Toxicology Seminar with Dr. Edward Miao

Talk Title: “Exploding cells by proptosis to eradicate intracellular infection”

Bio: Dr. Edward Miao’s MD/PhD degree program, focusing my clinical electives on infectious disease and immunology. Although he did not pursue a residency, his MD training has instructed the trajectory of his research program. Dr. Miao has a broad whole-body foundation of anatomy and physiology that allows him to be facile in moving into new research areas. For example: 1) a knowledge of clinical sepsis facilitated his studies of in vivo LPS shock; 2) a prior exposure to chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) inspired his move to study CGD pathogens; and 3) understanding liver histologic anatomy facilitated his study of liver infection. Dr. Miao’s lab now broadly studies programmed cell death as a defense against infection. Infectious diseases were the primary selective pressures that drove evolution of the immune system. His lab propose that infectious diseases therefore also shaped the evolution of programmed cell death (PCD) pathways. Therefore, they are assembling a powerful compendium of infectious agents as immunologic probes to study the function of PCD in vivo. Dr. Miao’s lab discovered ubiquitous environmental pathogens that are eliminated by PCD so efficiently that they never infect immunocompetent hosts (Burkholderia thailandensis and Chromobacterium violaceum). In contrast, bona fide pathogens (e.g. Salmonella and Listeria) typically evolved to evade PCD defenses, enabling them to cause disease in immunocompetent people. By comparing bona fide pathogens to environmental pathogens, they are elucidating the evolutionary importance of PCD as an immunologic defense.

Held in person in the Toxicology Auditorium 2104 and via Zoom. 

Zoom Link: https://ncsu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUod-upqz0tHdTbnKxKKRag6nt9Syw2D4p6