Vincent Starai was recently awarded over $1.5 million by the National Institutes of Health to investigate the mechanism by which Legionella pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease, avoids host defense systems. Legionnaires’ disease begins with flu-like symptoms, but within days patients may experience severe chest pain and bloody coughing. Up to 30 percent of hospitalized cases can be fatal, and survivors usually take a long time to recover.

Researchers from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Georgia discovered important genetic clues about the history of Archaea and the origins of life in a pioneering study in which they identified genes required for survival of Methanococcus maripaludis. Doctoral student and lead author Felipe Sarmiento found that roughly 30 percent of the nearly 1,800 genes in M. maripaludis are essential for survival.

Congratulations to Microbiology major Travis Williams on winning first prize in the undergraduate division of the poster exhibition at the Inaugural SEC Symposium: Impact of the Southeast in the World’s Renewable Energy Future!  The first-ever Southeastern Conference (SEC) symposium, which showcased the academic, educational and economic contributions of the 14 SEC member universities on renewable energy sources, was held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, February 10-12, 2013.  Travis’ award-winning poster, entitled “The Effects of Industrial Processing on Pectin-Rich Biomass Carbohyd

The broad-based training afforded by the UGA Microbiology graduate program remains in great demand, and in the last two years we have expanded considerably.  Since 2010 we have grown from forty-six to fifty-eight graduate students and added eleven new trainers to our graduate program.  

Congratulations to Dr. Dan Colley for being chosen as the recipient of the Distinguished Life Sciences Scientist Award sponsored by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the U.S Chamber of Commerce award.