News

Undergraduate researcher Mary Erdmann won multiple awards in spring 2022. She was first selected by the CAS Student Council as the departmental Outstanding Senior. Then she was selected as a 2022-2023 Niblack Scholar. She is also the recipient of the Sandra Trennepohl Women for OSU Endowed Scholarship. Mary, we are so proud of your achievements!

Recent graduates Nina Baggett and Adam Bronson are co-first authors on new work describing a non-traditional pathway for the production of pyocins--phage tail-like antibacterial complexes--by P. aeruginosa. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that a deficiency in or absence of a recombinase proteins called XerC causes very high pyocin production, but not via the usual mechanism. The results of the study have implications for antibiotic therapy. The work is published in mBio.

Graduate student Somalisa Pan passed her qualifying exam and advanced to formal PhD candidacy on September 9, 2021. She joins her fellow PhD candidates Rabi Khadka (August 9, 2021), Chris Hamm (May 28, 2021), and Amal Yahya (September 9, 2020), and at the moment all of the graduate students in the lab are now PhD candidates. Congratulations, crew!

The Cabeen lab was awarded an approximately $150,000 equipment supplement by the NIH to outfit a newly acquired inverted fluorescence microscope for sensitive fluorescence measurements, including a laser for fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP). FRAP can be used to detect the motion of molecules within living cells and derive diffusion rates and other kinetic data. This new equipment will help keep our work at the cutting edge of bacterial cell biology and genetics.

PhD student Chris Hamm and AMS student Sarah Winburn collaborated to publish "Using Fluorescence in Biotechnology Instruction to Visualize Antibiotic Resistance & DNA" in The American Biology Teacher. (Find a link to the paper in our Publications.) The paper describes a low-cost apparatus to image fluorescent bacterial colonies using a smartphone camera. The apparatus, which is based on police-grade portable flashlights, can also be used for DNA gel imaging. Congratulations Chris and Sarah!

After an internal competition, Dr. Cabeen was selected as OSU's first-ever institutional nominee for the prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholars program. Invited institutions are allowed to nominate one junior faculty member for the nationwide selection process.

Professor Cabeen received the University-wide OSU Excellence in Advising Award from the Provost in Spring 2021 to recognize his commitment to undergraduate and graduate advising.

Recent graduate Nina Baggett, who is staying an extra semester following her Dec. 2021 graduation before heading off to graduate school, was awarded 1st place among undergraduate oral presentations at the 2021 MMG Departmental Symposium on April 23. Nina's presentation was titled "An Alternative Pathway for Strong Pyocin Expression in P. aeruginosa". Congratulations Nina!

Professor Cabeen received the Golden Torch Award from the OSU Mortar Board on March 28. The award recognizes outstanding faculty members who have made significant contributions toward the success of students and is given annually to one faculty member from each College at OSU.