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2013 Commencement

Congratulations to all of our recent graduates!

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News

April 19, 2013 - Michael P. Nusbaum, PhD, appointed Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Director of BGS

Dr. Nusbaum We are pleased to announce the appointment of Michael P. Nusbaum, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience, as Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Director of Biomedical Graduate Studies, effective immediately.

Dr. Nusbaum is an exceptional choice for this critically important leadership role. After receiving a BA in history from SUNY Buffalo, Dr. Nusbaum received a BA magna cum laude in biology from University of Colorado, Boulder, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University with Dr. Eve Marder. He first joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor and then in 1994, he joined the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. He was promoted to full professor in 2003.

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JULY 26, 2013 - Evolution on the Inside Track: Penn Study Shows How Viruses in Gut Bacteria Change Over Time

Humans are far more than merely the sum total of all the cells that form the organs and tissues. The digestive tract is also home to a vast colony of bacteria of all varieties, as well as the myriad viruses that prey upon them. Because the types of bacteria carried inside the body vary from person to person, so does this viral population, known as the virome.

Phylogenetic tree of microphages detected in PNAS study and other studies. The four microphage contigs with the highest substitution rates observed in the PNAS study are shown in large black lettering. The scale bar indicates the proportion of amino acid substitutions within the 919 amino acid major coat protein, which was aligned to make the tree.

Credit: Frederick Bushman, PhD

By closely following and analyzing the virome of one individual over two-and-a-half years, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, led by professor of Microbiology Frederic D. Bushman, Ph.D., have uncovered some important new insights on how a viral population can change and evolve – and why the virome of one person can vary so greatly from that of another. The evolution and variety of the virome can affect susceptibility and resistance to disease among individuals, along with variable effectiveness of drugs.

Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Most of the virome consists of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria rather than directly attacking their human hosts. However, the changes that bacteriophages wreak upon bacteria can also ultimately affect humans.

“Bacterial viruses are predators on bacteria, so they mold their populations,” says Bushman. “Bacterial viruses also transport genes for toxins, virulence factors that modify the phenotype of their bacterial host.” In this way, an innocent, benign bacterium living inside the body can be transformed by an invading virus into a dangerous threat.

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