Dr. Nahui Medina-Chavez
Postdoctoral Associate
University of Minnesota
Host: Geo Santiago-Martinez

Probing the Last Frontier: From Archaea cultivation to the long term experiment in halophiles

Summary: Dr. Medina-Chavez will cover the great need of archaeal experimentation, covering cultivation challenges to my most recentexperimental design to experimentally investigate adaptive responses in halophiles. In these set of experiments, I continuously transfer two strains (Halobacterium salinarum and Salinibacter ruber) in a multidimensional resourcecomponent and salt saturated conditions in poor and rich environments.

Bio: Dr. Medina-Chavez is a microbiologist and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on evolutionary biology, microbial genomics, and the physiology of archaea. With over eight years of dedication and stewardship, she has cultivated an extensive halophilic archaeal collection. Through genomics and experimental evolution, Medina-Chavez studies the adaptive mechanisms of haloarchaea, showcasing theirplastic metabolic processes, providing valuable insights into microbial responses to environmental change, andexploring dual adaptability and its trade-offs.

Learn more about Dr. Medina-Chavez’s work

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.693193/full

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37279013/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1276438/full

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LkFZPrYAAAAJ&hl=en

MCB Graduate Student Recruitment

This event is by invitation only.

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Chen-Hsiang Hsu will lead a discussion of“Mechanics of human embryo compaction” by Firmin et al., 2024.

MCB Graduate Student Recruitment

This event is by invitation only.

Russell Hanson, (Goldhamer Lab)
Investigating fascia in the development of heterotopic ossification in Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva

Shania Kalladanthyil (Hanlon Lab)
How new chromosomes come to “B” in D. melanogaster

Makayla Leroux (Teschke Lab)
Investigating portal:scaffolding protein interactions in bacteriophage P22

Caroline Vieira Da Silva (Milligan-McClellan Lab)
Investigating the outer membrane vesicles and the surface layer protein in the Aeromonas veronii

Dr. Katrina Velle (’18)
Assistant Professor
UMass Dartmouth
Host: Ken Campellone

A relative of the “brain-eating amoeba” uses conserved mechanisms to crawl through diverse environment

Summary: This talk will address how Naegleria gruberi amoebae crawl through simple and complex environments using two distinct modes of actin-dependent cell migration.

Bio: Katrina Velle is a cell biologist interested in cytoskeleton-driven phenotypes and pathogenic microbes. She is investigating the contributions of actin networks to cell migration, cell division, and osmoregulation in Naegleria, including the “brain-eating amoeba.” She received her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from UConn in 2018, and worked with Dr. Fritz-Laylin at UMass Amherst for her postdoctoral research. She is now an Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology at UMass Dartmouth. Her work has been supported by an NIH F32 fellowship (NIAID), an NIH K99/R00 Award (NIGMS), and Amazing Aven’s Quest for Amoeba Awareness.

Publication

Vella Lab Website

The DEI Committee is having an open meeting THURSDAY, 2/13 at 10AM if you would like to join us. We meet virtually in my Webex room: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/smh15104

The goal of the meeting is to strengthen our DEI Statement and discuss any current concerns you have regarding DEI and MCB.

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Chen-Hsiang Hsu will lead a discussion of“Mechanics of human embryo compaction” by Firmin et al., 2024.

UConn Molecular and Cell Biology Department and the School of Nursing are hosting a special seminar.

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) leadership team will be presenting a lunchtime seminar on Addressing Ageism in Healthcare

Ageism in healthcare is the systematic and unjust treatment of individuals based on their age, particularly older individuals, within healthcare settings. It manifests in various forms and can have significant negative impacts on the health and well-being of older persons. The challenge is that an innate bias based on age is a long-ingrained part of our culture. Many miss the signs of societal, interpersonal, and especially self-directed ageism. Bringing to the forefront specific examples and context is an important first step to address this pervasive and important issue that affects us all as we age.

Presenters:
Marilyn R. Gugliucci
MA, PhD, FAGHE, FGSA, AGSF, FNAOME
GSA President
Professor & Director, Geriatrics Education & Research
University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Maine

James C. Appleby
BSPharm, MPH, ScD (Hon)
Chief Executive Officer
Gerontological Society of America

Please RSVP here by Feb.6

MCB Faculty Meeting

Dr. Elsio Wunder
DVM, PhD, Assistant Professor UConn Pathobiology and Veterinary Science
Host: Ken Campellone

Leptospirosis pathogenesis: unveiling a mystery

Summary: Leptospirosis, the leading zoonotic disease in morbidity and mortality worldwide, is caused by pathogenic spirochetes belonging to the genus Leptospira. The burden of this neglected disease will continue to rise given the effects of climate change and social inequality, important drivers of disease. The mechanism behind the pathogenesis of leptospiral infection continues to be a major knowledge gap preventing the advance on diagnostic and prevention. Despite recent breakthroughs on the research of this important neglected zoonotic disease, more work is needed to better understand how leptospires can rapidly disseminate, evade host-immune responses, and cause life-threatening disease worldwide.
In this talk, Dr. Wunder will show some recent research that  their group is working on to try to better understand the mechanisms behind the host-pathogen interactions of this disease, and how this work can influence the development of better tools for diagnostic and prevention.

About Dr. Wunder: Dr. Wunder is a trained veterinarian with extensive international research experience, focused on understanding the pathogenesis of leptospirosis with more than 15 years of experience working in leptospirosis research laboratories in veterinary and public health settings. Dr. Wunder’s experience has given them an in-depth understanding of the practical research laboratory issues and the challenges in the biology and pathogenesis of this important neglected disease. Their PhD thesis centered on translational research applications to identify leptospiral determinants enabling the bacterium to penetrate and disseminate in the host. As part of this work, Wunder developed and evaluated qPCR-based DNA detection assays for diagnosis and dissemination studies, improved methods for genetic transformation of Leptospira, and developed in-vitro assays that were used to determine the ability of the pathogen to cause infection, like translocation and adherence assays. Their research has concentrated on using those skills and techniques to better understand leptospiral pathogenesis and identify suitable and potential protein candidates to improve the diagnosis and prevention of leptospirosis.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mmi.15327
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1011313
https://elifesciences.org/articles/64166
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0367?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/iai.00094-16?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mmi.13403
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/225/1/130/6303542?login=true

Wunder Lab website

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

University of Connecticut

Announces the

Oral Dissertation Defense for the Doctoral Degree

Jacob Kellermeier

B.S. Microbiology, Indiana University 2018

B.S. Neuroscience, Indiana University 2018

MyoF and FRM2 Coordinate the Cytosolic F-Actin Cytoskeleton to Facilitate Endomembrane Trafficking and Organelle Inheritance in Toxoplasma gondii

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

10:00 AM

ESB 121

Major Advisor: Dr. Aoife Heaslip

Associate Advisor: Dr. Kenneth Campellone

Associate Advisor: Dr. Juliet Lee

Examiner: Dr. Kat Milligan-McClellan

Examiner: Dr. Adam Zweifach

Link to Dissertation

WinS is a low-key, MCB-based (but not MCB-exclusive) social group dedicated to supporting female grad students, postdocs and faculty in the sciences. Connecting to others through such networks can increase professional success and personal contentment (which have additional positive cascading effects), so please consider stopping by - even if only for a few minutes! Note: This meeting is for all women, including cis and trans, and non-binary and gender non-conforming people who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women in science.

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Alexis Bateswill lead a discussion of“Cleft lip and cleft palate in Esrp1 knockout mice is associated with alterations in epithelial-mesenchymal crosstalk” by Lee et al., 2020

Giancarlo Montovano
Robinson Lab
The Dual Binding Mode of the GTPase BipA is Controlled by Allosteric Regulation

Dr. Seth Fraden
Professor of physics, Brandeis University
Host: Carol Teschke

Symmetry-Guided Self-Assembly of DNA Origami and Proteins

We present a modular approach to synthetic self-assembly, using DNA and protein design to construct finite-sized nanostructures with a minimal number of unique monomers. Exploiting symmetry, we successfully assembled large icosahedral shells (100–1000 nm), inspired by Caspar and Klug’s 1962 virus structure theory. DNA origami enabled precise building block design, allowing us to control assembly pathways, kinetics, and yield. Cryo-EM validation and computational modeling revealed key factors governing self-assembly efficiency. These DNA-based capsids serve as an ideal realization of patchy particles whose geometry and interactions can be designed with sub-nanometer and kT precision. Expanding beyond icosahedra, we explored cylindrical and negatively curved surfaces. Now, leveraging AI-driven structure-based tools (Chroma, ESMfold, Boltz-1, AlphaFold3), we are testing whether these DNA origami principles apply to de novo protein design, pushing the frontiers of bioinspired materials engineering.

About Dr. Fraden:

Fraden is a professor of physics and co-interim chair of Engineering at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA. He served as director of the Bioinspired Soft Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at Brandeis University from 2012 - 2024. Fraden received the 2008 Innovation Prize of the International Organization of Biological Crystallization for the development of microfluidic devices for high throughput protein crystallization. In 2020, Fraden was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for leadership in experimental soft matter physics. Fraden’s research focus is Bioinspired Soft Matter with a focus on (a) self-assembly in biomaterials with applications in antiviral therapy and drug delivery, (b) active matter with applications in soft robotics, (c) non-linear chemical dynamics and (d) the development of microfluidics for biotechnology with applications in protein crystallization.

Publications:

Economical routes to size-specific assembly of self-closing structures

Hierarchical assembly is more robust than egalitarian assembly in synthetic capsids

Programmable icosahedral shell system for virus trapping

Fraden website

John Briseno
Nyholm Lab