Du (Lutkenhaus lab) reported the determination of  the kinetic polarity of FtsZ (tubulin homologue) filaments Du et al. 2018.

New Grant Award:

Mary Markiewicz, Department of Defense, The Role of NKG2D-Ligand Interaction in Autoimmune Diabetes, 02/01/2019 – 08/30/2020

New Grant Award:

Jianming Qiu, R21 AI144564, Parvovirus B19 nickase-based high-throughput screening and structure study of the nickase, 3/1/2019 – 2/28/2021


September 2018

New Grant Award:

Wolfram Zueckert, R21 AI139956 (Subaward with University of Kentucky), Post-Transcriptional Regulation in Borrelia Burgdorferi by the BpuR RNA-Binding Protein, 06/11/2018 – 05/31/2019

New Grant Award:

Indranil Biswas, R21 DE026937, Role of a nucleoid-associated protein (HLP) in virulence regulation in Streptococcus mutans, 09/01/2018 – 08/31/2020


August 2018

Welcome New Microbiology Graduate Students!
Siyuan Hao
Chunmiao Yu


April 2018

New Grant Award:
Dr. Jianming Qiu, "Human bocavirus 1 (HBoV1) capsid entry and intracellular trafficking of polarized human airway epithelium", R21, 05/11/2018 - 04/30/2020

Congratulations to Safder Ganaie for successfully defending his dissertation!

New Grant Award:
Dr. Thibaut Deschamps received a K-INBRE Postdoctoral Award for his project "Role of viral and non-viral miRNAs carried by extracellular vesicles released during HSV-1 infection", 5/1/2018 - 4/30/2019


January 2018

Congratulations to Dr. Jianming Qiu for his election to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology!

Congratulations to Graduate Student, Susan Brock, for successfully defending her dissertation!

Congratulations to Graduate Student, Jonathan Eusey, for successfully defending his thesis!


September 2017

New Grant Award:
Dr. Mary Markiewicz, V Foundation Grant, 10/01/2017 - 10/01/2019, The role of NKG2D-ligand interaction between NK cell immunotherapy.


August 2017

New Grant Award:
Drs. Indranil Biswas and Saswati Biswas were awarded an R01 entitled "Peptide Mediated Cell-Cell Communications in Streptococcus mutans"

Two recent publications from the Qiu lab in the same issue of the Journal of Virology were highlighted as articles of significant interest by the editors - http://jvi.asm.org/content/91/18/e01223-17.full

Welcome New Microbiology Graduate Students!
Vivek Gurung
Huan He
Miranda Pratt
Hope Waisner 


July 2017

New Grant Award:
Wolfram Zueckert, NIH R21 AI129522, Pathogenesis of Borrelia mayonii infection, 07/24/2017 - 06/30/2019, Subaward with University of Kentucky

An inaugural article from the Lutkenhaus lab was published in PNAS - 114: 7497-7504 (2017). The article is accompanied by a QnA session: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/25/1711478114.full

Congratulations to Graduate Student, Yaqiong Wang, for successfully defending her dissertation!

Congratulations to Dr. Wolfram Zückert for his promotion to Professor!


April 2017

Congratulations to Graduate Student, Alexander Dowdell, for successfully defending his dissertation!

New Grant Award:
Dr. Tom Yankee, KC Area Life Sciences Institute, Collaborate2Cure Research Development Award, Advancing a Novel Chimeric Antigen, Receptor Toward Canine Clinical Trials, 5/1/2017 - 6/30/2018


February 2017

A recent publication in the Journal of Bacteriology from the Bose lab on a fatty acid kinase from Staphylococcus aureus was selected as an article of significant interest by the editors-http://jb.asm.org/content/199/5/e00828-16.full.pdf+html


January 2017

Tammy Kielian, a 1998 PhD recipient, was recently honored as UNMC's 11th Scientist Laureate, the highest research honor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
http://www.unmc.edu/news.cfm?match=19850


December 2016

Congratulations to Graduate Students, Josiah Cox and Kellyann Jones-Jamtgaard, for successfully defending their dissertations!

Congratulations to Kellyann Jones-Jamtgaard! She has been named a recipient of the Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program. She will be working for the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine.


October 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Jianming Qiu for receiving a 2016 Faculty Research Investigator Award!


August 2016

Congratulations to Graduate Student, Weiran Shen, for successfully defending his dissertation!

Welcome New Microbiology Graduate Students!
Zachary DeMars
Christos Dogrammatzis
Wyatt Henke
Kelsey Krausz
Sachith Polpitiyaarachchige
Camille Trinidad


July 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Severin Gudima on his FY17 promotion to Associate Professor!


March 2016

Congratulations to Julie Mitchell for successfully defending her dissertation!


January 2016

New Microbiology Courses - Spring 2016
MICR 809: Tumor Immunology
MICR 826: Oncogenesis Associated with Viral Infections


August 2015

Welcome!! Dr. Maria Kalamvoki has accepted our invitation and has joined the Faculty of the Department as Assistant Professor.

Congratulations to Dr. Wolf Zueckert, Recipient of the 2015 Chancellor's Teaching Award

Congratulations Susan Brock, Shishen Du & Safder Saieed Fnu on receiving the Biomedical Research Training Program grant.

New Grant Awards:
Drs. Mary Markiewicz & Neekun Sharma have been selected as recipients of a 2015 American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Careers in Immunology Fellowship.

Dr. Jianming Qiu, NIH-R21, "Study of Human Bocavirus Gene Expression for Development of a Parvoviral Vector"


February 2015

Congratulations to the Gudima lab. Their article in the Journal of Virology titled "Super-infection with woodchuck hepatitis virus (WHV) strain WHVNY of the livers chronically infected with the strain WHV7" has been recommended by Faculty of 1000.

New Grant Awards:
Thomas Yankee, Braden's Hope/Children's Mercy Hospital, Novel chimeric antigen receptors to enhance T cell activation and differentiation.


August 2014

New Grant Awards:
Wolfram Zueckert, R21 Al113547, Functional Domains of Borrelia Burgdorferi Virulence Factor OspC


May 2014

Congratulations to Dr. Joe Lutkenhaus, University Distinguished Professor, who has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences!

KU School of Medicine

University of Kansas Medical Center
Department of Microbiology, Molecular Genetics and Immunology
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Mailstop 3029
Kansas City, KS 66160
PHONE: 913-588-7012
FAX: 913-588-7295