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2024
Upcoming in 2024:
– We are looking forward to hearing talks from Alejandro (in January), John (in March), and Holly (in April) at Virology@PSU.
– Moriah will be serving as Program Chair for this year’s American Society of Virology (ASV) Annual Meeting, from June 24-28, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio.
2023
December 2023:
– Mei-Ling Liber gave a talk in our Virology@PSU seminar series, with an update on her contributions to our viral GWAS project and plans for upcoming experiments. Kudos, Mei-Ling!
November 2023:
– Our lab had a long-awaited 8th annual retreat, our first since 2021. (We skipped a year during Moriah’s 2022 sabbatical abroad.) It was a great chance to discuss everyone’s recent events and plans as we look forward!
– Penn State’s Science News put out an article about Mei-Ling Liber ‘s volunteer and outreach work with the Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) group.
October 2023:
– Congratulations to our graduate student John Krapohl on passing his qualifying examination in the Biochemistry, Microbiology & Molecular Biology (BMMB) graduate program! Well done, John!
September 2023:
– Congratulations to our graduate student Alejandro Ortigas-Vásquez on passing his comprehensive examination in the Huck Institutes’ Bioinformatics and Genomics graduate program! Great job, Alejandro!
August 2023:
– Graduate student Holly Passetti gave a talk at BMMB program’s third-year research symposium. Great job, Holly!
July 2023:
– Congratulations to our graduate student Holly Passetti on passing her comprehensive examination in the Biochemistry, Microbiology & Molecular Biology (BMMB) graduate program! You did it, Holly!
– Three members of the lab attended the 47th International Herpesvirus Workshop (IHW) and gave talks there. First, Alejandro Ortigas-Vásquez gave a talk on his new analyses of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) genomes, in the veterinary herpesvirus satellite on Saturday. Then, Sarah Dweikat gave a talk on Sunday on her neonatal HSV-1 genomic studies. Finally, Moriah gave the Epidemiology keynote address on Wednesday, in a back-to-back talk with long-time collaborator Dr. Christine Johnston, on our joint research on the viral and human epidemiology of new genital HSV-1 infections. Our neonatal HSV clinical collaborator, Dr. Lisa Akhtar, also had a talk from her group, given by her student Brian Miller. It was a packed & fabulous meeting!
June 2023:
– Holly Passetti gave a flash talk and poster at the 2023 American Society for Virology (ASV) meeting in Athens, Georgia. John attended as well, as he wrapped up his first year in the lab. Moriah served in her second and final year as Vice-Chair for the ASV Program Committee, prior to taking on the Program Chair role for the next two years. It was a great meeting for everyone!
– Graduate student Mei-Ling Liber headed to the University of Cincinnati, to spend two months getting in-person training with our collaborators on the viral GWAS project, Dr. Rick Thompson and Dr. Nancy Sawtell.
May 2023
– Undergrad researcher Ellie Kim will be serving as the Student Marshall for the Deparment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the 2023 Eberly College of Science Commencement ceremony. Congratulations, Ellie!
– Alejandro Ortigas-Vásquez gave a talk for PSU’s Center for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (CCBB), at their workshop on Emerging Methods for Sequence Analysis. His talk was titled, “How third-generation sequencing using high-fidelity long reads is changing the way we think about DNA viruses“. Kudos, Alejandro!
April 2023
– Congratulations to our graduate student Mei-Ling Liber on passing her qualifying examination in the Biology graduate program! Kudos, Mei-Ling!
– Sarah Dweikat gave a talk at our Virology@PSU series, on neonatal HSV1 variation within and between patients. Great job, Sarah!
March 2023:
– Mei-Ling Liber presented a poster at Penn State’s Graduate Exhibition this month. The Penn State News wrote an article about her & her fellow presenters. Great job, Mei-Ling!
February 2023:
– Alejandro Ortigas-Vásquez gave his first-ever talk for our Virology@PSU seminar series, on his genomic comparisons of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) strains. Great job, Alejandro!
2022
December 2022:
– Mei-Ling Liber gave her first-ever talk for our Virology@PSU seminar series, on her contributions to our ongoing viral GWAS project. Well done, Mei-Ling!
– We are excited to welcome new Biochemistry, Microbiology & Molecular Biology graduate student John Krapohl to the lab! John had an exciting rotation mentored by Chris Bowen, with a side project in bioformatics as well. Welcome John!
October 2022:
– Congratulations to our graduate student Holly Passetti on passing her qualifying examination in the Biochemistry, Microbiology & Molecular Biology graduate program! Kudos, Holly! In the same month, Holly also gave her first-ever talk for our Virology@PSU seminar series — go Holly!
– Sarah Dweikat‘s first-ever, first-author paper is now published in the Journal of General Virology! You can check it out online here:
https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.001780 or on our publications page. Congratulations, Sarah, and kudos to Daniel & Chris for co-authoring roles on this team effort!
September 2022:
– We are excited to welcome two new researchers to the lab, Preeti Naik & Kessina Vertil. Preeti is a Master’s of Biotechnology student, and Kessina is an undergraduate researchers who is majoring in Biochemistry. Welcome to the lab, Preeti & Kessina!
August 2022:
– We are excited to welcome Mei-Ling Liber (our former Research Technologist) as a new Biology graduate student in the lab! Mei-Ling gets a head start by continuing on with the project that she started as a research tech. Mei-Ling is part of the 2022-23 class of Science Achievement Graduate Fellows (SAGF), with her fellowship named in honor of Barbara McClintock. Welcome to graduate school, Mei-Ling!
– Undergrad researcher Ellie Kim has won an Astronaut Scholarship! She was one of two nominees from PSU, and the sole winner this year from Penn State! Congratulations to Ellie, and to her lab mentor Sarah Dweikat!
July 2022:
– Sarah Dweikat gave a talk on her recent genetic and phenotypic comparison of HSV-1 strains at the 2022 American Society for Virology (ASV) meeting. Kudos on giving this first talk at a national meeting, Sarah!
– Moriah gave a talk on Molly’s recent data on genomic comparisons of HSV-1 during transmission between adult partners, at the 46th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop (IHW). This IHW was still online, but we are looking forward to getting back to in-person meetings next year! You can see Molly’s latest paper on these data on our publications page or at PLoS Pathogens here.
May 2022:
– Congratulations to Mei-Ling Liber on being awarded a Science Achievement Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Biology, for her upcoming PhD training! Great job, Mei-Ling!
April 2022:
– Congratulations to our graduate student Alejandro Ortigas-Vásquez on passing his qualifying examination in the BG graduate program! Kudos, Alejandro!
– A long-awaited collaborative project with Satish Mehta and our colleagues at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has finally been published! This research examines the viral genomic diversity of a herpes simplex virus infection that reactivated in outer space. You can find this paper on our publications page or at Viruses here. HSV-1 has gone into orbit!
March 2022:
– Undergrad researcher Ellie Kim has won a Barry Goldwater Scholarship! She was one of four nominees from PSU, and just two to win the award! Congratulations to Ellie, and to her lab mentor Sarah Dweikat! Ellie has also recently been nominated for the Astronaut Scholarship, which you can read about in another cool article about Ellie here.
– Our undergrads are soaring — Allison Johnston was just accepted into Penn State’s Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate Accelerated Master of Public Health (MPH) program! Kudos to you, Allison!
– Moriah gave a talk on the social “behavior” of HSV at the first-ever Sociovirology meeting in the UK, organized by Asher Leeks & Samuel Díaz-Muñoz. You can see a summary of the talk in Sam’s tweet-thread here, and use the same hashtag (#SocialViruses) to catch up on other talks as well!
February 2022:
– Molly Rathbun gave a great talk & successfully defended her PhD on February 16 — kudos Molly! Thanks to her thesis committee of Shaun Mahony, Tim Miyashiro, Kateryna Makova, and Francesca Chiaramonte — and Craig Cameron in the early years — for their guidance along the way! The BMMB graduate program wrote a great piece on Molly’s training in research, which you can check out here.
– Sarah Dweikat gave a talk at our Virology@PSU series, on her use of multi-phenotype analyses to classify different HSV-1 strains. Nicely done, Sarah!
January 2022:
– We are excited to welcome new Bioinformatics & Genomics graduate student Alejandro Ortigas-Vásquez to the group! Alejandro had an early-start with a summer-fall rotation mentored by Daniel Renner. We look forward to more viral bioinformatics in his future — welcome Alejandro!
2021
December 2021:
– We are excited to welcome new Biochemistry, Microbiology & Molecular Biology graduate student Holly Passetti to the lab! Holly had a great rotation mentored by Chris Bowen this fall. We hope there will be more beautiful neurons in her future. Welcome Holly!
November 2021:
– We wish a fond farewell to Chad Kuny, who is leaving our lab for a long-term staff position in the Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) office at Penn State! Chad’s work on viral decontamination in the campus effort to combat COVID-19 surely played a role in this! 😉
– Our lab had its first annual retreat since the pandemic officially started (our 7th overall retreat). It was good to finally gather & discuss our progress, both past & forward-facing!
October 2021:
– New technician Mei-Ling Liber has joined the lab, with an eye on training for future research endeavors in graduate school. Mei-Ling is training with Chad Kuny & Chris Bowen to learn all about viruses & their propagation in the lab. Welcome to the lab, Mei-Ling!
July 2021:
– We’re excited for this year’s American Society for Virology 2021 meeting, where data from the Szpara lab will be part of the Satellite Symposium on “Co-transmission of Multiple Virus Genomes”. Moriah was a plenary speaker in Symposium IV – Viral Pathogenesis and Immunity, on Wednesday morning. She also joined the TWiV team for a live-stream podcast to close out the 2021 ASV meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIHBm63dMqY!
June 2021:
– We wish a fond farewell to Colleen Mangold, who is leaving our lab & that of Dr. David Hughes, to launch a full-time career in scientific editing & writing! Kudos & congratulations, Colleen!
– Chris Bowen gave a talk in our Virology@PSU seminar series, on using different model systems to investigate viral contributions to neonatal nHSV infections. Great job, Chris!
May 2021:
– Congratulations to our former undergraduate researchers, Bridget Lunney & Alyssa Powers, on their graduation from Penn State this spring! Good luck in your future endeavors, Bridget & Alyssa! Congrats also to one of our current undergrad researchers, Ellie Kim, on her upcoming summer plans with the University of Cincinnati’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program — where Ellie received the Schmiddlap Young Women’s Scholar award for her outstanding application to their summer program!
April 2021:
– Congratulations to our former Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD), Dr. Beth McGraw, for taking over as the new head of the Department of Biology! Beth steps in as our former department head, Dr. Tracy Langkilde, became Dean of the Eberly College of Science this past fall. Welcome also to Dr. Matt Ferrari as the new head of CIDD. Thanks & kudos to all of our colleagues who serve in these roles!
March 2021:
– Congratulations to Colleen Mangold for leading the lab’s newest publication at PLoS Pathogens, on the transcriptional differences observed in human neuronal cells infected by distinct strains of HSV-1. Each strain has its own timing of viral gene expression, and induces strain-specific responses that differ in levels & timing of host transcripts as well. Kudos to Colleen & her co-authors Molly Rathbun, Daniel Renner, & Chad Kuny!
– Congratulations to Daniel Renner & Colleen Mangold on the lab’s long-awaited genome announcement for the Hill isolate of HSV-1 strain McKrae! Like other McKrae isolates in circulation, it is lacking the key viral gene UL56, raising interesting new questions about the previously-proposed necessity for this gene to achieve full virulence in vivo. Congrats also to our multiple co-authors & collaborators on this one!
2020
December 2020:
– Congratulations to our graduate student Sarah Dweikat, on passing her qualifying examination in the MCIBS graduate program! Kudos, Sarah!
– Molly Rathbun gave a talk in our Virology@PSU seminar series, on her new analyses of HSV-1 transmission between immunocompetent adults. Kudos, Molly!
November 2020:
– Congratulations to Chad Kuny on the long-awaited publication of a book chapter on alpha-herpesvirus genomes, which was first submitted back before the pandemic. Good things come to those who wait, Chad!
October 2020:
– Sarah Dweikat gave her first-ever talk in our Virology@PSU seminar series — go Sarah!
May 2020:
– Congratulations to our former undergraduate researcher, Maya Demby, on her graduation from Penn State! Kudos & good luck with your future endeavors, Maya! Congrats also to one of our current undergrad researchers, Bridget Lunney, on her upcoming summer internship with the Research Scholar Program of the Lehigh Valley Health Network!
April 2020:
– Congratulations to Chad Kuny for leading the lab’s newest publication at Virus Evolution, on the resulting of experimental evolution with HSV-1 in a controlled cell-culture environment. Check out the paper to see how syncytial viruses take over the [virus] world! Kudos to Chad & lab co-authors Chris Bowen and Daniel Renner, along with our clinical collaborator Christine Johnston at the University of Washington.
March 2020:
– Our lab had its 6th annual retreat just days before our campus shut down for COVID. We were nervous but glad to have a chance to gather and discuss science, before the world went “remote”.
January 2020:
– We are excited to welcome Sarah Dweikat, of the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences graduate program, to the lab! Sarah will be embarking on her new research projects in spring 2020 — welcome, Sarah!
2019
December 2019:
– The Szpara Lab has now officially joined the Biology Department here at Penn State University, in addition to the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department. We are excited to share in the science and community of both departments! Our lab will stay in the Millennium Science Complex, which we love…
November 2019:
– Congratulations to our collaborator Lisa Akhtar, on our recently published review on how viral genetic diversity of HSV-1 and HSV-2 contribute to the wide range of clinical outcomes for neonatal HSV infection. Check it out here or via our Publications page!
– Congratulations to Mackenzie & Molly, on the publication of their methods chapter on the use of oligonucleotide enrichment “baits” to sequence HSV directly from patient samples (e.g. skin swabs, saliva, blood, or other samples). This will be an excellent resource for future users of this approach!
October 2019:
– Congratulations to Mackenzie & Colleen, on their latest Szpara Lab publications online! Mackenzie’s final thesis chapter to be published provides an excellent analysis of a unique (and dire) case of perinatal HSV-1 transmission. Colleen’s review is part of the 10th Anniversary edition of Viruses, and it highlights the need to consider how individual variations in both host & virus may influence the observation of links between HSV-1 and Alzheimer’s disease. Check these out via the links above, or on our publications tab!
– Welcome to our new rotation students Sarah Dweikat & Liam Kaylor! We were also joined later by Tong Jiang, Josue Ceron, & Chelsea Sarring — exciting times for these new students & our growing lab!
– Moriah was an invited speaker at the Jacques Monod conference, Virus Evolution on the Mutualist-Parasite Continuum, in Roscoff, France. Molly will be presenting a poster on our ongoing collaboration with Christine Johnston & colleagues at the University of Washington.
September 2019:
– Chad Kuny gave a great talk at this year’s first Virology@PSU seminar, with his data on virus evolution in vitro — now online at bioRxiv!
– Moriah gave a seminar at the Department of Microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Thanks to my host Chris Brooke & fellow virologist Rachel Whitaker for a great visit!
August 2019:
– Molly Rathbun gave a great talk at the MCIBS retreat — thanks Molly!
July 2019:
– Moriah gave a keynote address on herpesvirus genomics, at the 44th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop (IHW) in Knoxville, TN. The annual meetings of IHW and the American Society for Virology overlapped in date but not in location in 2019, making it a challenge to partake of the exciting science at both.
June 2019:
– The lab welcomed our summer research opportunity program (SROP) student, Yarelis Méndez, to the lab for June & July. Yarelis was mentored on her independent research project by Chad Kuny. Yarelis did a great job in the lab & at her closing research talk!
– Bridget Lunney won a BMB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) to do independent research in the lab this summer. Her SURF was funded by the John and Paige Lapinski Undergraduate Fund and Jacqueline Hemming Whitfield Student Research Endowment. Kudos Bridget!
– Alyssa Powers won a Student Engagement Network award for her independent research in the lab this summer. Kudos Alyssa!
May 2019:
– Moriah & the lab got the good news of her tenure & promotion to Associate Professor!
– Moriah gave an invited talk at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Viruses & Cells. Julie Pfeiffer and Britt Glaunsinger organized a great program!
– Colleen Mangold gave one of the first-ever postdoc talks at the 2019 Colorado Alphaherpesvirus Latency Symposium (CALS) in May, and Moriah enjoyed being part of the audience for a change! Thanks to Nick Baird & Randy Cohrs for organizing a great meeting.
April 2019:
– Molly Rathbun was awarded an Academic Computing Fellowship here at Penn State University! Congratulations on this superb achievement, Molly!
– Chris Bowen‘s first-author publication on HSV-1 diversity in Finland is now out in the Journal of Virology. This was a great collaboration with Veijo Hukkanen, Henrik Paavilainen, and our colleagues in Finland, along with Peter Norberg in Sweden, and Daniel Renner‘s bioinformatics here at PSU.
– Maya Demby gave her first poster ever at the Penn State Undergrad Research Exhibition — awesome job, Maya!
March 2019:
– Molly Rathbun gave a great talk in the Virology@PSU seminar series, and another in the Wartik Genomics seminar series. Go Molly!
February 2019:
– Our first publication on neonatal HSV-2 is out now in mSphere. We hope these data will lead to new insights into this devastating disease. This work was done in collaboration with Lisa Akhtar and Matt Weitzman.
– Chris Bowen gave a seminar in the Virology@PSU seminar series, on his newly-accepted paper on HSV-1 diversity in Finland and a preview of his new data in collaboration with Nita Bharti‘s lab.
January 2019:
– So excited to have our Finland HSV1 collaboration with Veijo Hukkanen accepted for publication! Congrats to Chris Bowen & Daniel Renner for leading our lab’s efforts, and Henrik Paavilainen for leading the way on the Finland side.
2018
December 2018:
– Mackenzie Shipley received her PhD at the Winter Commencement of Penn State University — congratulations on your new degree, Mackenzie! Mackenzie will soon be a postdoc in Dr. Julie Overbaugh‘s lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
– Our lab had its 5th annual retreat at a rustic Pennsylvania lodge. We discussed the events of the last year, and everyone’s plans for the near future and beyond. Thank you to all who participated!
November 2018:
– Chris Bowen won BMB’s 2018 Staff Excellence Award for his contributions to the department and the Eberly College of Science! BMB wrote a nice article about Chris & how his efforts support our lab & others. Congratulations Chris, and thank you for all that you do!
October 2018:
– Moriah gave a keynote talk at the 13th Mini-Herpesvirus Workshop (MHW) in Hamburg, Germany. The MHW was co-sponsored by the Heinrich Pette Institute & the Robert Koch Institute. Thanks to the co-organizers, Wolfram Brune & Sebastian Voigt, for putting together a great meeting!
– During her visit to Germany for the MHW, Moriah gave a seminar at the Hannover Medical School (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover), and got to visit with Beate Sodeik, Abel Viejo-Borbolla, and many other great science colleagues. Congrats to the MHH team on their recent success with the “RESIST” research award from Germany’s Excellence Strategy funding program!
– After the MHW, Moriah gave a seminar at the Freie Universität Berlin‘s Institute of Virology. Thanks to my hosts Jakob Trimpert (of the Osterrieder lab) & Benedikt Kaufer — two great labs with exciting science underway. It was also great to have a preview of the site of 2020 International Herpesvirus Workshop!
– Moriah gave a seminar at the University College London (UCL)’s Division of Infection and Immunity. Many thanks to Judy Breuer for hosting my visit, sharing great science, and inspiring new collaborations between our labs!!
– Molly Rathbun did a great job with her 3rd yer seminar in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, & Molecular Biology (BMMB) graduate program. Nicely done!
August 2018:
– Mackenzie Shipley gave a stellar presentation & successfully defended her PhD on August 24 — kudos Mackenzie! Thanks to her thesis committee of John Wills, Melissa Rolls, Dick Frisque, & Lorraine Santy for guidance & good questions all along the way.
– Molly Rathbun successfully completed her comprehensive exam this month as well — congrats Molly! We are looking forward to all the exciting science & exploration that lies ahead.
July 2018:
– Moriah gave a talk on our neonatal HSV-2 research in the HSV Satellite of the 43rd Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop in Vancouver, Canada. Chad Kuny, Mackenzie Shipley, and Moriah presented a total of four posters at the Workshop. We thoroughly enjoyed the great science at IHW, & seeing so many of our collaborators there!
– Colleen Mangold, Chris Bowen, and our collaborator-postdoc Lisa Akhtar all gave talks at the American Society for Virology (ASV) Annual meeting in Maryland. Molly Rathbun presented a poster, and Moriah chaired the opening session. It was a great meeting, with so much to learn across the whole spectrum of virology.
June 2018:
– Colleen Mangold gave a great talk on her new project on neuronal responses to HSV-1 infection, at the University of Pennsylvania Herpesvirus: Pathogenesis & Cancer Symposium on June 1. The whole lab takes a road trip to attend the day-long U. Penn symposium every year.
–Moriah gave a talk at the Spear Colloquium in honor of Dr. Patricia Spear, at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology-Immunology in Chicago, IL. It was an honor to meet Patricia, one of the founding members of our field!
– Mackenzie Shipley gave a talk & a poster, and Utsav Pandey gave a poster, at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe 2018 meeting in Atlanta, GA. Kudos to both of our senior PhD graduate students for their excellent research!
– Moriah gave an invited talk & Daniel Renner a poster at the 2018 Virus Genomics and Evolution meeting in Cambridge (UK). The meeting was held at the Wellcome Genome Campus, heart of an amazing amount of progress in sequencing, genomics, and computational biology.
– Colleen Mangold gave at talk at the Center for Molecular Investigation of Neurological Disorders (CMIND) Annual Retreat here at University Park. Kudos, Colleen!
May 2018:
– Utsav Pandey received his PhD at the Spring Commencement of Penn State University — congratulations on your new degree, Utsav! Utsav is now a Fellow in a two-year Medical Microbiology and Public Health Fellowship program at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), in conjunction with the University of Southern California (USC).
– Colleen Mangold gave a talk for Virology@PSU, on her new neuronal transcriptome project. It was a good preview for her upcoming talks at the University of Pennsylvania & ASV Annual meeting!
– Moriah gave a talk & Mackenzie Shipley gave a poster at the 2018 Colorado Alphaherpesvirus Latency Symposium (CALS) in Vail, CO. It was Mackenzie’s first meeting at CALS, and she agrees that the small format provides a great opportunity to talk with colleagues and share new science. Thank you to Randy Cohrs, Nick Baird, & Maria Nagel for organizing this!
– Mackenzie Shipley returned to her alma mater, Hartwick College, to give an Invited Alumni Seminar. Good outreach & mentorship of future graduate students!
March 2018:
– Mackenzie Shipley gave a Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) Graduate Student Seminar here at PSU. Each student or postdoc has an opportunity to do this once during their training here. Mackenzie did a great job!
– Molly Rathbun gave a poster at the 2018 Penn State Institute for CyberScience (ICS) Symposium. Thanks Molly!
February 2018:
– Utsav Pandey successfully defended his PhD thesis — first graduate of the Szpara lab! He will be accepting a Clinical Diagnostic Microbiology Fellowship in California this July. Read more about these here, at the ASM Committee on Postgraduate Education Programs (CPEP). Thanks to Utsav’s thesis committee for all of their efforts along the way: Andrew Read, Istvan Albert, Tony Schmitt, & Tim Meredith. Congratulations on all of your achievements, Utsav!!!
– Molly Rathbun gave her first-ever presentation for Virology@PSU, and presented her ideas for her future thesis. Good practice for her comprehensive examination in the year ahead!
– Moriah gave a talk about our new neonatal HSV research at the Viruses 2018—Breakthroughs in Viral Replication meeting in Barcelona, Spain. You can see some photos at the MDPI Viruses blog post here. It’s was an excellent meeting!
2017
December 2017:
– Colleen Mangold gave a talk in December for the Molecular Virology super-group, which has grown to include the labs of Craig Cameron, Susan Hafenstein, Joyce Jose, Suresh Kuchipudi, Tony Schmitt, Troy Sutton, & our lab.
– Chad Kuny gave an excellent talk for the Virology@PSU seminar series. It’s been just over a year since Chad joined the lab — Kudos Chad!
November 2017:
– Mackenzie Shipley‘s paper on SH-SY5Y neuronal differentiation & HSV-1 infection is now published in final format at JVI! Congrats to Mackenzie, Colleen, and Chad!
– Molly Rathbun passed her candidacy exam — the first of several landmarks on the path to a PhD. Congrats Molly!
– Our fourth annual lab retreat at Raystown Lake was a success — lots of science & news to reflect on, and more to look forward to in the year ahead!
October 2017:
– A new paper with Utsav Pandey, Daniel Renner, Rick Thompson (University of Cinncinnati), and Nancy Sawtell (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital) is accepted & published at Scientific Reports. Key highlight: This is the first-ever view of HSV-1 transmission in a family setting to include both genomic & in vivo phenotypic analyses. Congratulations Utsav and all for this accomplishment!
– An invited minireview on herpesvirus genomics by Daniel Renner and Moriah Szpara is now accepted & available online at the Journal of Virology!
– Moriah gave a talk for Merck’s Anti-Virals & Vaccines group in West Point, PA.
– Utsav Pandey gave a talk on his father-son virus comparison in the Virology@PSU seminar series.
– Moriah gave a talk at the Stony Brook University’s Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology. Thanks to Laurie Krug & the Krug lab for hosting a great visit!
September 2017:
– A new paper by Mackenzie Shipley, Colleen Mangold, and Chad Kuny is accepted & online at JVI. Key highlight: HSV-1 infection proceeds differently in terminally-differentiated neuronal cells, than in their undifferentiated precursors. Congratulations Mackenzie, Colleen, & Chad!
– Mackenzie Shipley launched Virology@PSU for 2017-18, with a talk on our research collaboration with Dr. Christine Johnston (UW). Nice job, Mackenzie!
August 2017:
– Moriah gave a talk at the University of California Berkeley’s department of Plant & Microbial Biology. Thanks Britt Glaunsinger for an excellent visit!
July 2017:
– Moriah Szpara gave the Priscilla Schaffer Memorial Lecture at the International Herpesvirus Workshop (IHW) in Ghent, Belgium. Thanks to Herman Favoreel & Hans Nauwynck for organizing a great meeting! Moriah also organized a meeting on genomics methods, prior to the main meeting. Thank you to all the groups that participated in a very fruitful discussion.
– Christian Thomas from Dillard University completed a summer research project in the lab, working with mentorship from Utsav Pandey. His visit was sponsored by Penn State’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). Christian did a great job with his final presenation!
June 2017:
– Chad Kuny gave his first talk from new research in the Szpara lab, at the University of Pennsylvania’s 17th Annual Herpesvirus: Pathogenesis and Cancer Symposium. Way to go, Chad!
– The lab was represented at the ASM Microbe meeting in New Orleans, with posters presented by Utsav Pandey (grad student) & Kokila Shankar (senior undergraduate). Kokila participated in the Microbiology Academy for Professional Development (MAPD) Workshop at ASM, as part of her winning a 2016 ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
– The lab was represented at the 2017 American Society for Virology (ASV) meeting in Madison, WI, with a short talk by Mackenzie Shipley. Great job, Mackenzie!
May 2017:
– Moriah Szpara gave a talk at the Colorado Alphaherpesvirus Symposium (CALS).
– Our two senior undergraduates, Kokila Shankar & Chris Sharkey, have finished their Bachelor’s degrees! Kokila will be heading to graduate school and Chris to computational data science at Microsoft. Congratulations on your honors thesis Kokila (first in the lab!) and your computational manuscript draft Chris!
April 2017:
– Utsav Pandey did a great job with a full-length (45 min) seminar in BMB‘s 4th year graduate student seminar series. Kudos, Utsav!
– Moriah Szpara gave a talk at the University of Chicago interdisciplinary PhD program in Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology (GGSB).
– Chad Kuny did some great outreach at the “Ask a Scientist” table, as part of the Central PA People’s Climate Day. Thanks Chad!
March 2017:
– Moriah Szpara gave a talk at the 9th Workshop in Virus Evolution, on our collaboration with Nancy Sawtell (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital) & Rick Thompson (University of Cinncinnati), which also involves Utsav Pandey & Daniel Renner.
February 2017:
– Mackenzie Shipley did a great job with her full-length (45 min) seminar, as part of BMB‘s 4th year graduate student seminar series. Kudos, Mackenzie!
2016
December 2016:
– Molly Rathbun joins the lab as our newest graduate student, from the BMMB graduate program. Molly has a background in forensics. Congratulations to Molly for being selected for the CBIOS Training Grant program!
November 2016:
– Chris Bowen gave a talk on our lab’s collaboration with Lynda Morrison, at the Penn State Intercampus Virology (PSIV) meeting — great job, Chris!
– Our lab’s annual retreat took place at Bald Eagle State Park. It’s a beautiful setting to reflect on our science — past, present, and future!
August 2016:
– Utsav’s paper on the capture and comparison of herpesvirus genomes from dust and feather has been accepted at mSphere. Congratulations to Utsav, Daniel, Andy Bell, David Kennedy, and the team from the Read lab that contributed to this accomplishment!
– Colleen Mangold received a fellowship from the American Heart Association! She will be one of the Great Rivers Affiliate Winter 2016 Postdoctoral Fellows, with a two year award. Our colleagues Tony Huang, David Hughes, and Stephen Benkovic contributed to the process as co-sponsors. Congratulations Colleen!
– Chad Kuny joined the lab as a postdoc, bringing his expertise with beta-herpesviruses and more recently in RNA virology. Welcome Chad!
– Utsav gave a talk at the MCIBS and Pathobiology Summer Retreat, sharing his MDV genomics research with the new recruits.
July 2016:
– Moriah Szpara was an invited speaker at the FASEB meeting on “Virus Structure and Assembly” from July 24‐29, in Colorado. Kudos to our colleague Rebecca Craven for her part in co-organizing this meeting.
– Moriah Szpara presented Utsav’s research on MDV genome surveillance in the field, at the 11th International Symposium on Marek’s Disease and Avian Herpesviruses in France.
June 2016:
– Mackenzie Shipley presented a short talk on her new research on herpesvirus infection of human neurons at the University of Pennsylvania symposium entitled Herpesviruses: Pathogenesis and Cancer on June 24. This year’s symposium honored the career of our colleague Dr. Jim Alwine.
– Moriah Szpara presented a poster during the Viral Genomics and Evolution meeting at the Wellcome Genome Campus in the UK. Kudos to our colleague Judy Breuer for her role in co-organizing this.
May 2016:
– Moriah Szpara chaired the 35th Annual Summer Symposium in Molecular Biology at the University Park campus, on the topic of Living with our Viromes. Kudos to all the lab members who chaired sessions, presented posters, hosted speakers and attendees, and helped make this a great event! The symposium took place May 24-25, 2016.
– Congratulations to our undergraduate researcher Apoorva Talanki, on her recent graduation from Penn State!
– Moriah Szpara gave a talk about Mackenzie’s research at the Colorado Alphaherpesvirus Symposium (CALS).
April 2016:
– Congratulations to Kokila Shankar, on winning a 2016 ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship! This will support her summer research project, and attendance of the ASM Microbe meeting next year.
– Mackenzie Shipley presented her data on HSV infection of human neuronal cells at the April meeting of Virology@PSU.
February 2016:
– Our video protocol on achieving full neuronal differentiation of human SH-SY5Y cells was published in JoVE. Congrats to Mackenzie Shipley and Colleen Mangold on putting this together!
– Colleen Mangold presented on neuronal positioning via acoustofluidics at the February meeting of CMIND.
– Utsav Pandey presented a summary of our MDV genomics collaboration with Andrew Read’s lab for the January meeting of Virology@PSU.
January 2016:
– Mackenzie Shipley presented her data on HSV infection of human neuronal cells at CMIND.
2015
December 2015:
– Colleen Mangold gave an overview on her progress in acoustofluidics with Tony Huang’s lab for the December meeting of Virology@PSU.
– We made the first announcement of speakers for the “Living with our Viromes” symposium that Moriah Szpara is chairing, along with a team of co-conveners from Virology@PSU.
November 2015:
– Mackenzie Shipley gave her first ever hour-long seminar, in BMB‘s departmental graduate student seminar series. Well done!
– The lab enjoyed a great day of cross-campus virology at the 2nd Penn State Intercampus Virology (PSIV) meeting. Over 60 people from labs spanning the University Park and Hershey College of Medicine campuses gathered for a day of science, networking, and talks by trainees. Colleen Mangold launched the day with her talk on acoustofluidics.
– Congratulations to Kokila Shankar and Nathan Arnett, who each won a 2015-2016 Undergraduate Research Support Award from the Eberly College of Science!
October 2015:
– Colleen Mangold presented her work with Tony Huang’s lab with a poster at Neuroscience 2015, the 45th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
– Utsav Pandey gave his first ever full-length talk as a graduate student, in BMB‘s departmental graduate student seminar series. Nicely done!
– Moriah Szpara highlighted all the great virology action at Penn State (see: Virology@PSU) during a CIDD lunch with PSU President Eric Barron.
– Kokila Shankar & Chris Sharkey presented their research projects at the Fall 2015 Science Undergraduate Poster Exhibition.
September 2015:
– Utsav Pandey reprised his MDV talk at the 2015 Northeastern Conference on Avian Diseases (NECAD).
– Colleen Mangold gave a great talk on her work with Tony Huang’s lab at the annual retreat of Center for Molecular Investigation of Neurological Disorders (CMIND).
August 2015:
– Mackenzie Shipley successfully completed her comprehensive exam as a BMMB graduate student! Congratulations!
July 2015:
– Utsav Pandey, Mackenzie Shipley, Daniel Renner, & Moriah Szpara present new data at the International Herpesvirus Workshop (IHW) in Boise, ID. In addition to our four posters, Mackenzie’s abstract was selected for a travel award, and Utsav gave a talk in the Veterinary Herpesvirus Satellite Workshop.
– Utsav Pandey successfully completed his comprehensive exam as a BMMB graduate student! Congratulations!
– Chris Bowen and Moriah Szpara present talks at the American Society for Virology (ASV) meeting in London, ON, Canada.
June 2015:
– Utsav Pandey and Mackenzie Shipley give talks at the inaugural PSU Intercampus Virology meeting, at the Penn State Hershey campus. Nicely done! The meeting on June 9 was organized by our colleagues John Wills & Becky Craven. The next one will be in November 2016 at the University Park campus.
– Mackenzie Shipley wins the department’s Paul M. Althouse Outstanding TA Award this year! This was based on her efforts in Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 in the “Protein Purification & Enzymology” lab.
– Utsav Pandey gives his first public research talk at a University of Pennsylvania symposium entitled Herpesviruses: Pathogenesis and Cancer on June 2. This year’s symposium honored the career of our colleague Dr. Nigel Fraser.
– Our lab’s annual retreat was held at Bald Eagle State Park. We enjoyed reflecting on our science plans and recent events.
– Welcome to our newest undergraduate members of the lab: Kokila Shankar & Apoorva Talanki!
May 2015:
– Congrats to Colleen Mangold for winning a Huck Biotechnology Mini-grant, which will fund her confocal microscopy work at the Huck Microscopy & Cytometry Core Facility.
– Moriah Szpara gives a talk at the Colorado Alphaherpesvirus Symposium (CALS).
– Daniel Renner gives a poster on VirAmp at the Great Lakes’ (GLBIO) meeting of the International Society for Computational Biology, at Purdue University.
– Congrats to our undergrads Nathan Arnett & Chris Sharkey on landing great summer interships. Nathan will be at the University of Pittsburgh Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), and Chris has an internship at Humana.
April 2015:
– VirAmp is published — our first web-based tool for virus assembly. Congrats Yinan & Daniel!
March 2015:
– Moriah Szpara gave a talk at the 8th Workshop in Virus Evolution.
– Our latest research is published in mBio — a lovely story about sister clones of various HSV strains. The early stages of this project involved Lance Parsons and Yoly Tafuri, in Lynn Enquist’s lab at Princeton. The research was brought to fruition with the help of several members of the new team at PSU — Jacob Shreve, Chris Bowen & Mackenzie Shipley. Nice teamwork!
– Congratulations to Mackenzie Shipley, on receiving an abstract award for the International Herpesvirus Workshop in July 2015.
January 2015:
– Utsav Pandey and Mackenzie Shipley advance to PhD candidacy in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology graduate program. Congratulations!
– Moriah Szpara & Craig Cameron co-teach MICRB 415, also known as General Virology, this semester.
2014
December 2014:
– Utsav Pandey presents a talk for Virology@PSU.
November 2014:
– Utsav Pandey and Mackenzie Shipley pass their candidacy exams in the Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology graduate program.
– The lab’s “case study” video goes live, as part of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled: Epidemics – the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases.
October 2014:
– Daniel Renner joins the lab as a computational scientist & bioinformatics specialist. Welcome Daniel!
– Nathan Arnett wins a 2014-2015 ECoS Undergraduate Research Support Award.
September 2014:
– Yinan Wan, our collaborator in Istvan Albert’s group, completes the oral defense of her master’s thesis.
– Mackenzie Shipley presents a talk for Virology@PSU.
August 2014:
– Colleen Mangold joins the lab as a postdoctoral researcher, brining her expertise in neurobiology, aging, and pharmacology. Welcome Colleen!
July 2014:
– Moriah & Chris Bowen present a poster at the 39th Annual International Herpesvirus Workshop (IHW) in Japan.
– Jacob Shreve becomes our first lab alum, as he leaves to attend medical school at Indiana University School of Medicine.
June 2014:
– Moriah presents the lab’s current research at the University of Pennsylvania symposium, “Herpesviruses: Pathogenesis & Cancer“
May 2014:
– Chris Sharkey wins an Undergraduate Summer Discovery Grant for his summer research project in the lab.
March 2014:
– Our lab’s first-ever annual retreat took place at the Nature Inn at Bald Eagle State Park. We discussed our progress in the first year of the lab and shared our goals for the future. Thank you everyone for giving this a go!
February 2014:
– Moriah and other health researchers at Penn State build bridges with Penn State’s new visualization wall.
– PSU News carries Huck Institutes Seth Palmer’s article about our recent publication in the Journal of Virology.
January 2014:
– Chuck Grose comments in Journal of Virology about our recent paper. He begins, “An unintended consequence of phylogenetics is that it provides answers to questions that investigators were unaware they needed to ask.…”
2013
December 2013:
– Utsav Pandey & Mackenzie Shipley join the lab as BMMB Graduate Students. Welcome Mackenzie & Utsav!
November 2013:
– Latest publication: “Evolution and Diversity in Human Herpes Simplex Virus Genomes” goes online at Journal of Virology.
– Jacob Shreve joins the lab as Computational Scientist and bioinformatics specialist. Welcome Jacob!
July 2013:
– Huck Institutes writer Seth Palmer profiles Szpara Lab research.
June 2013:
– Chris Bowen joins the lab as Research Technologist and lab manager. Welcome Chris!
March 2013:
– Beginning of the Szpara Lab at PSU