On behalf of the Tufts University School of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Biology & Microbiology and Tufts Medical Center’s Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, we are pleased to announce that the Mayo Clinic’s Robin Patel, MD, will be our next speaker for the annual Louis Weinstein Lecture to be held on Friday, April 30th, and 12 noon.

Our April 24th Levy CIMAR Science Seminar will explore C. difficile from both clinical and basic science perspectives. We will hear from two speakers this month: Tufts Medical Center’s Majd (Soubani) Alsoubani, MD, MPH, an Attending Physician with expertise in antimicrobial stewardship and infections in immunocompromised hosts, and Greg Harrison, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of CIMAR’s Aimee Shen, PhD, studying the molecular machinery that is required for cell division in C. diff and working to identify novel therapeutic targets to combat this dangerous pathogen.

Please join us on Thursday, April 24th, at 12 noon in M&V 412 (4th floor, M&V Building, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston) and by Zoom (details to come).

Dr. Alsoubani will present on “Evaluating the role of Clostridioides difficile clades and ribotypes on clinical outcomes and response to treatment.“ The talk will include data on the impact of C. difficile strains on clinical outcomes.

Dr. Harrison will present on “Defining the essential role of PBP1 in the non-canonical divisome of Clostridioides difficile.” C. difficile carries out the essential process of cell division using a mechanism that is fundamentally different from previously studied bacteria, so this pathway could be a source of new species-specific therapeutic targets. This talk will explore Dr. Harrison’s work on understanding the molecular details of cell division in C. difficile, including the critical role of the enzyme PBP1.

Please Join us for a Levy CIMAR seminar from Fatima Aysha Hussain, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Biology at Tufts studying the ecology and evolution of the vaginal microbiome. Dr. Hussain will present on “Designing Microbial Therapeutics for Vaginal Health” on May 29th at 12 noon in M&V 412 and by Zoom (details to come).

Dr. Hussain is interested in microbe-microbe interactions and phage-driven evolution of bacteria. She and her lab investigate how phages drive evolution of resistance in their hosts, how bacteriocins and other antimicrobial compounds shape the bacterial community, and how phage therapy might be leveraged in this ecosystem to treat microbial syndromes such as bacterial vaginosis. Dr. Hussain and team aim to use their work to design ecologically-informed microbial therapeutics for women’s health.

Previously, Dr. Hussain focused on clinical applications of this work—investigating the potential of newly-designed probiotics and vaginal microbiota transplantations to treat recurrent bacterial vaginosis.

You can learn more about Dr. Hussain and her lab via her website.
Dr. Williams’ research focuses on unraveling the molecular foundations that dictate the functions of intricate, yet structurally undefined, protein macromolecular machines. The Williams Lab uses X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) single molecule reconstruction, biochemical, genetic, and in vivo studies to probe fundamental aspects of bacterial physiology. Dr. Williams and team aim to influence drug development and, to that end, the fight against antibiotic drug resistance. You can learn more about the Dr. Williams and the Williams Lab here.

This talk will be hosted by Aimee Shen, PhD, PhD Candidate Elizabeth Tan, and Micro DEI, Additional details, including a Zoom link for those unable to attend in person, will be provided at a later date.

Levy CIMAR’s own Shira Doron, MD, presented for this month’s Science Seminar on the topic of “Diagnostic Stewardship as a Tool for Antimicrobial Stewardship.” Dr. Doron is a widely recognized expert in the fields of antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship, and among her many titles, is Chief Infection Control Officer for Tufts Medicine. There, she Infection Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship.

The Levy CIMAR kicked off its 2023-2024 seminar season today with a talk from world-renowned Professor Alan F. Cowman, who among his many roles is acting Director of Australia’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). An internationally acclaimed expert in malaria research, Prof. Cowman heads a laboratory at WEHI where he and his team aim to advance the understanding of how malaria-causing parasites invade human cells.

Massachusetts General Hospital’s Roby Bhattacharyya, MD, PhD, presented today on “Transcriptional Profiling for Infectious Disease Diagnostics and Discovery” for the Levy CIMAR’s May 25th Science Lunch, our last seminar of the ’22-’23 season. Dr. Bhattacharyya is an Assistant Professor in the Infectious Diseases Division at MGH as well as an Associate Member of the Broad Institute and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.

CIMAR hosted 33 students from Boston-area Brockton High School last week for a rare educational and networking opportunity. Students presented posters depicting original experiments and data on antimicrobial resistance to a wide audience of Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center members.

MGH Research Fellow Bryan Lenneman, PhD, is interested in utilizing synthetic biology to develop novel therapeutics against diseases associated with dysbiosis of the human gut microbial community.