PHRI News 2011 & 2012

	01.10.12	Last fall, Dr. Carmela Irene, a researcher at the Public Health Research Institute, participated as a volunteer for the New York Academy of Sciences, which collaborated with the Infosys USA Foundation, on an after school program for the Citizen Schools in New Jersey. An article on this successful program was posted on the Citizen Schools' web site ( www.citizenschools.org).
	10.01.11	Last October, the CNN Network broadcasted a one-hour documentary called "CNN Presents: Death by Mail - The Anthrax Letters." In this documentary, the new UMDNJ Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) was featured and interviews were conducted with Drs. David Perlin and Nancy Connell. Please follow this link to read more background information on the documentary at www.cnn.com.
	09.15.11	The NY Times published a letter submitted by PHRI Executive Director, Dr. David Perlin, entitled “‘Contagion’ Puts a Focus on Infectious Diseases”. Please follow this link to read the lettter at www.nytimes.com.
	08.10.11	On Tuesday, October 18, 2011, the 9th Annual PHRI Summer High School Intern Symposium will take place at PHRI. Follow this link to download the Symposium Program.
	08.01.11	Dr. Salvatore Marras, PHRI scientist and faculty member, appeared in this month's issue of Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News to discuss his view on the advances in quantitative PCR assays. To read the full article, please visit the magazine's website at www.genengnews.com
	05.20.11	Mona Batish, graduate student in the laboratory of Drs. Fred Kramer, Sanjay Tyagi and Salvatore Marras at PHRI has been selected by the Executive Women of New Jersey (EWNJ) www.ewnj.org to receive a 2011 Graduate Merit Award. The Graduate Merit Awards were established by EWNJ in 1986 to provide scholarships for female students pursuing graduate level degrees in New Jersey. EWNJ has given more than $1,000,000 in scholarships to approximately 300 students. Mona Batish also recently received first prize for the best poster presentation at the Third Annual Inter-School Technology Symposium held recently at RWJMS.
	05.10.11	Dr. David Perlin, executive Director and Professor at New Jersey Medical School, together with scientists at the University of Manchester has developed a new test that utilizes molecular beacon technology to better diagnose Aspergillus infections and resistance to drugs used to treat patients with aspergillosis. For more information, please visit this link to Newswise's web site.
	04.12.11	Mona Batish, graduate student in the laboratory of Drs Fred Kramer and Sanjay Tyagi was awarded the first prize for best poster at the Third Annual Inter-School Technology Symposium, which was held at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School on April 12th 2011. The award constituted a mini-grant to support services rendered at UMDNJ’s deep sequencing core facility.
	03.21.11	PHRI Scientist and faculty member Dr. Therase Chang is featured in an editorial on women in science and engineering, which was published in the February issue of Science. To download a PDF copy of the editorial click here.
	03.18.11	Dr. Gilla Kaplan, professor and senior faculty member at PHRI, was interviewed about her ongoing research on how to fight Tuberculosis, and her story was published in International Innovation, a leading global resource for the scientific, technology and research communities. To download a PDF copy of her article, click here, and to visit the web site of International Innovation, follow this link.
	03.18.11	PHRI Scientists, Drs. Karl Drlica and David Perlin published a new book entitled: Antibiotic Resistance: Understanding and Responding to an Emerging Crisis. For more information, please visit this link.

PHRI News from Prior Years

	12.13.10	The Public Health Research Institute Center at the UMDNJ – New Jersey Medical School organized the 2010 PHRI Symposium on Infectious Diseases. The title of this year's simposium was: "Recent advances towards an HIV vaccine: Understanding the protective humoral response towards HIV." For a number of years, PHRI has been sponsoring annual symposia on infectious diseases that are open to scientists, physicians and students from the local NY-NJ institutions. This year's symposium focused on HIV immunology and vaccine development. Talks were presented by a distinguished group of investigators on topics, including Env structure and function, Env evolution, immunological responses to infection, and lessons learned from recent vaccine trials. Guest speakers included Joe Sodroski (Harvard), George Shaw (UAB), Gary Nabel (VRC), Sanjay Phogat (IAVI) and Rob O'Connell (WRAIR).
	11.12.10	Mona Batish, graduate student in the laboratory of Drs. Sanjay Tyagi and Fred Russell Kramer was awarded with the first prize for best oral presentation during the 17th graduate student research symposium, which was held on November 8, 2010. The annual symposium showcases the variety of research being carried out in all the departments of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UMDNJ.
	10.04.10	We are very proud to announce that Dr. Xilin Zhao, PHRI faculty member and Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, was selected as a recipient of the 2010 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Dr. Zhao received this prestigious award for his ground-breaking research on a novel, gas-based therapy of tuberculosis, a disease that infects a third of the world’s population and kills almost 2 million people every year. For more details about Dr. Zhao’s research and this award, please visit his laboratory's web site and the NIH's Roadmap web site.
	09.17.10	A new NHLBI grant for 2.9 million dollars has just been awarded to Dr. Marila Gennaro at PHRI and Department of Medicine/NJMS at UMDNJ. The grant also includes as Co-Principal Investigators Richard Pine, Alfred Lardizabal, Gilla Kaplan (PHRI, Global TB Institute, and Department of Medicine/NJMS at UMDNJ), Gabor Balazsi (U. Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center) and Eduardo Sontag (Rutgers U.). The grant is entitled "Mapping and modeling host-pathogen interactions in TB latency and reactivation" and has been awarded for a period of four years. The multi-disciplinary project will seek to understand how intercellular networks operating between tubercle bacillus and lung macrophage govern the transitions to/from latency at the level of genetic programs and cellular metabolism. The project will combine statistical pathway analyses and bottom-up and top-down modeling strategies utilizing publicly available data, data contributed by on-going research in participating laboratories, and data generated in the project from ex vivo infection of human primary lung macrophages with M. tuberculosis. Funding of this project establishes UMDNJ and collaborating institutions as one of five TB Systems Biology Centers funded by the NHLBI in the country. The Centers will interact with each other and with a Data Coordinating Center newly established for this program.
	08.17.10	A new NIH grant for 3 million dollars has just been awarded to Drs. Gloria Marcela Rodriguez and Issar Smith (Co-Principal Investigators) of the PHRI center and the Department of Medicine at the New Jersey Medical School-UMDNJ. The grant is entitled "Mechanisms and Regulation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis iron acquisition" and is awarded for a period of 5 years. The project has long been a subject of Dr. Rodriguez and Dr. Smith's work, and in the new grant period, they seek to understand the mechanisms of how the pathogen M. tuberculosis acquires the essential element iron and to use this information to develop new anti-tubercular therapies.
	07.27.10	PHRI organizes the 2010 Summer High School Research Internship Program. For more information visit the Summer Internship's web site
	05.24.10	Dr. Gilla Kaplan, professor and senior faculty member at PHRI, was honored with an "Excellence in Research Award" by the UMDNJ Foundation as a recognition for her outstanding research during the past academic year. She received her award at the 2010 New Jersey Medical School Convocation, which was held on May 24, 2010, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark.
	05.23.10	Angella Dorsey-Oresto, a PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Karl Drlica at PHRI, was honored with the 2010 “Outstanding Student of the Year” award in recognition of excellence in academics, research, and service. The award was presented by the UMDNJ Faculty Organization.
	04.08.10	Thomas Reuters reports on the Celgene Corporation, a multinational biopharmaceutical company, and the vital contributions of PHRI scientist Gilla Kaplan in developing the company. Please visit the following link to download a pdf copy of this article.
	03.26.10	We are extremely pleased to report that Dr. Abraham Pinter, a senior faculty member at PHRI, has been awarded a five year $15.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's HIVRAD program (HIV Research and Development) to help develop a novel HIV vaccine platform. In addition, PHRI is actively recruiting two other well funded HIV specialists to establish a cluster of excellence in HIV research at PHRI. The basis for Dr. Pinter's vaccine strategy is the long-standing recognition that, unlike other types of viral infections, infection with HIV fails to elicit a broadly protective antibody response. Thus, despite the production of high antibody titers in HIV-infected subjects, these antibodies usually fail to neutralize typical viruses isolated from patients. Dr. Pinter's group has been studying the mechanisms for the resistance of primary HIV isolates to neutralization by common antibodies, and has identified conformational masking of sensitive neutralization targets as a major factor for this effect. These studies have identified a new class of 'quaternary' epitopes that are not susceptible to masking and are recognized by antibodies present in some immune sera. These epitopes are dependent on the native trimeric surface protein structures of HIV. The goal of Dr. Pinter's new program is to define the sequences and structure of this novel class of target, and to develop new vaccines that incorporate these antigens and are capable of inducing related antibody activities. This vaccine program involves a collaboration with several core laboratories at PHRI - NJMS along with researchers from three other institutions (Tulane University, the University of Washington, and the NICD in South Africa). Please follow this link to read the press release posted by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
	12.14.09	On December 14, 2009, the Public Health Research Institute Center at the UMDNJ – New Jersey Medical School hosted a symposium to celebrate the career of Dr. Lee Reichman. The symposium took place at the PHRI Center / UMDNJ – New Jersey Medical School. Presentations were provided by Gerald Friedland of Yale University Medical Center, Philip C. Hopewell of the University of California at San Francisco, Michael D. Iseman of the University of Colorado, Wafaa El-Sadr of the Harlem Hospital, Melvin Spigelman of the Global Alliance against TB, and Kenneth Castro of the CDC. The speakers have graciously agreed to publish their presentations and you may download the series of presentations in a single PDF file (size is 10.5 MB) by selecting the following link: Download Symposium Presentations
	11.02.09	Karl Drlica, PHRI faculty and member of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, was selected the 2009 Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the NJ Medical School ‘Mentor of the Year.’
	10.14.09	On October 14th, 2009, the PHRI Center organizinged its 7th Annual Summer High School Intern Program Symposium. Please download the Symposium Announcement for more details.
	12.11.08	PHRI is proud to announce that New Jersey Business magazine, in cooperation with Technology-based Trade Associations in New Jersey, has recognized PHRI Scientist Dr. Fred Russell Kramer as one of the Top 10 New Jersey Scientists. In their December 2008 issue, Fred Kramer, together with the other selected Top 10 scientists, will be featured, describing their innovative contributions to science and society. Please follow this link to download a pdf copy of the New Jersey Business magazine’s story on "NJ's Top 10 Scientists - Special Recognition." For a description of Fred Kramer’s research interest and biography, please visit this link.
	12.10.08	The Public Health Research Institute, together with the Emerging Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Discussion Group, had the privilege to organize a symposium to celebrate the career of Dr. Issar Smith (Smitty). Dr. Smith has spent over 42 years at the Public Health Research Institute studying the control of sporulation and gene regulation in Bacillus subtilis and pathogenesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The event took place on December 10, 2008, at the New York Academy of Sciences. Presentations were given by Stanley Falkow of Stanford University, David Dubnau of the PHRI, Richard M. Losick of Harvard College, Brigitte Gicquel of Institut Pasteur, David Russell of Cornell University, and Michael D. Iseman of the University of Colorado. The presentations were followed by a reception in honor of Dr. Smith. For more details on this symposium and other events at the New York Academy of Sciences, please visit the Academy's web site.
	10.15.08	6th Annual PHRI Summer High School Intern Symposium For more information on this event, please download the Symposium Announcement.
	09.24.08	Dr. Marila Genanaro of the Public Health Research Institute of the New Jersey Medical School and Dr. Mark Doherty of the Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark, under the auspices of the STOP TB Working Group on Diagnostics, and with the support of the Foundation for New and Innovative Diagnostics (FIND), the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) at the World Health Organization, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, organized an International Conference on "Immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis: new questions, new tools." The conference, which took place from September 21 to September 23, 2008, at the Founder's Inn & Spa, Virginia Beach,VA, USA, resulted in many interdisciplinary discussions and collaborations among scientists having different but related interests. These interests range from basic microbiology and immunology, to the science of establishing field studies, and to research leading to new strategies of biomarker discovery and new assay platforms. For more information, please visit the conference's web site at www.tb-conference.com In addition, the New Jersey Medical School posted an E-news Highlight on this event. To read this news item on "Scientists Worldwide Gather for Scientific Tuberculosis Conference", please follow this link.
	09.18.08	PHRI Scientists Drs. Abe Pinter and Xilin Zhao are members of an elite group out of more than 4,000 applications to each receive $100,000 awards, as part of a new Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations program. This US$100 million initiative is intended to encourage bold and unconventional global health solutions. Dr. Pinter's group proposed a novel approach to kill HIV through an immunotherapy. Dr. Zhao proposed a new approach to kill Mycobacterium Tuberculosis by inducing an altered and more sensitive physiological state in the bacterium. Both Drs. Pinter and Zhao can apply for up to $1 million in support after year 1. Dr. Arkady Mustaev, who has worked with Dr. Alex Goldfarb over the years, successfully obtained a NIH RO1 grant for his work on the mechanism of RNA polymerase in E. coli.
	08.05.08	The NY Times publishes a letter submitted by PHRI Director, David Perlin, with his commentary on an article entitled “Anthrax Case Renews Questions on Bioterror Effort and Safety”. Please follow these links to download a copy of the NY times article and the letter to the editor.
	07.15.08	Dr. Karl Drlica, a PHRI Principal Investigator, has co-edited a new volume in Springer Verlag’s series “Emerging Infectious Diseases of the 21st Century”. The title of his book is “Antimicrobial Resistance and Implications for the 21st Century”. For more information, please follow this link
	06.06.08	The Center for Applied Genomics is expanding its microarray expression profiling and SNP genotyping services beyond research to include clinical diagnostic testing. This has been made possible through a new CLIA-site license granted to the Institute of Genomic Medicine for the ICPH building. The Institute for Genomic Medicine already operates several additional CLIA-certified clinical diagnostic laboratories at their MSB location. For more information, please visit www.cag.icph.org
	06.06.08	PHRI scientist, Dr. Marila Gennaro, participates in the First HIV-TB Global Leader’s Forum, which is being held in conjunction with the meeting of the United Nation’s General Assembly on HIV/AIDS. For more information on this forum, please visit www.stoptb.org/events/hivtbleaders
	05.20.08	National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awards grant to Dr. Abraham Pinter, a PHRI scientist, to support research towards developing HIV vaccines click here to view the NIH News announcement.
	05.04.08	The Public Health Research Institute of the New Jersey Medical School and the Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark, are organizing an International Conference on "Immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis: new questions, new tools"
	12.13.07	Fourth Annual PHRI Symposium on Infectious Diseases click here for information on this event.
	10.02.07	Bill & Melinda Gates Award UMDNJ $1.5 Million Grant for Tuberculosis Study by School of Public Health Researcher click here to read the press-release
	05.11.06	Press Release: Beijing Lab Honored with Gates Grand Challenge Award in Global Health
	05.11.06	Press Release: FIND, ImmPORT, and PHRI announce collaboration to develop critical diagnostic reagents for tuberculosis