MMI student, Gina Cano, recognized by ASM as Future Leader in Microbiology

Gina Cano-Monreal, a Saint Louis University student pursuing a Ph.D. in microbiology, has been recognized by the American Society for Microbiology as an up-and-coming leader in the field. Cano-Monreal is the first graduate student to receive the ASM "Faces on the Go" honor, which until now had been reserved for faculty-level microbiologists. Cano-Monreal will be featured in the March issue of Microbe, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology.

In recommending Cano-Monreal for the honor, Lynda Morrison, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology, wrote, "I nominate Ms. Cano based on her personal motivation in both research and teaching, her inspirational approach to teaching, and her passionate commitment to her students and student colleagues."

Cano-Monreal has taught microbiology in the nursing program at SLU for three years while simultaneously conducting her doctoral dissertation research. According to Morrison, Cano-Monreal's students have benefited from her new and interesting learning strategies that motivate them to think about microbiology beyond the classroom.

Cano-Monreal's research on the body's response to herpes simplex virus has earned her scholarly recognition, including presenting at several national and international venues. She also earned first place for her presentations at both the ASM Missouri Branch Educator's meeting and at the SLU Graduate Student Association Research Symposium in 2006.

Outside the classroom and laboratory, Cano-Monreal has demonstrated leadership and service by initiating and organizing an ASM Student Chapter at Saint Louis University with the help of fellow SLU graduate student Matt Badtke. The chapter, which was approved in May 2006, is the first of its kind in St. Louis.

Cano-Monreal plans to graduate in May 2008. She has been co-mentored in her graduate work by Morrison and John Tavis, Ph.D, professor of microbiology and immunology. Following graduation, Cano-Monreal will teach microbiology at a small college in south Texas.

Mark Buller and MMI student, Tony Nuara, publish major findings in PNAS.

Mark Buller, Ph.D., professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and one of the country's most respected poxvirus researchers, grows enthusiastic when he talks about a particular member of his team. Sitting in his office at the new Doisy Research Center at SLU's medical center, Buller says authoritatively of the researcher: "He will go down as one of the best." Buller is referring to Tony Nuara, now a fourth-year medical student at SLU, who entered the School of Medicine's combined M.D./Ph.D. program after completing his first year of med school. Since joining the combined program, Nuara has made critically important contributions to research, Buller says. The most recent example: an article written with a long-time collaborator, Dr. Mark Walter at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, that's soon to be published in one of the world's most widely read scientific journals - the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS. "It's one of the best pieces of work I've ever been involved in during my career," Buller says of the research, which is soon to appear in an early online edition of PNAS. The paper describes a new understanding of a type of virus related to smallpox that could lead to the development of a host of new medications

Nuara, 29, says the viruses he and Buller describe in the PNAS paper (the Ectromelia virus in the smallpox family) are able to adapt in such a way that they evade the human immune system and become stronger and more efficient. At the heart of their research is understanding and describing just what happens on a molecular level during this process, something not previously understood. "The viruses were able to evade the immune system, and we wanted to identify exactly how these viruses worked, what made them so effective and efficient," Nuara says. "With what we learned, we can take this knowledge to develop potential new drugs."

Buller says Nuara was key to the success of the research because he was able to solve problems that scientists in Britain, Canada and the United States weren't able to crack. "Without Tony, this research wouldn't have happened. Tony solved huge numbers of problems and figured out some answers to puzzling questions that previously had no answer. It's all the more remarkable considering that other research groups around the world have attempted to solve what he did, but weren't successful," Buller says. "In my career as an educator, I have never met a person of his age that exhibits such high intelligence, a strong sense of morality, a desire to serve others, an unquenchable pursuit of knowledge and a superb work ethic."

Students in the M.D./Ph.D. program at Saint Louis University focus on developing expertise in both research and patient care. The M.D./Ph.D. program at SLU was established to recruit applicants who have exceptional scholastic records and prior training in research. (Nuara studied immunology as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona.) Admission is highly competitive, with only two or three positions available yearly. Typically, trainees typically complete the first two years of medical school before undertaking the Ph.D. portion of their training. After completing the Ph.D. dissertation, trainees return for the final two clinical years of medical school.

"They have to be good at the research bench and at the bedside, and Tony excels at both," Buller says. The combined M.D./Ph.D. degree program generally takes seven to eight years, from the time of admission to medical school. A medical degree typically takes four. "I wasn't initially on the M.D./Ph.D. track," Nuara says. "But at the end of my first year of medical school I considered it, met Dr. Buller and things clicked. I was fortunate because the year before they had accepted only one person, so there was an open slot." Now in his final year of medical school, Nuara is rotating through various speciality areas, with lots of hands-on interaction with patients at SLU Hospital, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center and the Cochran VA Hospital. After finishing his M.D./Ph.D. program, Nuara hopes to pursue a dermatology residency and continue his research and clinical care.

Cell Signalling Glitch Contributes to Lupus Progression

New findings could lead to therapy to fight autoimmune disease

Immune cells that would normally die in healthy people accumulate in bodies of patients who have lupus and contribute to the disease, according to new Saint Louis University research published in the Feb. 15 issue of Immunity.

The finding is important because it tells us more about how lupus develops and suggests a strategy for treating the autoimmune disease, said Harris Perlman, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Saint Louis University and senior author of the study.

"We want to eliminate those hyperactive immune cells that lead to continuation of the disease but maintain infection-fighting white blood cells," Perlman said. "This will restore the balance of cells in the immune system, which has become very skewed in lupus patients."

What Is Lupus?

It is estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million Americans have some form of lupus, which can damage the kidneys, heart, joints, skin, lungs, blood vessels, liver and nervous system. In those who have an autoimmune disease such as lupus, the cells in the immune system become confused. Instead of attacking only infected cells or foreign bodies, they turn ultra-vigilant and attack the body's own normal cells and tissues, causing inflammation, pain and injuries.

Perlman and his team have discovered the double whammy for lupus patients. They harbor a higher than normal number of immune cells that carry too much of the pro-survival or anti-apoptotic proteins that tells them to keep living past their prime. Normally these cells should undergo "apoptosis," a natural process by which cells die so they don't spread infection or take away nutrients from healthy cells. The signal to die can come from inside the cell itself or from outside the cell.

Perlman and his colleagues found that the communications system that tells immune cells that it's time to die gets turned off in lupus patients and causes immune cells to accumulate in the body. This failure to delete these cells allows the disease to progress, Perlman said.

Study Design

Perlman's research team took blood from 14 lupus patients and 14 healthy people. Patients with lupus produced more immune cells with too much of the proteins that prolonged cell life. The more of these immune cells patient had, the more severe was his or her disease. The team used that knowledge to create mice that had a defect in the two known "death pathways" that signal when they're supposed to die.

They showed that these mice displayed high numbers of immune cells that would normally die and that all of the mice developed very severe lupus. "We showed it in patients and reproduced the result in mice," Perlman said. "Now we can use this mouse model to do pre-clinical trials for therapies to fight lupus."

The next step, Perlman said, is to test a therapy that blocks proteins that prevent cells from dying by mimicking the action of proteins that tell immune cells it's time to die. "We want to deliver a treatment that will target those proteins that keep these immune cells alive. This could induce a type of remission in patients," Perlman said. "We need to tilt the balance toward the normal cells -- cells that don't want to attack the body but function correctly so the patient can fight infection and have a normal life. We want to kill those cells that lead to the continuation of disease."

The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center, University of California-San Diego and Yale University. It was funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, both divisions of the National Institutes of Health, and the autoimmune disease fund provided by Saint Louis University.