Roy Curtiss III, Ph.D., 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the American Society of Microbiology, will present the 2016 Bertram M. Marx Lecture hosted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Microbiology on Tuesday, March 15.
Professor of infectious diseases and pathology at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Curtiss lectures on “Inducing mucosal immunity – historical past and the present using salmonella as our friend.”
Curtiss’ current research focuses on the design, construction and evaluation of vaccines to elicit protective host immune responses in agriculturally important animals and in humans, mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis, and host immune responses to infections and vaccines.
Recently, he published a paper for the National Center for Biotechnology Information titled “Generation of influenza virus from avian cells infected by Salmonella carrying the viral genome” and is currently developing technology for vaccines to control salmonella.
He received the first U.S. patent issued for a genetically modified microorganism (c1776) while at UAB. He also holds the first patent on genetically engineered attenuated bacteria to deliver protective antigens as vaccines to prevent infectious diseases, which was invented at UAB. He holds the first patents with Guy Cardineau, a UAB molecular and cellular biology graduate, on genetically modified plants expressing pathogen-derived protective antigens as vaccines against bacterial and viral pathogens.
The lecture is noon, Tuesday, March 15, at Volker Hall, Lecture Room B, 1670 University Blvd. A reception will follow at the Lister Hill Library, Edge of Chaos, 1700 University Blvd.
The Bertram M. Marx Lectureship began in 1985 supporting annual visits to the UAB campus by scientists noted for their work examining the basic biology of cancer as well as the impact of infection, inflammation and immune regulation on the development and progression of cancer and other chronic diseases.