Current News

December 2011 Graduation!
Congratulations to Jonathan Gravgaard on graduating with his Masters of Science degree in the Microbiology Program!
Jonathan conducted research into the interactions of mosquito larvae with bacterial biofilms. His research generated two publications and are listed on the publications page of the website.

Publication!
Congrats to several members of the McNealy lab who contributed to our latest publication "Larval Exposure to Francisella tularensis LVS affects fitness of the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus" in FEMS Microbial Ecology!
Great job by Uma Mahajan, Jon Gravgaard and David Jacobs for making this happen.

Spring Branch Meeting of SC-ASM a roaring success!

Our spring branch meeting, held at Clemson, was a huge success with the largest number of attendees in recent history - 89! Everyone from the McNealy lab participated (as well as played a huge role in making the whole thing happen)! Congrats to Tara Raftery for her award in the Grad Student Poster Presentation competition.

Next Meeting will be in the Fall in Columbia! See you there.

Congrats!
Congratulations to Brittany and Heidi for receiving grants from the Calhoun Honor's College! These research grants will continue to fund their research through this semester!

SAVE THE DATE!
April 1-2, 2011 will the the Spring Meeting of the SC Branch of the ASM
Dr. Millicent Goldschmidt from University of Texas Medical School at Houston will be delivering our Keynote Lecture.
For more information see our Branch website or find us on Facebook (search SC ASM)

Published!
Congrats to Amber and Tara for their excellent contributions to our latest publication in Nanotoxicology! Thanks also to the undergraduate researchers that have helped out on the project. Marie Capelle, Luke Bury, Heidi Lindler and Chrisse Schalkoff. Well done!

Published!
Congratulations to Jon for our successful publication in Florida Entomologist!

Fall 2010 SC Branch ASM Meeting
  As usual the lab was well represented at the Fall Branch Meeting at USC-Aiken. The entire lab was able to attend and Jon, Uma, Tara and Heidi were selected to give oral presentations.
Congratulations to Jon, Uma and Heidi - Award winners at the Fall 2010 SC Branch ASM Meeting!

Next meeting - April 1-2, 2011 at Clemson!

May 2010 ASM General Meeting - San Diego, CA
Uma presented a poster on her research - Mosquito larvae interactions with F. tularensis biofilms - at the National ASM Meeting in San Diego. There was also a visit to the zoo involved.

SC Branch ASM Meeting - April 2010
The McNealy lab was well represented at the Spring Branch Meeting. Posters were presented by Uma, Jon and Tara as well as by undergrad Rebecca and high school student Chrissie. The judges were interested and impressed by the work being done by these talented students. Everyone also enjoyed a great tour of the NOAA and Hollings Marine Labs and Facilities.

ASM Annual Biodefense Meeting, Baltimore, MD Feb 21-23 2010
An abstract from the lab was selected for oral presentation at the Biodefense meeting in February. Dr. McNealy will be traveling to Baltimore to present the latest results from our investigations on F. tularensis and mosquito interactions.

Dr. McNealy recently returned from an extended travel thorough Europe. She presented the lab's research at two conferences:
The 2009 International Tularemia Meeting in Berlin, Germany and The 2009 Legionella Conference at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. The work was very well received in both venues. Congrats to all members of the lab who were part of this effort.

 

Conference Presentations!
The lab had a busy day on April 4th - students presenting at two different conferences! Ashley presented her work at the HHMI sponsored SC Life Symposium and Zack, Luke, Marie and Uma presented theirs at the SC Branch ASM Meeting. A very successful weekend was had by all. Check out the photos of the presentations in the photo album under this tab!

ASM 2008. David and Tim and Dr. McNealy will be traveling to Boston the first week of June for the American Society of Microbiology General Meeting. David and Tim will present a poster of their work on Francisella biofilms. Watch for pictures here after the meeting.
*Update* ASM 2008 was a success. David and Tim had lots of visitors and very positive feedbak during the poster presentation! See our photos page for pictures at the poster session and more.

Graduation 2008. one of our lab members is moving on - Tim Furphy graduated on May 9th with degree in Microbiology. He was also awarded the Departmental Faculty Award for Microbiology Seniors - this awarded is given to a senior microbiology student nominated by the faculty who has been exceptional in research and classwork. Tim will begin a Masters in Public Health program in Pittsburgh in August. Congrats Tim!

 

SC Life - April 2008. David and Daniel presented research at the annual SC Life meeting in Columbia in April. Both the oral presentations and posters generated pleny of interest. It was a strong ending to a successful year of research

November 7, 2007

New Creative Inquiry Opportunity!

Biofilms and Nanoparticles

Join in the project to investigate the meeting of two hot fields in science. Whether your interests lie in microbiology, ecology, physics or engineering there will be something in this project for you!

Interested students should contact one of the instructors listed below for more information:
Dr. Mike Henson: hhenson@clemson.edu
Dr. Tamara McNealy: tmcneal@clemson.edu
Dr. Steve Klaine: sklaine@clemson.edu

Both David and Daniel have been awarded the chance to participate in the SC Life Undergraduate Program. This award will allow both to participate in a workshop to develop their presentation skills and another weekend to present their work in front of their peers. We look forward to good things out of both research projects.

HHMI International Research Experience

January 2007
David was recently awarded the SC Life HHMI International Research Experience Grant. The grant will allow David to travel to Croatia this summer and spend 6 weeks working in the lab of Dr. Marina Santic at the University of Rijeka. She also works on the bacteria Francisella tularensis as the McNealy lab does - but Dr. Santic concentrates her work on unraveling the mechanisms of cell death including apoptosis, pyroptosis and autophagy. David will benefit from the Santic lab expertise in confocal laser scanning and electron microscopy in dissecting various aspects of manipulations of the cell by F. tularensis. Congratulations David!"