THE
Argo
Official Quarterly Newsletter of the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology
at The University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Spring 2021 Volume 1, Issue 3
Who is new in the MGM labs?
Special Report: How six trainees from MGM are helping to keep us safe during the COVID-19 pandemic
Research Highlight: Lucie Jelinkova, a graduate student in Bryce Chackerian’s lab is the first author of a recently published paper in NPJ Vaccines
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Administration Spotlight: Meet new accountant, Melissa Ebode
The Argo, MGM Quarterly Newsletter, Spring 2021
Welcome to the spring 2021 edition of The Argo, the official newsletter of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology (MGM) at The University of New Mexico School of Medicine. In this issue we report about our usual standing items, including research highlights, teaching activities, new personnel and news at AIM. We also have a special report about MGM members who helped with Covid testing and are excited to share insights from Mike Mandell about his work as co-chair of the UME Microbiology block. The Argo hopes that these virtual conversations will serve as some surrogate for the lack of real-time chats in the lab environment. If you cannot find your most recent news item in this issue, it means you have not reported it to The Argo. Please contact pmrass@salud.unm.edu so that The Argo can cover this news item in the next issue!
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Breaking News: Amanda Collar won the SHEroes Award!
AIM Core Newsletter: MGM is the home of a CoBRE P20 center. Check out all of the latest news from this important resource.
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inside
Insights on Education: A Conversation with Michael Mandell
Driving the Mission: Explore the specific roles and teaching contributions MGM makes to the School of Medicine
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Paulus Mrass, MD - guest editor
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Six trainees from MGM, Alex Fowler, Ashvini Vaidya, Lucie Jelinkova (Chackerian lab), Amanda Collar (Frietze lab), Nicole Maphis (Bhaskar lab) and Adrian Luna (Ozbun lab) have contributed to COVID-19 testing in NM. The Argo wanted to learn more about this and asked the volunteers about their motivations and experiences. Due to space restrictions The Argo took the liberty to reformat the answers for brevity.
Special Report:
How six MGM trainees help to keep us safe during the COVID-19 pandemic
Q: How did you hear about the opportunity to help with covid testing during the pandemic? A: Lucie Jelinkova: "Dr. Elizabeth Clarke (a post-doc in Steven Bradfute’s lab) organized a group of potential volunteers to help out with covid testing." Alex Fowler: "Apparently TriCore gave that list of contacts to NM Department of Health (DOH) because they were really struggling with testing due to lack of people. TriCore had enough people, just not enough reagents at the time." Q: What motivated you to participate and when did your work start? A: Alex Fowler: "I wanted to help the state of NM during this pandemic. I think every scientist (or anyone really) wanted to help in some way. We started the second week of May 2020." Ashvini Vaidya: "Frankly I was becoming a little stir-crazy staying at home and wanted to be back in a lab. What motivated me to stay on was the thought that I was making a difference and contributing to something bigger than myself." Q: What exactly were you doing? A: Nicole Maphis: "At the beginning we were just helping Virology/Serology receive, sticker, sort, and split the viral samples into smaller/cleaner tubes. After only a week and a half, Molecular Biology hand-picked four of us to work in their section. We performed RNA extraction and Covid-19 PCR. Sometimes I would run 25+ PCRs in a night." Q: How much time did you spend for this? A: Alex Fowler: "At the beginning 20-30 hour/week. Then hours were cut back due to the HSC opening back up and devoting time to my research." Q: How did friends and facility respond when you told them you were involved in this? A: Alex Fowler: "Thought it was a good opportunity. Proud." Q: Did you get any insights into how the generated data helped control the pandemic? Do you think your work might have helped save lives by reducing spread, e.g. by contact tracing? A: Amanda Collar: "I know the Governor used testing data to help drive her response to the pandemic (i.e. closures, etc). The actual employees of the DOH were extremely grateful when we were hired because we gave them much needed relief, allowing them to work less hours than before (though, they were still working more than 40 hours/week baseline)." Q: How would you summarize the impact of this work on yourself? Was it a rewarding experience? A: Amanda Collar: "I found value in the work I was doing during a time that I otherwise felt helpless. I'm proud to have helped NM with the pandemic response." Lucie Jelinkova: "I was happy to have something to contribute during a stressful time during the pandemic. We also continually heard from other DOH personnel that we were very helpful to them." Nicole Maphis: "This job kept me motivated and focused. It gave me a sense of purpose." Ashvini Vaidya: "I think the most impactful part was filing through patient information sheets and realizing that all of the numbers being broadcast on the TV every day were human beings, real people, having to suffer through a horrible illness with no cure." Alex Fowler: "I feel lucky to have been able to help the scientists at DOH during a pandemic. Hopefully more money will go to state labs to help during a pandemic like this."
Amanda Collar, Alexandra Fowler, Nicole Maphis and Lucie Jelinkova after receiving the well-deserved COVID-19 vaccine.
The Argo reported already in recent issues of how much MGM contributes to teaching at UNM. Judy Cannon, Education Chief at MGM, kindly provided The Argo with the specific roles of our faculty. This is another attestation of the dedication of MGM to teaching at UNM.
Special Report - continued from page 2
Teaching of medical students (UME Phase I) Mike Mandell and Judy Cannon: Co-Block chairs of UME Phase I Microbiology Immunology Block Kathryn Frietze: Friday CBL coordinator Lecturers: Bryce Chackerian, Kathryn Frietze, Bob Rubin CBL facilitators: Vojo Deretic, Bryce Chackerian, Dave Peabody, Bob Rubin, Mike Mandell, Kathryn Frietze, Judy Cannon, Alison Kell, Jing Pu, Xuexian Yang, Paul Mrass, Suresh Kumar, Jingyue Casano, Kiran Bhaskar, Amanda Collar Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BSGP) Kiran Bhaskar: Course director Biomed 525 and 530 Xuexian Yang: Co course director Biomed 514 Alison Kell: Course director Virology Journal Club Paul Mrass: Course director Immunology Journal Club Mike Mandell: Course director for grant writing course for PHD students Lecturers: Judy Cannon (Biomed 508 and 514); Jing Pu (Biomed 508) Bob Rubin (Biomed 514); Bryce Chackerian (Biomed 514); Paul Mrass (Biomed 514) Here are some comments that have been made about our faculty in their teaching roles: "Instructor was very engaging†"I learned a lot about infection and immunology†"Instructor is incredible...devoted and compassionateâ€
DRIVING THE MISSION: MGM Teaching Contributions
Mike Mandell staying afloat during the M & I block
Insights on Education
A Conversation with Michael Mandell The Argo wanted to obtain a more specific understanding of the effort that goes into these teaching activities. Mike Mandell shared his insights on co-chairing (together with Judy Cannon) the UME Phase I Microbiology Immunology (M&I) block. Q: Can you briefly describe what UME Phase I is about? Who are the students? What is the general goal of this education activity? A: "In four weeks, the M&I block covers roughly one semester of undergraduate immunology and provides an introduction to major causes of infectious disease (bacteria, viruses, and protozoa). We teach ~100 medical students and ~20 physician assistant students. The goal is to give these first years students a solid foundation of knowledge in microbiology and immunology to allow them to scaffold on additional learning in subsequent organ specific blocks and in the infectious disease block." Q: How were you selected to be chair? A: "I expressed an interest in gaining teaching experience and have training in microbiology. I had been working for several years in the Infectious Disease block prior to the creation of the M&I block." Q: What exactly are the responsibilities as a chair? A: "Block chairs are responsible for delivering content that will prepare medical students for the USMLE exam which they take after their second year of medical school. We collaborate with other block chairs to ensure that both gaps in learning and redundancies are minimized. We work to ensure that teaching methods encouraged by the SOM (e.g active learning, peer instruction, etc) are employed. We solicit student feedback and work to continuously improve our teaching." Q: Can you tell us how COVID-19 impacted preparation for this block? A: "This is my second year as co-block chair. Covid forced all content delivery online and really made us re-think and re-do everything from previous years." Q: As far as I know MGM has a long history in this course. Can you tell us more about it? A: "The M&I block is two years old in its current manifestation. But MGM has been running the immunology block in one incarnation or another for a long time with Drs. Chackerian and Mold being previous block chairs." Q: How much effort is this course from your side? A: "The block is pretty much a full time job from New Year to Valentine's Day." Q: Can you tell us more about case-based learning to which all MGM faculty contributed? A: "The weekly case-based learning (CBL) sessions are a very important and well received part of the class. The CBL sessions allow for deeper learning and help the students put important concepts together as preparation for the quizzes. Judy and I are super-appreciative of all of the faculty support that we receive for the CBLs. For the last two years, Kathryn Frietze has worked to revamp the cases that we use. This year, she had to completely reformat the CBL activity to fit in with the Zoom environment. Judy and I received multiple compliments about the CBLs not just because they helped the students learn but because they became an important way for the students to feel connected with each other and have small group personal interactions with faculty."
Research Highlight Lucie Jelinkova, a graduate student in Bryce Chackerian’s lab is the first author of a recently published paper in NPJ Vaccines. Her work is a significant advancement towards the establishment of an effective vaccine for malaria. Vaccines for malaria do exist but they are either ineffective or expensive and have to be stored at low temperatures. Therefore they are impractical for use in poor, rural regions. To overcome this problem, Jelinkova has focused on developing a malaria vaccine, based on virus-like particles (VLPs), a major area of expertise in the Chackerian lab. VLPs were chosen for this task because they are typically inexpensive and stable. Jelinkova successfully used this platform to establish a vaccine that targets the circumsporozoite protein. In mice models of malaria this led to a 90% reduction of plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria. The next goal will be to make this vaccine more effective by targeting additional molecules. If successful, this could set the stage for an affordable and effective malaria vaccine for humans.
Administration Spotlight Melissa Ebode has joined MGM January 4 as an accountant. Melissa grew up in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Africa. Her first language is French as one of Cameroon’s 2 official languages, the other is English. This is similar to Canada except the majority in Cameroon speaks French. Five years ago, she moved to the United States as an International Student. Before joining MGM, Melissa worked at the Global Education Office as an International Advisor Assistant. Melissa has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and is now working towards MBA and MIS degrees. She really loves numbers, which is a perfect fit for the accountant position. Welcome, Melissa!
Bryce Chackerian (right) and Lucie Jelinkova consult in the lab.
All new hires should contact The Argo with details about their personal background so that we can introduce you to the MGM community!
Nikhet Chowdhury recharging outdoors.
Breaking News!
Who is new in the labs at MGM?
Kiran Bhaskar’s lab Somayeh Dadras - BSGP graduate student doing her
 Masters’ thesis work. Tram Anh N Le - Research Technician Jing Pu’s lab Cristian Garza - Research Assistant. Nikhet Chowdhury - Nikhet Chowdhury joined the Pu Lab in November 2020 as a PREP Scholar. She is a participant in the UNM-PREP program, an NIH-sponsored post-baccalaureate program. She joined the Pu Lab to gain lab experience in preparation for graduate school and is working on a project investigating the role and expression of lysosomal proteins pertinent to cholesterol trafficking. Nikhet was born in Bangladesh and raised in New York City. She received her BA, majoring in Natural science and minoring in philosophy, from Fordham University in New York. After finishing college, she worked for a couple years before moving to Estonia, where she lived and studied at the University of Tartu for some time, before returning to the United States. Nikhet is preparing for graduate school, aiming for a PhD in Immunology. She hopes to one day work in the medical industry designing new therapeutic approaches for diseases.
Amanda Collar won the SHEroes Award! Amanda Collar, a Combined MD/PhD student in Kathryn Frietze’s lab (MGM) won the prestigious SHEroes Award (Learners category). Four members of the UNM Health Sciences community were recognized this week as 2021 SHEroes, recipients of a leadership award sponsored by the HSC Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in recognition of Women’s History Month. The awardees are selected on the basis of demonstrated leadership, benefit to the UNM HSC and the community and history of support for women’s issues. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are at the heart of MGM’s mission. This important topic will be covered in more depth in future issues of The Argo.
We want to share your stories. Please contact pmrass@salud.unm.edu so that The Argo can cover this news item in the next issue!
Keep sailing to the
 AIM Core Newsletter
 on the following pages.