Research Highlights advisory panel
Research Highlights advisory panel
Papers featured in the Research Highlights section of Nature Reviews Microbiology are chosen with the aid of the following advisors:
- Adriano Aguzzi
- Norma Andrews
- Arturo Casadevall
- Rita Colwell
- Stanley Falkow
- Timothy Foster
- Neil Gow
- Keith Gull
- Hans-Dieter Klenk
- Bernard Moss
- John Rex
- David Roos
- Philippe Sansonetti
- Chihiro Sasakawa
- Robin Weiss
Adriano Aguzzi
Adriano Aguzzi, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor and Director of the Institute of Neuropathology at the University of Zurich. In the past decade, Dr. Aguzzi has focused entirely on prions, exploring how they damage brain cells, why they accumulate in lymphoid organs, and how they reach the brain after entering the body from peripheral sites. Dr. Aguzzi has been Associate Dean for research at the University of Zurich Medical School, and President of the Swiss Society of Neuropathology. He is the Founder and Director of the Swiss National Reference Center for Prion Diseases, and is on the Board of Governors of the Swiss Federal School of Technology. Dr. Aguzzi has developed and patented several diagnostic and therapeutic methods in the field transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. He is an adviser to the British, Italian, and Swiss government on spongiform encephalopathies. He sits on the editorial boards of numerous journals and on the scientific advisory board of various philanthropic foundations and biomedical companies. Among other honours, Dr. Aguzzi has won the Gold Medal of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the Robert-Koch and Ernst-Jung Awards (Germany), and received honorary doctorates in Medicine (Liege) and Natural Science (Bologna).
Norma Andrews
Norma Andrews is a Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and Cell Biology at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and did postdoctoral research at New York University before joining the faculty of Yale University in 1990. She received the Burroughs Wellcome Molecular Parasitology New Investigator award in 1991, and the Burroughs Wellcome Molecular Parasitology Scholar award in 1998. Her research has focused on the cell biology of host-pathogen interactions, with an emphasis on mechanisms used by microorganisms to subvert host cell function. Her studies on the causative agent of Chagas' disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, revealed that this parasite recruits host cell lysosomes as a source of membrane to form its intracellular vacuole. These studies led to the realization that calcium-regulated lysosomal exocytosis is a ubiquitous pathway present in many cell types, and that it plays an important role in the mechanism by which mammalian cells repair lesions in their plasma membrane. As in previous years, her current approach is to focus on recent advances in mammalian cell biology to study pathways involved in intracellular infections, and to explore unique aspects of host-pathogen interactions to learn about mammalian cell function.
Arturo Casadevall
Arturo Casadevall received his Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from New York University. His graduate thesis research was supervised by Dr. Loren Day in the field of physical biochemistry and involved the study of DNA-protein structures in filamentous bacteriophages. Afterwards, he completed residency training in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York City where he witnessed first hand the effect of the HIV epidemic, an experience that made him very interested in research on infectious diseases. Dr. Casadevall subsequently completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Matthew Scharff at Albert Einstein College of Medicine investigating the molecular genetics of the immune response to Cryptococcus neoformans. Although his primary research work remains in the area of immunology, Dr. Casadevall has wide interests that include other microorganisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other pathogenic fungi. Dr. Casadevall is particularly interested in developing new conceptual approaches to the problem of microbial pathogenesis that include the contributions of both the pathogen and the host. He is Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center and was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology and to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Rita Colwell
Dr. Rita R. Colwell became the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation(NSF) on August 4, 1998. Under her leadership, the Foundation has received significant budget increases, and its funding recently reached a level of more than $5.3 billion. Before taking up her position at the NSF, Dr. Colwell was President of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, 1991-1998, and she remains Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology (on leave) at the University of Maryland. Dr. Colwell has held many advisory positions in the U.S. Government, non-profit science policy organizations, and private foundations, as well as in the international scientific research community. She is a nationally respected scientist and educator, and has authored or co-authored 16 books and more than 600 scientific publications. She produced the award-winning film, Invisible Seas, and has served on editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Medal of Distinction from Columbia University, the Gold Medal of Charles University, Prague, the UCLA Medal from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Alumna Summa Laude Dignata from the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Colwell has also been awarded 26 honorary degrees from institutions of higher education, including her Alma Mater, Purdue University and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Colwell holds a B.S. in Bacteriology and an M.S. in Genetics, from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Washington.
Stanley Falkow
Dr. Stanley Falkow is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1981 he was named Chairman of the Department of Medical Microbiology at Stanford University School of Medicine; he held that position until 1985. Dr. Falkow and his students have made a number of contributions to the field of microbiology. His laboratory is recognized throughout the world for their observations related to molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. He is one of the founders of molecular cloning, and his laboratory cloned the first virulence factor from pathogenic Escherichia coli. The microorganisms studied in the Falkow laboratory over the past 3 decades include enteropathogenic E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter, the most important causes of diarrheal disease worldwide; Bordetella pertussis, the agent of whooping cough; Yersinia species, including the plague organism; Mycobacterium sp; Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Helicobacter pylori. Dr. Falkow has approached the understanding of the interaction between these pathogens and the human host through novel molecular and cell biology techniques, including the use of DNA microarrays. His laboratory was the first to exploit this novel technology to study the interaction of Helicobacter pylori with gastric cells. Current studies in the laboratory include the application of microarray technology to detect human genes that respond to infection by Helicobacter and Salmonella. These studies have revealed specific mechanisms by which each pathogen "tricks" the host, much like a Trojan horse, and disrupts normal cellular processes involved in signal transduction and defense. Moreover, studies in a Helicobacter mouse model of infection have identified key mammalian genes that are expressed during the transition from infection to gastric lymphoma. Dr. Falkow has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his accomplishments. In 1986 he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1999 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine. He has received numerous awards including the Paul Ehrlich-Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 1981 from Germany and the Robert Koch Award from the German government in 2001. In 2003, he received the Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Microbiology and the Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology from the National Academy of Sciences.
Timothy Foster
Tim Foster gained his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol in 1973. He has held various staff positions in Trinity College Dublin since 1972 and is currently Professor of Molecular Microbiology. He studied with Nancy Kleckner in Harvard in 1978-79 when his research interests centered on transposable elements and mechanisms of resistance to antimicrobial drugs and toxic metal ions. During the mid-1980s his research focus changed to molecular pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus. He pioneered genetic manipulation in this bacterium and recently has been engaged in characterization of surface proteins, most notably those that interact with fibrinogen. He is currently engaged in dissecting the interactions between S. aureus and human platelets that are likely to be important in endovascular infections. S. aureus colonizes the nasal cavity of about 20% of the population and this is a known risk factor for infection. Surprisingly little was known about the factors responsible for bacterial attachment to the squamous epithelium until Tim's team discovered that ClfB binds strongly to keratins exposed on the epithelial surface.
Neil Gow
Neil Gow is a Professor of Fungal Molecular Biology at the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He trained first at Aberdeen in medical mycology then at the National Jewish Centre/ University of Colorado on fungal physiology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is currently president of the British Mycological Society. His work is related mainly to the cell and molecular biology of morphogenesis and pathogenesis of medically relevant fungi, especially Candida albicans, and in the analysis of cell wall biosynthesis and tip growth of fungi. He also works on oomycete plant pathogenic organisms in relation to mechanisms of host detection and colonisation.
Keith Gull
Keith Gull holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology in the University of Oxford. He obtained his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of London and then moved to set up his own laboratory at the then newly established Biological Laboratory at the University of Kent, working on the microtubule cytoskeleton of protozoa and fungi and the mode of action of drugs and fungicides acting on such systems. After sabbaticals in Vienna and the McArdle Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, he spent the 1990s in a variety of posts in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester including Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Research Dean. He moved to the Dunn School, Oxford in 2002. Keith Gull is well recognized for his work on the molecular cell biology and pathogenicity of African trypanosomes. He has served on numerous Government, Research Council and Charity committees and was Chairman of the Biochemical Society from 1999 to 2001. He has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has received the Marjory Stephenson award, the highest award of the Society for General Microbiology.
Hans-Dieter Klenk
Hans-Dieter Klenk is Professor of Virology and Head of the Department of Virology of the University of Marburg, Germany. He received his M.D. from the University of Cologne and a degree in biochemistry from the University of T�bingen. His research has focused on the structure and function of enveloped viruses (influenza viruses, paramyxoviruses, filoviruses) with special emphasis on the role of viral glycoproteins in the in the infection process and in pathogenesis. He is President of the Gesellschaft für Virologie and Chairman of the Virology Division of the International Union of Microbiological Societies.
Bernard Moss
Bernard Moss is Chief of the Laboratory of Viral Diseases, NIAID, NIH and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland and George Washington University. He received a M.D. from New York University School of Medicine, took an internship at the Children's Hospital Medical Centre in Boston, and then earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His entire professional career has been at the NIH, where his research focuses on the molecular biology and host interactions of poxviruses and their use as expression vectors and vaccines. Achievements of his group include the determination of the structure and mode of biosynthesis of the 5'-terminal caps of viral and cellular mRNA, elucidation of mechanisms that regulate poxvirus gene expression and DNA replication, development of genetic approaches to study poxvirus assembly, and the discovery of virus-encoded proteins that regulate the host immune response. Professor Moss has served as President of the American Society of Virology, an editor of Virology, and a member of numerous editorial boards and national and international committees. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the American College of Microbiology and a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science. Awards presented to Professor Moss include the Dickson Prize for Medical Research, the ICN International Prize in Virology, the Taylor International Prize in Medicine, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Disease Research.
John Rex
John H. Rex received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine, trained in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Hospital, and served as an infectious diseases fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of John E. Bennett. From 1992-2002, he was on the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School-Houston, where his research focused on in vitro, in vivo, and clinical investigations of new antifungal agents. In addition to extensive clinical investigations, his laboratory focused on improving the correlation between in vitro susceptibility testing and clinical outcome. During this time, he also undertook the role of Hospital Epidemiologist for a 650-bed mixed adult & pediatric facility. He is currently an editor for Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy and serves on the editorial board of several other journals. In 2003, he took on the role of Vice-President, Medical Director for Infection at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals where he is responsible for strategic issues relating to antibacterial, antifungal, and antimycobacterial drug discovery and development.
David Roos
David Roos is the Merriam Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, and directs the Penn Genomics Institute. His laboratory has been instrumental in developing and applying molecular genetic, cell biological, and computational genomics technologies to apicomplexan parasites, including Toxoplasma and Plasmodium, with a particular interest in the evolution and function of eukaryotic organelles. Recent advances include the discovery of the apicoplast, a novel organelle providing numerous promising targets for antimalarial drugs, and development of the Plasmodium Genome Database.
Philippe Sansonetti
The main scientific aim of Philippe Sansonetti has been to develop an approach that integrates genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, immunology and experimental medicine to analyse the mechanisms of infectious diseases. He has focussed his interest on invasive bacterial pathogens such as Shigella that have the capacity to disrupt, invade and cause the inflammatory destruction of mucosal barriers. He and his group have made pioneering discoveries including; (i) the elucidation of the genetic basis for each step of the Shigella invasive process; (ii) describing the molecular and cellular basis of microbial entry into non-phagocytic cells, and the signalling cascades involved in this process; (iii) demonstrating an actin-dependent process for intracellular motility and cell to cell spread of bacteria; (iv) describing the capacity of Shigella to cause apoptosis of infected macrophages and elucidating it's mechanisms and pro-inflammatory consequences; (v) identifying the molecules and signalling pathways that result in infected epithelial cells becoming pro-inflammatory. These discoveries have contributed to establishing the concept of cellular microbiology, although he has also constantly encouraged the scientific community in this field to integrate in vitro (cellular and sub-cellular) data into the global in vivo scheme of infection in tissues and organs of the host. This has led to important breakthroughs in our understanding of the basis of the innate and adaptive immune response against Shigella infection and to the development of a promising live-attenuated vaccine against shigellosis.
Chihiro Sasakawa
Chihiro Sasakawa is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo. He received his PhD in Microbiology (1978) at the University of Tokyo and became the Professor of the Division of Bacterial infection (1995). From 1980-1983 he worked on the mechanisms of Tn5 transposition in Douglas E. Berg's laboratory at the Washington University, St. Louis, USA. For many years he has worked on the mechanisms of Shigella invasion of, and the actin-based movement in, mammalian cells. More recently, his laboratory has been investigating the role of type III- and type IV- mediated effectors involved in various aspects of bacterial infection and host cell responses.
Robin Weiss
Robin Weiss is Professor of Viral Oncology at the Wohl Virion Centre at University College London. Dr. Weiss obtained his PhD from the University of London in 1969 and following fellowships in Czechoslovakia and the US, he became head of the Laboratory of Viral Oncology, at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London. In 1980, Dr. Weiss became Director of the Institute of Cancer Research and subsequently, Professor of Viral Oncology, at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, before moving to his current position. Dr. Weiss was elected F.R.C.Path. in 1985, F.R.S. in 1997, and Hon. F.R.C.P. in 1998. He is currently editor of the British Journal of Cancer.
