Carleen Collins, Ph.D. (1955-2008)
Carleen M. Collins, Ph.D., prominent microbiologist and expert in microbial pathogenesis, passed away in February 2008. This is an annual series presented in honor of her memory and accomplishments.
Carleen grew up in Woodland Hills, CA and graduated from Louisville High School in 1973. She received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology from UCLA, followed by postdoctoral training with Stanley Falkow at Stanford University School of Medicine. As a Fulbright Scholar, Carleen studied at the University of Umea, Sweden. She rose to full professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine where she taught and established her microbiology research laboratory. In 2002, Carleen moved to Seattle, WA, and joined the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington.
Carleen's balance between humanity and scientific excellence was an inspiration to all, but especially graduate students and postdoctoral trainees.
The 2020 Lecture will be given by Dr Nina Salama (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center) on 13 October via Zoom.
"Beyond mutation: bacterial carcinogenesis through niche remodeling"
Chronic Helicobacter pylori infection represents the major risk factor for stomach cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death globally. Yet most infected individuals remain asymptomatic, suggesting a more symbiotic relationship of this obligate human stomach microbiome constituent. I will discuss recent murine model studies exploring how H. pylori remodels the stomach tissue environment to simultaneously promote long term bacterial persistence and preneoplastic progression. A second set of experiments investigates the selective pressures on H. pylori imposed by the changing tissue environment revealed through whole genome analysis and extensive phenotyping of a culture collection from a single individual that progressed from duodenal ulcer disease to chronic atrophic gastritis over a 6 year period.
Previous Carleen Collins Lectures
2009 Salmonella as an emerging infection-watching evolution in action
Stanley Falkow, Ph.D., Stanford University
2010 An ode to diphtheria toxin
John Collier, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School
2011 Expanding the ADP-Ribosyltransferase Paradigm
Craig Roy, Ph.D., Yale University School of Medicine
2012 New concepts in host-pathogen interactions: Lessons from Listeria
Pascal Cossart, Ph.D., The Pasteur Institute
2013 Bacterial manipulations of host protein stability are required for growth
Michael Starnbach, Ph.D, Harvard Medical School
2014 Microbial Community Behavior During Growth in Deep Tissue Sites
Ralph Isberg, Ph.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Tufts University School of Medicine
2015 Genome-wide fitness profiling Pseudomonas aeruginosa – too many surprises, many questions and few answers
Stephen Lory, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School
2016 How Listeria monocytogenes avoids, manipulates and exploits host cell biological processes to promote its intracellular growth
Daniel Portnoy, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
2017 Role of the Microbiota in Asthma and Malnutrition
B. Brett Finlay, OC, OBC, FRSC, FCAHS, UBC Peter Wall Distinguished Professor, CIFAR Senior Fellow, Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia
2018 Lessons for Tuberculosis Treatment from the Zebrafish
Lalita Ramakrishnan, PhD, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, University of Cambridge
2019 Vibrio cholerae in vivo biology: microbial antagonism, cGAS-like enzymes, and cholera toxin-mediated remodeling of host
metabolism
John Mekalanos, PhD, Harvard Medical School