McKee Endowed Professorship in Microbial Pathogenesis

The Department of Veterinary Pathobiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine has announced a list of candidates for its McKee Professorship in Microbial Pathogenesis. The Charles and Charlene McKee Professorship was made possible by an estate gift of $550,000 left to the College of Veterinary Medicine by Charles and Charlene McKee of Arizona. Charles McKee graduated from the MU School of Journalism. His passion for horses and other animals led to his decision to leave his estate to the MU CVM. The state-funded endowed professorship program matched the gift, bringing the value of this endowment to $1.1M. This endowment offers a unique opportunity to recruit a highly visible senior scientist to conduct internationally recognized research on microbial pathogenesis related to food animal problems. This individual will be an important contributor to the interdisciplinary PMPI program and will provide a foundation on which future research interactions can be established. The search committee is chaired by Jerry Buening. Their work has resulted in a short list of candidates to be interviewed for the position beginning August 20, 2000. The candidates and their interview dates are as follows:

Dr. Michael Boyle
Dept of Micro & Immunol
Medical College of Ohio
Toledo, OH
August 20-22

Dr. Roberto DoCampo
Dept of Veterinary Pathobiology
Univ of IL - Urbana
Sept 4-6

Dr. Thomas Inzana
Dept of Biomed Sci & Pathobio
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg VA
Sept 11-13

Dr. Clinton Jones
Dept of Vet & Biomed Sci
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sept 17-19

Dr. Glenn Songer
Dept of Vet Sci & Microbiol
University of AZ
Tucson AZ
Sept 20-22

Dr. Kevin Dybvig
Dept of Comparative Med
University of Alabama
Birmingham AL
Sept 24-26

CVs will be available in the VPB Department Office, RADIL Office & the VMDL Office. The full text of the advertisement can be found under Open Positions at the PMPI web site.

January 28, 2000

The Program for Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunity (PMPI), an interdisciplinary research program that was initiated by faculty in the Departments of Veterinary Pathobiology (VPB) and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI), was recognized this past spring by the MU Life Sciences Mission Enhancement Committee as a program of excellence worthy of support in the form of new faculty hires and infrastructure support. The program is underway, with several important recent developments in faculty recruitment and federal research support that need your input. This is an outstanding opportunity for PMPI to have a strong presence in shaping the research landscape at MU and the program will benefit significantly by the continuous input from all its faculty and administrators. This is an open call to all faculty interested in the objectives of this program to participate in its development and continuous success.

As a reminder, PMPI was established within these departments with the overall scientific objective to investigate the molecular determinants of virulence and the host response to important microbial pathogens of humans and food animals. Three specific interests within this thrust were targeted:

1. To enhance basic research efforts to characterize the molecular determinants of virulence and their contribution to the pathogenesis of respiratory and enteric pathogens which initiate disease at mucosal sites.
2. To strengthen basic research in understanding host response to these pathogens, microbial immunity and vaccine development.
3. To translate scientific findings in these areas into the effective development of effective vaccines and diagnostic tools.

To provide a forum for the distribution of information and the description of PMPI developments, a PMPI Web Site is being constructed on the biotechnology server at MU. This web site should be operational within 7-10 days and will provide updates on faculty searches and research funding opportunities, as well as links to interacting components within and associated with the program. Meanwhile, the purpose of this newsbrief is to bring you up to date on important current developments.

Faculty Recruitment: As most of you are aware, PMPI was initiated with three new faculty positions awarded by the LSME committee. These positions will be phased in over the next three years, with emphases on viral pathogenesis, bacterial pathogenesis, and then microbial immunity. These positions are being leveraged with other important recruitments in both departments. As you can see from the breadth of these current and imminent searches, we are entering a potentially explosive period of development in the area of microbial pathogenesis and immunity.

1. VPB: In addition to the ongoing search for a Chair of VPB, other recently completed or ongoing searches will have direct impact on PMPI.
   • Two parasitologists have recently been hired. Dr. Antoinette Marsh from UC Davis is on board at MU and focusing on the molecular and antigenic characterization of Sarcocystis neurona, Sarcocystis falcatula, and Neurospora spp., parasites causing disease in horses. Dr. Brenda Beerntsen from UW Madison will join the faculty in September. She will investigate the interactions of malaria sporozoites with their insect and vertebrate host tissues at the molecular, biochemical and cellular level.
   • A search for a molecular bacteriologist is nearing completion. Emphasis was placed on research in bacterial pathogenesis, host response to pathogens, and immunology. The search committee has recommended three finalists, from which a candidate will be chosen imminently.
   • VPB has recently announced an Endowed Professorship in Microbial Pathogenesis. The Charles and Charlene McKee Professorship will offer a unique opportunity to recruit a highly visible senior scientist to conduct internationally recognized research on microbial pathogenesis related to food animal problems. This individual will be an important contributor to the interdisciplinary PMPI program and will provide a foundation on which future research interactions can be established. The search committee will be chaired by Jerry Buening and expects to have the advertisement published within the next few months.
2. MMI: Two positions are currently being recruited, including the first ME-funded slot.
   • David Pintel will chair the interdisciplinary search committee charged with filling the first ME position. The emphasis in this search is an individual investigating the pathogenesis of viral disease. The advertisement has been approved and will appear in Science and other publications as early as February 10. The recruitment is expected to cover the late summer and early fall.
   • Michael Misfeldt will chair another interdisciplinary search committee to fill a MMI position in immunology. The search is open to all aspects of immunology, but an emphasis will be placed on host responses to microbial pathogens, bacterial or viral. The timeline for the search parallels the viral pathogenesis search.

Program for the Prevention of Animal Infectious Diseases (PPAID): Through the joint efforts of faculty and administrators at MU, the University of Connecticut, and the USDA, we are finalizing a cooperative research agreement funded by a federal initiative to support an integrated program for the development of advanced vaccines and diagnostic applications in commercially important food animals. Research funding will be distributed among the three research cooperators and will be targeted to interactive research programs that further these research objectives. The program initially will involve scientists within the USDA ARS units at Plum Island and at the NADC in Ames, Iowa, the Center for Excellence in Vaccine Research (CEVR) at UConn and PPAID at MU. The cooperative agreement will establish a five-year research program that will support infrastructure, the establishment of research linkages between the cooperating units and pilot projects to initiate new research directions with the promise of future development within the research objectives of this collaboration. The FY2000 budget for the MU component is anticipated to be $510,000, with annual installments dependent upon research productivity. The PPAID program is under the scientific directorship of Mark Estes and a policy group comprised of investigators from both VPB and MMI is in place to help Mark with these decisions. Again, this is an excellent opportunity to establish a highly visible research program in the design of vaccine and diagnostic reagents and there will be many opportunities to participate.

The cooperation between these research units is being kicked off through a visit to our campus by researchers from both USDA and U Conn, February 5-7. This is an important set of meetings among our respective faculties to get to know one another, to understand the research objectives of USDA and to probe any potential research interactions between scientists at the various institutions. You are all encouraged to participate in these meetings (see schedule below). If you are interested in participating, the meeting is being coordinated through Mark Estes in VPB. Please let him know of your interest. Furthermore, if you want more information about research interests among USDA researchers at ARS units around the country, please refer to the ARS Web Site.

MUPPAID-CEVR Conference Schedule
Animal Health Vaccines and Diagonostics

Saturday, February 5th

12:00-6:00 PM Check in for out of town guests at the Holiday Inn
           Express 
6:40 PM    Shuttle provided to the MU College of Veterinary Medicine Campus
7:00-9:00  PM Dinner and social, H.R.  Adams Conference Center 

SundayFebruary 6th

9:00-11:30 AM Tours of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Research Farms
              and CORE facilities 
12:00-1:30 PM Lunch, H.R.  Adams Conference Center 
1:30-5:30 PM  Scientific Presentations, CEVR and PPAID 
5:30-         Shuttle to Hotel, dinner open

Monday, February 7th

9:00-12:00 Breakout sessions for interested groups, TBA
12:00-???  Depart Columbia, shuttle provided to the local airport