Center for Biofilm Engineering

News Update: 

December, 2006

Volume 9, Issue 12

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Research Highlights

Happy Holidays!

You have to be quick to catch a glimpse of Rudolph, but microbiologist Barry Pyle managed a great shot. Our holiday greeting on the CBE homepage is a confocal micrograph of a Bac-Light LiveDead stained Klebsiella pneumoniae biofilm on a stainless steel surface. This was preliminary research in preparation for a larger NASA project. Imaging by Barry Pyle, Sue Broadaway and Elinor Pulcini, on a Leica TCS-NT.

See the CBE homepage at: http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/

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Upcoming Technical Advisory Conference

The CBE’s semi-annual conference is scheduled for February 8–9, 2007. We hope you are planning to attend! See the Agenda link on the CBE home page at: http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/

For industrial members, the Advanced Biofilm Methods Workshop is still open for more participants.

For non-members, see our Special Invitation to the conference at: http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/Ind-Col99-SW/IAP/tac/TAC_invite.htm

If you have any questions about the conference or workshops, please call Paul Sturman, Industrial Development Coordinator, at 406 994-2102 or email paul_stu@erc.montana.edu.

Keynote Speaker

Alex Rickard, from State University of New York at Binghamton, will be presenting “The role of autoinducer-2 in the development of oral biofilms.” Dr. Rickard has studied bacterial aggregation with Dr. Peter Gilbert at the University of Manchester as well as oral biofilm bacterial interactions with Dr. Paul Kolenbrander at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Rickard's current work focuses on the role of cell-cell signalling in bacterial adhesion.

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CBE Publications

Taking a Look at How Publications Rank

According to the ISI Web of Science database, Montana State University has published the most biofilm-related papers for the past two years. For years 2004 and 2005, we’ve listed the five top institutions as ranked in the database. Independent of the institution rankings, we’ve shown the five top cited papers.

2005 Search Results

Top Institutions (publishing biofilm-related papers)
Montana State University
Harvard University
Tech University Denmark
University of Iowa
University of Southern California

Top Cited Papers

1. Gill SR, Fouts DE, Archer GL, et al. (Institute of Genomic Research)
Insights on evolution of virulence and resistance from the complete genome analysis of an early methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain and a biofilm-producing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis strain
Journal of Bacteriology 187 (7): 2426-2438 Apr 2005
Times Cited: 56

2. Fux CA, Costerton JW, Stewart PS, et al. (Montana State University, CBE)
Survival strategies of infectious biofilms
Trends in Microbiology 13 (1): 34-40 Jan 2005
Times Cited: 46

3. Romling U, Gomelsky M, Galperin MY (Karolinska Institute, Sweden)
C-di-GMP: the dawning of a novel bacterial signalling system
Molecular Microbiology 57 (3): 629-639 Aug 2005
Times Cited: 44

4. Ram RJ, VerBerkmoes NC, Thelen MP, et al. (University of California, Berkeley)
Community proteomics of a natural microbial biofilm
Science 308 (5730): 1915-1920 Jun 24 2005
Times Cited: 38

5. Wolfe AJ (Loyola University, Maywood, IL)
The acetate switch
Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 69 (1): 12+ Mar 2005
Times Cited: 36

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2004 Search Results

Top Institutions (publishing biofilm-related papers)

Montana State University
Harvard University
University of Wisconsin
University of New South Wales
University of Texas

Top Cited Papers

1. Tyson GW, Chapman J, Hugenholtz P, et al. (University of California Berkeley)
Community structure and metabolism through reconstruction of microbial genomes from the environment
Nature 428 (6978): 37-43 Mar 4 2004
Times Cited: 713

2. Hall-Stoodley L, Costerton JW, Stoodley P (Montana State University, CBE)
Bacterial biofilms: From the natural environment to infectious diseases
Nature Reviews Microbiology 2 (2): 95-108 Feb 2004
Times Cited: 123

3. Lenz DH, Mok KC, Lilley BN, et al. (Harvard University)
The small RNA chaperone Hfq and multiple small RNAs control quorum sensing in Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio cholerae
Cell 118 (1): 69-82 Jul 9 2004
Times Cited: 78

4. Boucher RC (Princeton University)
New concepts of the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis lung disease
European Respiratory Journal 23 (1): 146-158 Jan 2004
Times Cited: 57

5. Miller ST, Xavier KB, Campagna SR, et al. (University of North Carolina)
Salmonella typhimurium recognizes a chemically distinct form of the bacterial quorum-sensing signal Al-2
Molecular Cell 15 (5): 677-687 Sep 10 2004
Times Cited: 57

*Note: Ranking may change slightly over time as the ISI database continues to collect more data.
 

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Undergraduate Science Education

A Native American’s Experience

Cinnamon Spear, an aspiring physical scientist who has worked summers with Mark Burr and his lab, leaves the reservation and goes east to the Ivy Leagues – for herself and the folks back home. This article about Cinnamon’s educational experience was written by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and gives voice to what Cinnamon and others from the reservations are really challenged by and the grit it requires to step out and take new directions.

Read her inspiring story at: http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/HTML/2006/Horizons.pdf

Reference:
SCIENCE EDUCATION
Expanding Her Horizons
by Nancy Volkers
HHMI Bulletin November 2006

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New Employee

Howard Christiansen is a new research scientist working with Robin Gerlach. Howard will work on the mass spectrometers and chromatographs (e.g. LC-MS, GC-MS, and ICP-MS) as well as environmental bio(film)-technology related research. He received a Masters in Chemistry from MSU and returned to Bozeman after several years of working in chromatography and mass spectrometry related jobs.

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CBE People in Action

Markus Dieser presented a poster "Microbial Metabolic Activity and Bioavailability of Dissolved Organic Matter Under the Impact of Intense UV Radiation in Pony Lake, Antarctica," American Geophysical Union's Fall Mtg, San Francisco, CA, December 11, 2006.  Poster co-authors were C. Foreman, D. McKnight, P. Miller, Y. Chin

Christine Foreman presented "Geomicrobiology of a Supraglacial Stream on the Cotton Glacier, Victoria Land, Antarctica," American Geophysical Union's Fall Mtg, San Francisco, CA, December 11, 2006. Co-authors were Cindy Morris and Rose Cory. 

Phil Stewart as an invited speaker presented “Mechanisms of Antibiotic Tolerance in Staphylococcal Biofilms,” Materials Research Society, Fall Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, November 30, 2006.

Sarah Codd as an invited speaker presented “Magnetic Resonance Microscopy Analysis of Biofilm Polymer Dynamics and Bioreactor Transport,” at the MRS in Boston, November 27, 2006. 

Zbigniew Lewandowski as an invited speaker presented "Mass Transport and Microbial Activity in Biofilms: Advances and Remaining Challenges," University of Washington, Pullman, November 27, 2006.

Christine Foreman presented "Opportunities for Cold Temperature Research in the College of Engineering" to the MSU Native American student seminar “Designing our Community,” November 21, 2006.

Phil Stewart presented "Illustrated Wonders of the Microbial World" at Longfellow Elementary School, November 16, 2006.

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Web Watch

BiofilmsOnline.com

See the BiofilmsOnline.com December issue at http://www.BiofilmsOnline.com.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter by registering at: http://www.biofilmsonline.com/cgi-bin/biofilmsonline/newsletter_signup.html

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Newsletter Listserve

The CBE News Update is a listserve newsletter. If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from the listserve, follow the directions at the following CBE website.

http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/subscribe.htm

An alternative to subscribing to the listserve is to view the CBE News Update on our web page at http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/Ind-Col99-SW/Current_Newsletter/default.htm. Newsletter archives can be found at http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/Res-Lib99-SW/newsarchives/index.htm.

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