Connecticut Valley Branch
of the
American Society for Microbiology
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COME ONE,
COME ALL!
Spring Meeting
Wed. April 18, 2007
6:30-9:00
Manchester Community College
Fireside Commons
Manchester, CT
Our invited speaker will be
Charles P. Gerba, PhD
addressing the topic Hygiene in the 21st Century - Do We Need It?
Branch Activities
Spring Meeting, April 27, 2006
In a season of record rainfall, we had a beautiful spring evening and a record crowd for our branch's annual meeting at the Manchester (CT) Community College's Fireside Commons.
Our speaker, Steven D. Brown, Ph.D, Director of the Clinical Microbiology Institute, began his presentation with comments about his good fortune at catching southern New England at its best. Dr. Brown had traveled all the way from Wilsonville, Oregon to speak to us on "Why Big Pharmaceutical Companies Are Leaving The Antibiotic Market And Why Small Companies Are Picking Up The Slack".
The Clinical Microbiology Institute has provided critical pre-market testing and analysis for nearly every antibiotic currently in use, and Dr. Brown's expertise gave insight into the reasoning and significance behind recent changes in antibiotic research and development, a shift from large pharma to smaller biotechs and start-ups, a change seen in our own region.
Not only is Dr. Brown an expert on antibiotic research, he also lectures at the University of Oregon on infectious disease and laboratory medicine and is a distinguished lecturer in the ASM’s Wakesman Foundation for Microbiology Lecture series. His skill as a lecturer and discussion leader was evident by the numerous questions and enthusiastic discussion that followed the presentation continuing long into the evening.
Ya' shoulda been there!
WELCOME UMASS Students!
January 2006. The Connecticut Valley Branch is happy to announce the sponsorship of a student chapter at UMASS, Amherst.
Forty microbiology graduate students at UMASS, in the fall of 2004, formed a Graduate Student Group and are now applying for recognition by the American Society of Microbiology as an official Student Chapter.
We would like to do all we can to foster the next generation of microbiologists and agreed to serve as their sponsor.
Their faculty advisor is Dr. Jim Holden (jholden@microbio.umass.edu), who is also the Graduate Program Director in the Microbiology Department. If you would like to see more, you can also check out their web site at
http://www.bio.umass.edu/micro/nusslein/MGSG/about.htm
Spring Meeting, May 4, 2005
With new leadership, the CT Valley Branch met this spring at the Library Fireside Commons of the Manchester Community College. Theodore G. Andreadis, Ph.D, Chief Medical Entomologist of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station presented a seminar encompassing virology, entomology, ecology and public health, entitled:
"West Nile Virus, a Six-Year Perspective on the Introduction and Spread of an Emerging Infectious Disease."
Dr. Andreadis presented the good news that in 2004, in the state of CT, there were no human cases nor any equine cases of West Nile encephalitis, unlike 2003, when there were 17 and 13, respectively. However, Dr. Andreadis suggested it is too soon to conclude the disease is disappearing in the northeast.
His data on 25 different species of mosquitos, some lab stocks but mostly field isolates, allowed him to distinguish between species that can maintain the virus in birds and those, so called bridge vectors, that are likely to transmit the disease to humans.
To read more about it, click here for the link to Dr. Andreadis' publication list at the CAES.
POSTPONED
BIODEFENSE
SYMPOSIUM
The Connecticut Valley Branch is affiliated with and supported by The American Society for Microbiology.
This webpage was designed and authored by CT Valley Branch ASM, which is fully responsible for its contents. Please send comments or corrections to Linda Kosturko. This page was last updated April 12, 2007.