Fall Program Texas Branch ASM
Thursday November 4
7:00 – 7:15 pm (Central) – Welcome statements and guidance for virtual sessions
7:15pm – Keynote Presentation – Dr. Esther Babady – Director of the Clinical Microbiology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
COVID-19 Testing: Innovation in the Midst of a Pandemic
Following Dr. Babady’s presentation, there will be a business meeting for the Texas ASM leadership
Friday November 5
8:30 – 10:30 am Concurrent faculty sessions: 1A – New Frontiers in Microbiology (featuring new microbiology faculty in Texas); 1B – Medical Microbiology
1A – New Frontiers in Microbiology session host: Bob McLean, Texas State University
8:30 – 9:00am – Nicholas Dillon, UT-Dallas “Bicarbonate modulates antibiotic activities”
9:00 – 9:30am – Davida Smyth, Texas A&M San Antonio “Moving beyond SARS-CoV-2 surveillance: How can Next-Gen Sequencing support wastewater-based epidemiology?”
9:30 – 10:00am – Elizabeth Skellam, University of North Texas “Fantastic fungi, complex chemistry, and exciting enzymes”
1B – Infectious Diseases session (session host: Manish Kumar, Texas State University)
8:30 – 9:00am – Julian Hurdle, Texas A&M University Houston “Mechanisms and impact of antibiotic resistance in Clostridioides difficile”
9:00 – 9:30am – Jennifer K Spinler, Baylor College of Medicine “Whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 viral genome variants in the pediatric population”
9:30 – 10:00am – Jayhun Lee, UT-Health Houston “The esophageal gland mediates host immune evasion by the human parasite Schistosoma mansoni”
10:00 – 10:30am – David Greenberg, UT Southwestern “Developing Pseudomonas-Specific Antibiotics Utilizing Antisense”
10:30-10:45 am Break
10:45-12:15 pm Student Presentations (will have three concurrent sessions):
2A – Graduate Student – Medical Microbiology session host: Dustin Edwards, Tarleton State University
10:45-11:00am G1. Ileana Corsi, UT-Health-Houston “AtxA-Controlled Small RNAs of Bacillus anthracis Virulence Plasmid pXO1 Regulate Gene Expression in trans”
11:00-11:15am G2. James McLellan, UT-San Antonio “Single-cell quantitative bioimaging of P. berghei liver stage translation”
11:15-11:30am G3. Donghoon (Alex) Kang, Rice University “5-Fluorocytosine Synergizes with Gallium Nitrate to Inhibit Pseudomonas aeruginosa”
11:30-11:45am G4. Jordan Wolfkill, UT-Rio Grande Valley “Expression of cold shock transcriptional regulator CaspA and the putative virulence-associated protein VacB/RNaseR restores growth at low temperature in pandemic O3:K6 serotype Vibrio parahaemolyticus”
11:45-12:00pm G5. Megan Burch, Sam Houston State University “Development of a SYBR Green-Based RT-qPCR for the Detection and Quantification of Lone Star Virus”
12:00-12:15pm G6. Chahat Upreti, UT-Dallas “The clinic vs the farm: exploring differences in genomic attributes of Enterococcus faecalis sourced from human and animal niches”
2B Graduate Student – General Microbiology session host: Kavita Kakirde, Texas State University
10:45-11:00am G7. Trusha Parekh, UT-Dallas “New insights into the regulation of methylotrophic metabolism in Paracoccus denitrificans”
11:00-11:15am G8. Samuel Tye, Texas State “Impact of Captivity on the Microbiome of the endangered Comal Springs Riffle Beetle, Heterelmis comalensis”
11:15-11:30am G9. Caroline Black, Texas Tech “Polymicrobial Communities in Chronic Wounds Impact Antibiotic Susceptibilities”
11:30-11:45am G10. Feroz Ahmed, UT-Arlington “Characterizing a role for outer membrane lipoproteins in remodeling the cell envelope of Acinetobacter baumannii”
11:45-12:00pm G11. Paxton Bachand, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi “Analysis of a Brown Tide Harmful Algal Bloom Microbiome”
12:00-12:15pm G12. Meaghan Rose, UT-Arlington “Characterization of a Bacillus megaterium strain isolated from Aeschynomene indica stem nodules: Nod-factor independent nodulation”
2C Undergraduate Students – session host: Davida Smyth, Texas A&M-San Antonio
10:45-11:00am U1. Tony Jha, Sam Houston State University and Cal Berkeley, “Prediction of Bacterial sRNAs using Sequence-Derived Features and Machine Learning”
11:00-11:15am U2. Filemon Tan, Rice University “Competitive Interactions between oprD-mutant and Wild-type P. aeruginosa”
11:15-11:30am U3. Christian Miller, Sam Houston State University “Inhibition of autophagy in human microvascular endothelial cells during Colorado tick fever virus infection”
11:30-11:45am U4. Sadie Ruesewald, UT-Arlington “The effect of a drought-tolerant Bradyrhizobium bio-fertilizer on soybean growth in a temperature gradient greenhouse”
11:45-12:00pm U5. Saoirse Disney-McKeethen, Rice University “Evolution of P. aeruginosa to colistin in a microfluidic emulsion reveals distinct evolutionary trajectories from those observed in traditional batch environments”
12:00-12:15pm U6. Taylor M Ranson, Texas State “The Effects of Escherichia coli central metabolism mutants on planktonic growth and biofilm formation”
12:15-1:00 pm Lunch break
1:00-2:50 pm Poster presentations (A padlet link will be provided to conference registrants and posters will be able to be viewed during the conference. However, the authors will only be in attendance virtually during the times listed below)
1:00-1:50 pm – Graduate Posters (graduate student authors will be available for virtual meeting)
2:00-2:50 pm – Undergraduate, Postdoc, Faculty, and Other Professional Posters (authors will be available for virtual meeting)
3:00-5:00 pm Afternoon sessions (3A – postdoctoral presentations; 3B – phage therapy presentations)
3A – Postdoctoral Presentations – session host: Nicholas Dillon, UT-Dallas
3:00-3:20pm PD1. Renee Fleeman – UT Austin “Refining our understanding of antimicrobial peptide mediated disruption of the Klebsiella pneumoniae capsule”
3:20-3:40pm PD2. Kristen Engevik – Baylor College of Medicine “Rotavirus infection causes specific changes in the intestinal microbiome”
3:40-4:00pm PD3. Starla Thornhill – Texas State University and Texas A&M San Antonio “Bacterial adhesion and corrosion in space flight”
4:00-4:20pm PD4. Firas Midani – Baylor College of Medicine “Automated analysis of microbial growth reveals phenotypic diversity of Clostridioides difficile”
4:20-4:40pm PD5. Yahan Wei – UT Dallas “Utilization of the host-derived metabolite glycerophosphocholine for phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis in mitis group streptococci”
4:40-5:00pm PD6. Chetanchandra Joshi – Baylor College of Medicine “The NRF2/Keap1/p62 Pathway Governs the Host Response to Urinary Tract infections”
3B – Bacteriophage structure and function – session host: Heidi Kaplan, UT-Health Houston
3:00-3:30pm Sabrina Green, Baylor College of Medicine “TAILRing phage for the gut and beyond”
3:30-4:00pm Petr Leimen, UTMB Galveston “Structural basis of template strand deoxyuridine promoter recognition by a viral RNA polymerase”
4:00-4:30pm Lanying Zeng, Texas A&M College Station “Single-cell studies of phage infection dynamics”
4:30-5:00pm Junjie Zhang, Texas A&M College Station “Single-stranded RNA phages: from bacterial lysis to virulence reduction”
5:00-6:00 pm Goldschmidt Awardee sessions – session host: Bob McLean, Texas State
5:00-5:30 Lauren Howe-Kerr, Rice University “Dynamics of symbiont-infecting dinoRNAVs across a reef-wide thermal stress event”
5:30-6:00 Kathryn L Campbell, Texas A&M-Galveston “Lifestyles and Metabolic Contributions Of Viruses In The Various Environments Of A Hydrothermal System”
6:00-7:00 pm Dinner break
7:00-8:00 pm Keynote Presentation – Dr. Peter Christie, McGovern Medical School, UT-Health, Houston “Mechanistic and structural advances in our understanding of bacterial conjugation” – session moderator, Madhu Choudhary, past Texas Branch ASM President, Sam Houston State University
8:00-8:30 pm Announcement of Student and Postdoctoral Awards, Closing ceremony