Sean P. Colgan, PhD
University of Colorado School of Medicine, CO, USA
Talk Title: Autophagic control of intracellular Salmonella in intestinal epithelial cells
Biography: Dr. Colgan is a CU Distinguished Professor and Joel Levine-Fred Kern, Jr. Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado. He was recruited to CU in 2006 from Harvard Medical School where he was Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics. At CU, he founded and serves as Director of the Mucosal Inflammation Program, a multidisciplinary research program intent on the discovery of new mechanisms of inflammation at mucosal surfaces. Dr. Colgan is the recipient of an NIH R37 MERIT award and currently has a multi-R01-funded research laboratory investigating innate immunometabolism responses in the gastrointestinal tract. He has published more than 260 original papers, many in the top tier journals of the field. He served as a Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine for 6 years where he developed a number of translational research programs. He has served on multiple editorial boards and has served on more than 50 grant review panels and study sections, including the NIH. Dr. Colgan has directly mentored more than 50 MD, PhD or MD/PhD students and fellows from throughout the world, 40 of whom remain actively engaged in academia. He consults for numerous biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Akebia, Takeda and Thetis.
Linda J. Kenney, PhD
University of Texas Medical Branch, TX, USA
Talk Title: A pH-sensitive switch controls Salmonella virulence
Biography: Dr. Linda J. Kenney is the Tom and Kaye Arnold Professor of Gastroenterology in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. She attended the University of Iowa and then went to the University of Pennsylvania for graduate school. Dr. Kenney most recently served as a Senior Principal Investigator in the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore. Her work has focused on two-component signaling in E. coli and Salmonella and she is now using super-resolution microscopy to image the infection process. She is developing heterologous host models including Zebrafish and C. elegans to understand the host-pathogen interactions involved during S. Typhimurium and S. Typhi infection. Prof. Kenney is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, a AAAS Fellow and served as an American Society of Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. Dr. Kenney trained at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale and Princeton Universities. She has held faculty positions at the University of Illinois and Oregon Health and Science University.
Xuefei Huang, PhD
Michigan State University, MI, USA
Talk Title: Development of carbohydrate based broad spectrum Anti-salmonella vaccines
Biography: Prof. Xuefei Huang is currently a professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering, and serving as the Associate Chair for Research of the Department of Chemistry. He has been a MSU Foundation Professor and a member of the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering since 2017. His research interests are mainly aimed at studying chemistry and biology of carbohydrates. A major focus is to develop new methodologies for synthesis of complex glycans and glyco-conjugates. In addition, his group is actively investigating novel approaches to boost immune responses as next generation vaccines against cancer, microbial infections, and substances-of-abuse. His group is also interested in nanotechnology for molecular imaging and targeted drug delivery. Huang group research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. He has won multiple awards, including the New Investigator Award, the Horace S. Isbell Award and the Melville L. Wolfrom Award from the American Chemical Society. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.
Beth McCormick, PhD
University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, MA, USA
Talk Title: Salmonella, multidrug resistance, and cancer
Biography: Dr. McCormick is Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, USA. Dr. McCormick is also the Founding Director of the UMass Center for Microbiome Research, which she established in 2014. She is an internationally renowned gastrointestinal-bacteriologist/pathophysiologist, and her breakthrough discoveries in the domain of Salmonella typhimurium pathogenesis have paved the way for identifying novel ways in which microbes interact with the intestinal microenvironment and the underlying innate immune system. In 2017, Dr. McCormick co-founded Adiso Therapeutics, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company which is advancing her prospective inflammation therapeutics (first-in-class) into the clinic. Her work continues to identify novel ways in which microbes interact with the mucosal surfaces, publishing over 150 original research papers and opinion pieces in this area. Dr. McCormick serves as an advisor to governments and multinational agencies and is the recipient of many awards and commendations. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Gut Microbes, an elected Council Member of the AGA, and is an elected member of the Governing Board of the American Physiological Society. Dr. McCormick earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Rhode Island (USA) in the topic area of intestinal microbial ecology and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston (USA).
Jiqiang (Lanny) Ling, PhD
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Talk Title: Ribosome fidelity and heterogeneity in Salmonella
Biography: Dr. Lanny Ling is an associate professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his bachelor’s degree from Fudan University and PhD from the Ohio State University. His lab focuses on studying the physiological impact and disease connections of protein synthesis defects. Recent work aims to understand how translational fidelity and ribosome biogenesis affect Salmonella stress adaptations, antibiotic resistance, and host interactions. Dr. Ling has received MIRA and R01 awards from The National Institutes of Health and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Dipshikha Chakravortty, PhD
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
Talk Title: Virulence factors, vacuolar niche, ecology and evasion success – Story of Intravacuolar pathogen
Biography: Dipshikha Chakravortty is currently Professor at the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India. She earned Ph.D from DBT-National Center of Cell, Pune, and worked at Aichi University Japan and later received Humboldt fellowship to work at Alexander Fedrick University, Germany. Her research focuses on molecular pathogenesis, infectious diseases, vaccine development and novel delivery systems. She has received many awards to her credit and few are DAE Outstanding Investigator award, Astra Chair Professorship, DBT- National Bioscience Award, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee award, Tata Innovation fellowship. She is a elected fellow of National Academy of Science, India, Indian National Science Academy, Delhi and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. She serves at the Editorial board of many journals like Virulence, Innate Immunity and Journal of Bioscience, Frontiers in Microbiology etc. She has been reviewer in reputed journals and has about 160 publications. To date, she has guided 28 PhD students, more than 200 summers trainees and 60 Academy summer trainees in her lab. She is member of Scientific advisory committees of various premier institutes and is part of various scientific committees of DST, CSIR, DBT, UGC, ICMR towards decision and policy making.
Ryan Charles Russell, PhD
University of Ottawa, Canada
Talk Title: Salmonella prevents autophagic degradation by targeting ER resident autophagy receptor FAM134B
Biography: Dr. Russell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto in the field of molecular oncology and performed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Diego in the laboratory of Kun-Liang Guan. At the University of Ottawa, Dr. Russell founded and serves as Co-Director of the Genome Editing and Molecular biology Core facility. His research focuses on the autophagy pathway in metabolic homeostasis and innate immunity, and oxygen-dependent signalling defects in kidney cancer. Recent work from the lab has uncovered stress signaling regulating S. Typhimurium clearance by the autophagy pathway and mechanisms of autophagic escape by S. Typhimurium. The Russell lab is supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Cancer Research Society, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He serves on multiple editorial boards, grant review panels, as a member of the Centre for Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, and Ontario Institute for System Biology.
Wenhan Zhu, PhD
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, TN, USA
Talk Title: Commensal iron acquisition modifies host nutritional immunity during Salmonella Infection
Biography: Dr. Wenhan Zhu obtained his PhD in Biological Science from Purdue University under the mentorship of Dr. Zhao-Qing Luo. His postdoctoral work was with Dr. Sebastian Winter at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His postdoctoral work mainly involves precision targeting unique bacterial metabolic pathways to ameliorate inflammation and tumorigenesis in the gut. Since establishing his lab at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2020, Zhu has been interested in identifying molecular mechanisms underlying commensal resilience during episodes of intestinal inflammation. Additionally, his lab explores how a carcinogenic bacterium utilizes its virulence factor to remodel the gut’s nutritional landscape to fuel the pathogen’s bloom. In 2022, Zhu was awarded the V Scholar award, a Mathers Foundation grant and the Pew Biomedical Scholar.
Marijke Keestra-Gounder, PhD
University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine, CO, USA
Talk Title: Nitrate-mediated luminal expansion of Salmonella Typhimurium is dependent on the ER stress protein CHOP
Biography: Dr. Keestra-Gounder is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine in the Immunology and Microbiology Department. She completed her graduate work in microbiology and immunology at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University in the Netherlands, under the supervision of Dr. Jos van Putten. During her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Andreas Baumler at the University of California at Davis, she investigated pathways of the innate immune system in response to Salmonella Typhimurium. Her research continues to focus on innate immune host responses that control pathogenic microbial infections with a special emphasis on the connection between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress/unfolded protein response (UPR) and the pattern recognition receptors NOD1 and NOD2.
Tim Johnson, PhD
University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, MN, USA
Talk Title: Can we predict the next foodborne outbreak Salmonella strain? Combining genotype with phenotype to identify high-risk clones
Biography: Dr. Tim Johnson is a Professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He received his BS in Microbiology in 2000 and PhD in Molecular Pathogenesis in 2004, both from North Dakota State University. During his postdoctoral research at Iowa State University, he developed a passion for avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) and published some key articles describing and defining the APEC pathotype. From there, he joined the University of Minnesota in 2007 and has been working in the areas of poultry health and disease since that time. Dr. Johnson has published more than 170 peer reviewed articles in this area. His research approach is to utilize high-throughput and high-resolution genomics to track pathogens. Dr. Johnson’s research is highly collaborative, and has relied heavily on strong collaborations with the turkey industry over the past 15 years. His current research interests focus on developing predictive tools to identify emerging and problematic Salmonella in the food animals.
Dmitri Kudryashov, PhD
The Ohio State University, OH, USA
Talk Title: InSipArable partners: the nature of the very tight association of Salmonella Invasion Protein A (SipA) with actin
Biography: Dmitri Kudryashov is a professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Ohio State University, who is interested in understanding the role of the actin cytoskeleton in infectious diseases and genetic disorders. Some of the achievements of Dmitri’s group include i) explaining the specificity of immune peptides against a broad range of bacterial toxins and ii) revealing highly effective pathogenic mechanisms of several actin-specific bacterial toxins: Actin Crosslinking Domain (ACD) of V.cholerae, Vibrio outer proteins VopF and VopL, and ADP-ribosyl transferase TccC3 of P. luminescens.
Camila Valenzuela, PhD
Institut Pasteur, France
Talk Title: The Salmonella Typhimurium effector SifA controls bacterial dormancy in epithelial cells
Biography: Camila Valenzuela, PhD is a senior Postdoctoral Researcher at Dynamics of Host Pathogen Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur. She started her career at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago de Chile, working on different in vivo and in vitro models using a combination of genetics and genomics to understand the genes required for systemic colonization by different Salmonella serovars. During her PhD, she worked on establishing Dictyostelium discoideum as a novel model to characterize the interaction of Salmonella Typhimurium with phagocytic amoeba and to identify host proteins recruited to the Salmonella-containing vacuole. After over 8 years of working on Salmonella genetics and genomics using different host models, she developed an interest in understanding the interaction of the pathogen at the cellular level. With this goal in mind, she joined Jost Enninga’s Unit in February of 2019.
Anup Kollanoor Johny, PhD
University of Minnesota, MN, USA
Talk Title: One health-driven antimicrobial shields against Salmonella
Biography: Dr. Anup Kollanoor Johny is an Associate Professor of Animal Science at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is a graduate faculty in the Animal Science, Comparative and Molecular Biosciences, and Food Science programs. He earned his doctorate in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA, and obtained his postdoctoral training from the same institution before joining the University of Minnesota. His research interests include the control of zoonotic foodborne pathogens, preventative strategies, food safety, antibiotic resistance mitigation, and global and molecular techniques to understand colonization and survival strategies in drug-resistant zoonotic foodborne pathogens. He has received federal, state, industry, and institutional grants for his research and leads a team comprising a research staff, doctoral, MS, and undergrad student researchers. He is a well-cited researcher in microbiology and food safety with several highly cited peer-reviewed manuscripts to his credit and has been an invited speaker at various scientific platforms. He teaches online, hybrid, and in-person undergraduate and graduate courses and is the Minnesota Coordinator of the Midwest Poultry Consortium Center of Excellence program.
Virginie Stévenin, PhD
Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands
Talk Title: Multi-omic analyses of cancer-associated clinical Salmonella reveal a bacterial-induced host metabolic shift leading to cell transformation
Biography: Dr. Virginie Stévenin is a senior researcher in the lab of Prof. Jacques Neefjes at Leiden University Medical Center where she conducts her independent line of research on the cell biology of Salmonella infection. During her PhD at the Institut Pasteur (Paris), under the supervision of Dr. Jost Enninga, she identified a novel function of infection-associated macropinosomes in the stabilization of the Salmonella-Containing Vacuole. In parallel, she developed a pipeline of high-throughput imaging and automatic analyses, combined with machine learning modeling to reveal key features of cells preferentially targeted by Salmonella. She joined the Neefjes lab in 2018 to address the mechanisms by which Salmonella remodels its host epithelial cell to survive and replicate, potentially leading to the long-term transformation of the cell and the promotion of tumor development. In 2023, she entered the Dutch NWO Talent Programme (Veni grant) fostering her independent research line.
Ankit Pandeya, PhD
Oregon Health and Science University, OR, USA
Talk Title: Inflammasome activation mediated eicosanoid release from “Tuft cells” and downstream signaling in controlling enteric Salmonella infection
Biography: Dr. Ankit Pandeya is currently a post-doctoral scholar in the lab of Dr. Isabella Rauch at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Oregon Health and Science University, where he studies the innate immune responses against bacterial pathogens at mucosal and barrier surfaces. His research interests include understanding the innate immune responses and role of programmed cell death mechanisms such as “pyroptosis” during host-pathogen interaction. He is currently studying the role of inflammasome activation and the downstream signaling events in host’s intestinal epithelial cells in the context of gastrointestinal bacterial infection such as Salmonella infection using stem cell derived organoids in vitro as well as genetic knock in/out mouse models in vivo. He finished his PhD from the University of Kentucky, under the supervision of Dr. Yinan Wei and Dr. Zhenyu Li, where he studied inflammasome activation mediated coagulopathy and sepsis during gram-negative bacterial infection.
Elhana Tzipilevich, PhD
MIGAL – Galilee Research Institute, Kiryat-Shmona, Israel
Talk Title: Salmonella interaction with the plant immune system and the implications for food safety
Biography: Dr Tzipilevich was a postdoctoral student at the Lab of Prof. Philip Benfey at Duke University, where he studied plant-microbe interactions. He recently opened his lab at MIGAL – Galilee Research Institute. He is working on diverse aspects of plant-microbe interactions in the lab. Including the bacterial effect on seed germination, the ontogeny of the immune system in germinating seeds, and the effect of plant immunity on human pathogen colonization of edible plants. The lab uses state-of-the-art molecular biology techniques, high-resolution microscopy genomics, and transcriptomics.
Alejandro Piña-Iturbe, PhD
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile
Talk Title: Exploring variable susceptibility to bacteriophage killing within a subpopulation of multidrug-resistant Salmonella enterica serovar Infantis
Biography: Dr. Alejandro Piña-Iturbe is a Microbiologist from Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú, with doctoral studies in Biological Sciences, major Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he studied the excisable pathogenicity islands of Salmonella serovar Enteritidis and other Enterobacterales, using experimental and bioinformatic approaches. Currently Dr. Piña-Iturbe is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Bacteriophages and Foodborne Pathogens Research Laboratory, led by Dr. Andrea Moreno-Switt, at the School of Veterinary Medicine. His research interests are focused on genetics and genomics of bacterial pathogens, with a special emphasis on the molecular epidemiology of Salmonella serovars, antibiotic resistance, and the potential of bacteriophages as control agents.
Martina Tambassi, PhD
Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Talk Title: Salmonella adaptation to swine goes through the decay of Salmonella pathogenicity Island I
Biography: Dr. Martina Tambassi is a researcher at the Risk Analysis and Genomic Epidemiology Unit of IZSLER in Italy. During her PhD conducted at IZSLER, the University of Parma (Italy) and the Quadram Institute (UK), she identified a loss-of-function mutation of hilD in a Salmonella Derby lineage linked to swine adaptation and reduced risk to human health, using experimental and bioinformatic approaches. In 2022 she became a researcher, and she has conducted her independent line of research on Salmonella host-adaptation focusing on the intracellular behavior and the inflammatory response induced by different Salmonella serovars through RNA-seq and fluorescence microscopy.
Michael Shuster
University of Maryland (College Park), MD, USA
Talk Title: Salmonella Typhimurium infection inhibits macrophage IFNβ signaling in a TLR4-dependent manner
Biography: Michael Shuster is a graduate student at the University of Maryland (College Park) in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. Under the supervision of Dr. Volker Briken, he has explored the dynamics of innate immune signaling within the context of Salmonella infections with traditional cell biology techniques. He is currently studying how Toll-like receptor 4 signaling can lead to inhibition of type I interferon signaling during Salmonella infection of macrophages. He aims to receive his doctorate by the end of this summer.