Issue 4, May 2012

Quarterly Newsletter of the Belgian Society for Microbiology Issue no. 4, May 2012 Contents

Welcome by the president of BSM Page 1 Membership Page 2 News from FEMS Page 2 Annual BSM Symposium Page 3 Future microbiology meetings Page 4 BSM’s Minisymposium on Metaproteogenomics Page 5 A Belgian penicillin production plant in the 1940s and 1950s: an achievement with long-term consequences Page 6 Eurobiofilms 2013 Page 11 PhD Corner Page 12 Composition of the BSM board Page 14 Call for contributions Page 14

Welcome

Here is the new issue of the BSM Newsletter! It is meant as a link between BSM and its members, and aims (among other things), to inform you about BSM, its activities and activities of Society members as well as some interesting data and history. I hope you take some time to read the Newsletter, which in this issue informs about two new activities BSM will organize in 2012, free of charge for the BSM members. More information about membership can be found on page 2.

On 25 September, a half-day meeting “Functional analysis of microbial communities and consortia without cultivation“ will highlight the strength of the state-of-the-art technology to get more insight in the microbial diversity, and how this can exploited for pure and applied microbiology. Four international experts will explain the available methods and illustrate the potential of this approach. More about the program can be found further in the Newsletter (page 5).

On 30 November 30, the annual BSM symposium will take place. These meetings attrack yearly between 160 and 200 microbiologists. This year’s meeting is about “Posttranscriptional regulation and epigenetics in microorganisms”, a topic that recently gained much attention. Since the discovery of small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs), the traditional role of RNA has to be reconsidered. sRNAs can play an important role in the control of biological functions such as for the regulation of gene expression, gene silencing, stress response and apoptosis both in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. The meeting will give an overview of what is known about these sRNAs in bacteria and viruses, their importance in regulation and pathogenesis. For the program, see further in this issue. This meeting gives also the opportunity for poster presentations and short oral commincations for junior researchers. In addition, the best posters will be awarded with a valuable BSM poster prize. For the full program, see page 3.

Block 25 September and 30 November already in your agenda. In each case, the meeting place is the Academy Palace, Brussels, easily reachable by public transport. Hopefully, I will meet you in Brussels!

Jozef Anné, President BSM Membership News from FEMS

Historically membership of BSM has been linked to the attendance of the yearly BSM symposium : the registration fee for the symposium was at the same time the membership or vice versa. For practical reasons, this has been uncoupled since last year, and FEMS is the Federation of European therefore we urge you to pay your Microbiological Societies, and its membership fee before 1 July 2012. main mission is to advance and unify microbiology knowledge. Members who pay their fee before FEMS brings together 46 member 01/07/2012 pay €25 and will get free societies from 36 European access to the annual symposium, other countries, covering over 30000 BSM organized events and can get microbiologists. Belgium is sometimes reduction for events represented in FEMS by BSM, and sponsored by BSM. Later payments for symposium pre-registration or for our FEMS delegate is Jozef Anné. membership will cost €30. On-site When member for at least 2 years registration fee will be €35. of FEMS Member Societies can apply for research fellowships, an To renew your membership please visit advanced fellowship (new as of the BSM website 2006) and/or support when (www.belsocmicrobio.be). organizing a meeting. These benefits are restricted to members An invitation to pay your membership of FEMS societies only. For more fee will soon be sent by email. information, go to the FEMS website (http://www.fems- microbiology.org). Every other year FEMS organises the Congress of European Microbiologists – the 5th edition2 will be in Leipzig in July 2013. ANNUAL BSM SYMPOSIUM Friday 30 November 2012 ; Academy Palace, Brussels “Posttranscriptional regulation and epigenetics in microorganisms”

Preliminary program Morning Session Schedule Title Speaker Chair session 08.00 - 09.00 u Registration 09.00 - 09.10 u Welcome Prof. J. Anné, KU Leuven

09.10 - 09.55 u New mechanisms of gene activation Prof. Jörg Vogel, Institute Prof. J. Vanderleyden, by small RNAs Molecular Infection Biology, KU Leuven University of Würzburg, DE

09.55 - 10.40 u MicroRNAs in viral gene regulation Prof. Ben Berkhout, Prof. H. Favoreel, UGent Lab. Experimental Virology, University of Amsterdam, NL

10.40 – 11.20 u Coffee break Alma – Leuven 11.20 – 12.05 u Small Regulatory RNAs and Energy- Prof. Susan Gottesman Prof. A. Allaoui, ULB Dependent Proteolysis: Novel Modes National Cancer Institute- for the Regulation of Gene Bethesda, USA Expression 12.05 – 13.00 u Epigenetic reprogramming of host Prof. Martin J. Allday, Prof. D. Schols, KU Leuven genes in viral and microbial Virology, Div. Infectious

pathogenesis Diseases, Imperial College London, UK 13.00 – 14.30 u Lunch and Poster Session

Afternoon Sessions - 2 parallel sessions Bacteriology session Schedule Title Speaker Chair session 14.30 – 15.10 u RNA in defense: CRISPRs protect Dr. Stan Brouns, Prof. P. Cornelis, VUB prokaryotes against mobile genetic Wageningen University, elements and bacteriophages. Wageningen, NL 15.10 – 16.50 u 5 short communications of selected Junior researchers (PhD Prof. T. Coenye, UGent posters in terms of Bacteriology students or recent postdocs)

Virology Session 14.30 – 15.10 u Epigenetic control of Human Prof. Carine Van Lint, Lab Dr L. Gillet, ULiège Immunodefieciency Virus type 1 Mol Virology, ULB, Gosselies, (HIV-1) postintegration latency: BE implications for therapeutic interventions 15.10 – 16.50 u 5 short communications of selected Junior researchers (PhD posters in terms of Virology students or recent postdocs)

Plenary session 3 16.50 – 17.00 u Conclusion and discussion; poster presentation awards Prof. J. Anné

Future Microbiology Meetings

Viruses of Microbes (Brussels) This EMBO conference in Brussels (16-20 July) will address the diversity, evolution, ecology and environmental impact of microbial viruses, the most abundant biological entities on Earth. New developments in fundamental, (bio)technological, industrial and medical aspects of virus research will be discussed. More information can be found at http://events.embo.org/12-virus-microbe/index.html.

Biometals 2012 (Brussels) The Biometals 2012 meeting will be held in Brussels from 15 to 19 July 2012. More information can be obtained from www.biometals2012.be.

Gut Day Symposium (Leuven) The 14th Gut Day Symposium, an initiatve of the Gut Flora Foundation (www.gutflora.org), will take place November 9th, 2012, in Leuven (University Hall). Organising committee: Kristin Verbeke (Chairperson), Sarah Lebeer, Christophe Courtin, Tom van de Wiele, Jeroen Raes, Jos Vanderleyden

4 Academy Palace, Hertogsstraat/Rue Ducale n°1 Brussels – 25th September 2012 – 13h00

• Jörg Overmann (Leibniz-Institut DSMZ) • Nicole Dubilier (Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology) • Philippe Bertin (Strasbourg University) • Rolph Daniel (Georg-August Universität )

* Free entrance for BSM members !

Registration : www.belsocmicrobio.be/BSM

* Free access to the next BSM symposium on November 30th – 2012 !

Contact / Info : [email protected] 5 http://www.belsocmicrobio.be/BSM/ A Belgian penicillin production plant in the 1940s and 1950s: an achievement with long-term consequences When, in 1944-45, the British and U.S. military At the time (1942-43) in the ‘Institut de arrived in Belgium, they brought with them the first Bactériologie’ in Leuven, a freshly graduated penicillin available to Belgian doctors. The antibiotic, Medical Doctor, by the name of Piet De Somer first described by Fleming in 1929, had been (1917-1985), was working on his NFWO/FNRS developed into a useful drug by Howard Florey and fellowship project: erythrocyte agglutination tests Ernst Chain, working in Oxford in the late 1930s and in mononucleosis infectiosa (Fig. 1). His mentor, early 1940s. The first patient ever to be treated with bacteriologist Professor Richard Bruynoghe (1881- the drug was a police officer suffering from life- 1957), the Director of the Institute, encouraged threatening streptococcal wound infection. The date him to start a side-project and try his hand at was February 12th 1941. Improvement of his producing some of that penicillin. Reportedly, De condition was immediate and spectacular. Yet, Somer, outwitting the German border controls, because insufficient amounts of the preparation were succeeded in obtaining some Penicillium strains available, treatment had to be discontinued from the ‘Nederlands Bureau voor prematurely. The infection resumed and the patient Schimmelculturen in Baarn’. The mold needed to died on March 15th, not without leaving the be grown on the surface of liquid culture medium; investigators with the conviction that penicillin held probably he first used bar-shaped milk bottles. No unprecedented promise. The Oxford investigators records exist on whether his first attempts, most scaled up production of the drug in their local likely conducted at the Bacteriology Institute in premises using whatever technical means they could Leuven, were at all successful. scramble together in this period of extreme scarcity due to war conditions. More patients were treated and the results were spectacular. Attempts of Florey to secure support from British pharmaceutical companies or from the Defense Department were rather unsuccessful, such that he turned to the U.S. Again, it met with indifference and skepticism, but eventually several companies and the Defense Department did become involved. One American group made a giant leap forward by isolating a Penicillium strain that grew in suspension culture. From then on, production increased steadily, such that early 1943 sufficient quantity was available to make penicillin available to the Army in the Pacific. By D-day 1944, the American Companies produced sufficient penicillin to fulfill the needs of the U.S. Fig. 1. The ‘Institut de Bactériologie’ as it looks to-day, military at home and at large. with its Director, the legendary Professor Richard Bruynoghe (left picture taken ca. 1940) and his then During the war, the production process was classified assistant Dr. Piet De Somer (right picture taken ca. as military secret. Nevertheless, rumors about the 1950). In this building, during WWII, De Somer did his miraculous cures in the U.K. and the U.S. had first attempts to produce penicillin. Note the large perspired into German-occupied countries such as windows, now blinded, which were thus designed to allow for ample sun light into the laboratory for the Belgium. 6 microscopes which, in those days, used mirrors rather than integrated light sources. A Belgian penicillin production plant in the 1940s and 1950s: an achievement with long-term consequences However, as it happened, Professor Bruynoghe, The records are vague on when exactly this together with some other Professors, including transfer from Leuven to Genval took place. diabetologist Joseph Hoet (1899-1968), had recently Likewise we do not know at what point in time De become a consultant to a small pharmaceutical Somer could procure a Penicillium strain that grew company, called Soprolac, located in Genval, 25 km in suspension. We do know that by the end of the south of Leuven. The company had recently been war progress was such that Lannoye decided to bought by Auguste Baron Lannoye, Director of the set up a separate company for the penicillin ‘Papeteries de Genval’ (then famous for its popular production. The company was called ‘Rist’, short floor covering called ‘Balatum’). His younger son, for Recherche et Industrie de Synthèse Jacques Lannoye (1915-1999), became the Director Thérapeutiques’, later to be changed into ‘R.I.T.’ of Soprolac and assumed the task of modernizing the short for ‘Recherche et Industrie Thérapeutiques’. company. Its main product so far had been ‘Panferma’, a fermented side product of cheese- While De Somer was rather successful in making (see Fig. 2). It was a sort of bubbling optimising the yields of penicillin, the purification beverage, bottled in much the same way as table of the product was a major problem. Being trained beer. The concoction was said to be supportive for as a medical doctor, he had notions of chemistry, anybody with weakened health. If it were still to exist but had no practical experience whatsoever. One today, we would call it a pro-biotic. Importantly, of his friends, Christian de Duve, despite being a however, technicians at Soprolac were familiar with medical doctor, had decided to change fields and fermentation, so Jacques Lannoye and De Somer was taking a Master’s degree in chemistry. must have thought that with their help they might be successful at producing penicillin. So, Lannoye arranged for setting up a mini-pilot plant for production of penicillin in the basement of Soprolac.

Fig. 2. Front page and an inside illustration of a prospectus of ‘Soprolac’ and ‘Rist’. The first pilot plant for penicillin production was set up in the basement of the ‘Soprolac’ 7 plant in Genval, where technicians were familiar with large-scale fermentation as they produced ‘Panferma’, a probiotic avant-la-lettre (right panel). A Belgian penicillin production plant in the 1940s and 1950s: an achievement with long-term consequences Addressing an audience in 1995, he testified as Much like the Belgian Rist, Connaught had close follows: connections to a University. It was in fact owned ‘[De Somer] was looking for somebody to help him by the University of Toronto. It produced various with the purification of penicillin. I saw this as a biological products, such as toxins, liver extracts, heaven-sent project for my "mémoire de licence". And vaccines and, significantly, insulin. Insulin had so it happened that I became involved in making the been discovered in 1921, precisely at the first milligrams of Belgian penicillin together with Piet University of Toronto, by Frederick Banting and De Somer. To be honest, my contribution was minimal Charles Best. Shortly thereafter, Joseph Hoet and but it sufficed for my degree. Charles Best had become friends, while they were both doing diabetes research in London. Thus, together with de Duve, a method was Connaught had started production of penicillin elaborated for a purification protocol, based on after the war using the methods that had been absorption to activated charcoal (Fig. 3). During this developed by the Americans. period, De Somer and de Duve visited several industrial exhibitions as well as plants in During his visit to the Connaught factory, De development in Europe, to see how they could Somer received lots of information from an improve their methodologies. However, there was employee named Doctor P. Moloney, with whom not very much to learn in Europe: industrial he would continue to correspond for as long as production was much more advanced in the U.S. and five years. Upon his return to Belgium, the Canada. Then, early 1947, through the connections newspaper ‘Libre Belgique’ published a small of Joseph Hoet, a visit to a Canadian factory called article under the title: ‘Un jeune savant belge ‘Connaught Laboratories’ was arranged. découvre un procédé de fabrication de la pénicilline.’

1950

AMILCAR CGSS 1928

Fig. 3. For a short period of time Piet De Somer and Christian de Duve (right, born in 1917, Nobel Award winner in 1974) worked together on the purification of penicillin in the Soprolac premises in Genval. Commemorating this episode in 2005, Professor de Duve testified: ‘The war was finished by 8 that time and Piet and I travelled daily between Louvain and Genval for several months, driving an extraordinary car, an Amilcar 1928, which had neither roof nor battery. It was great fun.’ A Belgian penicillin production plant in the 1940s and 1950s: an achievement with long-term consequences The article made three points: … aux Connaught Laboratories de Toronto, le Dr. De Somer … eut la joie de vérifier que sa pénicilline possédait les mêmes propriétés et les mêmes qualités que celle fabriquées sous le boisseau, en Amérique, et que son procédé d’extraction valait celui d’outre Atlantique. … Il a admiré aussi la collaboration qui existait entre les instituts de recherches scientifiques et les industries. Certaines universités possèdent leur industrie de produits thérapeutiques dont les bénéfices sont investis pour le perfectionnement et la recherche d’inventions nouvelles. … … avec l’avenir prometteur qui s’ouvre devant lui, le Dr. Pierre De Somer n’en restera pas là … et souhaitons, qu’en Flamand obstiné, il ne sera pas tenté d’émigrer au Canada … .’

The ensuing correspondence with Dr. Moloney, mostly written in French, covers a period from 1947 to 1952 and describes in detail the progress made at the Genval plant. In these letters we can see how the fermentation vats become bigger and bigger (from 800 liter vats to 15.000 liter ones) and from a production rhythm of 12.000 doses per week to Fig. 4. Fermentation vats of increasing size at the 60.000 doses per week (Fig. 4). De Somer also new Genval factory built in the late 1940s. reports on difficulties in obtaining permission to expand the factory because the Genval town council is weary of those catholics from Leuven.

While large-scale production of penicillin (as well as streptomycin and aureomycin) was being developed at the Genval site, research in the laboratory in Leuven was focused on finding new antibiotics from moulds. The main person in this endeavour was Paul Van Dijck (°1923), then in his early thirties (see Fig. 5). De Somer had recruited him in January 1948. Van Dijck collected hundreds of samples of moulds from all over the world. In 1953, he found a new antibiotic, which he initially called lomycin, and later renamed it 9 Fig. 5. Paul Van Dijck (ca. 1950). ‘griseomycin’. A Belgian penicillin production plant in the 1940s and 1950s: an achievement with long-term consequences

However, it proved to be related and Collaboration between the Genval Company and pharmacologically inferior to erythromycin, so it was De Somer’s team in Leuven continued until 1968. not developed into a commercial product. But in 1956, then working at De Somer’s new Rega A major accomplishment was the manufacture of Institute, Van Dijck discovered virginiamycin (also a poliomyelitis vaccine in the late 1950s. In 1968 a called staphylomycin). This was a direct hit and fusion took place between R.I.T. and the U.S. became a block buster for the Genval Company. Company ‘Smith Kline & French’. Though it was not used to a great extent in human medicine, tonnes of it were produced for use in From then on the two partners went their own animal feed. ways. The Genval Company is now Glaxo SmithKLine Biologicals, employing over 7.000. The This brings us to the Rega Institute. Rega Institute is now the central research building As early as 1949, De Somer and Jacques Lannoy were of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology toying with the idea of building a new research (Biomedical Sciences Group) of the KU Leuven. laboratory in Leuven. Apparently, Lannoy was satisfied with the way his collaboration with Leuven academics was evolving. Furthermore, he may have been encouraged by the example of the Canadian Alfons J. Billiau Connaught Company. At the time, the Flemish faculty of medicine was Rega Institute, University of Leuven booming, such that the director of the St. Rafaël University Hospital, Professor Gerard Van der Correspondence address: Rega Institute, KU Schueren (1908-78), was coping with a shortage of Leuven, Minderbroedersstraat 10, 3000 Leuven, research space. When he heard about the démarches Belgium. [email protected]. of Lannoy and De Somer, he proposed that they Shortened and modified version of ‘Billiau, A., 2009. Penicilline in België combine their efforts. This led to an arrangement by 1945-1952. Verh Kon Acad Geneesk België 71:165-203. – Illustrations from a which the university would acquire a building site presentation given at an Academic Symposium ‘Piet De Somer, a Man(ager) of Science’ (University of Leuven, June 8th 2011). close to the hospital, while R.I.T. would pay for constructing the building itself and for some of the laboratory equipment. About half the building’s space would be destined for De Somer’ team, whereas the other half would be made available to other professors. Van der Schueren also gave the name ‘Rega’ to the building, after an 18th century professor at the medical faculty. An architectural concept was realised in 1951, but construction only began in 1953. The building was inaugurated by Jacques Lannoy in 1954.

10 EUROBIOFILMS 2013 Third European Congress on Microbial Biofilms Basic and Clinical Aspects

GHENT, BELGIUM, SEPTEMBER 9-12, 2013

www.eurobiofilms2013.ics.dk Abstract Submission You are kindly invited to submit abstracts Organising Committee: Tom Coenye (president), Patrick Van Dijck describing research work that you wish to (vice-president, basic), Johan Van Eldere (vice-president, clinical) present at the Congress, either orally or and the ESGB Executive Committee as a poster. Deadline for abstracts for poster and oral sessions: March 15th, Scientific Advisory Board: Niels Hoiby, Gianfranco Donelli, 2013. Guidelines for submission will be Christine Imbert, Thomas Bjarnsholt, Craig Williams, Antonio available on the congress website in the Oliver, and Veronika Hola. More to be confirmed. near future.

Conference Venue Registration & Hotel Accommodation Ghent University Aula, Voldersstraat, Ghent, Belgium Information on the registration and hotel booking will be available on the conference website.

Congress Secretariat: International Conference Services A/S Copenhagen, Denmark, Mail: [email protected]

Pre-conference workshops: Pre-conference workshops will be Scientific Secretariat: organised on 9 September 2013. Topics of the workshops will Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Microbiology include ”Identification of biofilm-associated micro-organisms” and Ghent University, Gent, Belgium ”Animal models for studying biofilms”. More topics will be Mail: [email protected] announced in the near future.

Main Sessions will take place from 9 September (evening) until 12 Supported by European Society of Clinical September (lunch time). Topics that will be addressed include Microbiology and Infectious Diseases mixed-species biofilms, microbial fuel cells, biofilm-related chronic (ESCMID) / www.escmid.org wound infections, signalling in biofilms, clinical and basic aspects of fungal biofilms, mechanisms of biofilm resistance & tolerance, medical-device related biofilm infections, oral biofilms, biofilm heterogeneity & evolution, and microbial biofilm ecology.

11 PhD Corner - Bénédicte Machiels

In this section of the newsletter we will highlight the work of a recently graduated PhD student who obtained his or her degree at a Belgian university.

In this edition we will focus on the work of Bénédicte Machiels who obtained her degree at the ULg. If you are interested to have your work highlighted in the next issue of this newsletter, send a one-page summary of your work to [email protected] Gammaherpesviruses are archetypal persistent viruses which represent a significant cause of diseases in both human and animal populations. The best studied gammaherpesviruses are the Epstein- Barr virus (EBV) and the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). Infection control of these persistent viruses poses a major challenge, as they have evolved to coexist with antibody and to resist neutralization. All gammaherpesviruses encode a major glycoprotein homologous to the EBV glycoprotein 350 (gp350). These glycoproteins are often involved in cell binding, and some provide neutralization targets. However, gp350 is dispensable for epithelial infection, and gp350-specific antibodies have even been shown to enhance epithelial infection. Therefore the relationship between these proteins, antibodies and virus transmission needed further exploration. Bovine herpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) is a gammaherpesvirus that shares many common properties with EBV and KSHV. The PhD work investigated the function of the BoHV-4 gp350 homologue, encoded by the Bo10 gene.

The first parts of the researches demonstrated that BoHV-4 Bo10 gene encodes a non-essential viral envelope protein that regulates viral tropism through both positive and negative effects (Machiels et al., 2011a). Indeed, BoHV-4 Bo10 gene encodes a 180 kDa type I transmembrane protein incorporated in Antibody evasion by a gammaherpesvirus O-glycan shield. A.Gp180 the viral envelope that interacts with the is extensively O-glycosylated. The Bo10 gene product of BoHV-4, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) of the cell surface. named gp180, has 122 potential O-glycosylation sites predicted by bioinformatic analysis. B. Glycans protect BoHV-4 against Although a Bo10 mutant virus was viable, it showed a neutralization. To investigate whether O-glycans protect BoHV-4 growth deficit that was associated with a default of against neutralization, we removed N- or/and O-glycans from intact attachment to GAGs positive cells. On the opposite, virions before testing their susceptibility to neutralization. This experiment revealed that removing N-glycans or/and O- glycans Bo10 disruption reduced the normal dependence of increased virion susceptibility to neutralization by immune serum BoHV-4 on GAGs for efficient infection, such that demonstrating that BoHV-4 uses both N- and O-linked glycans to gp180-deficient virions showed enhanced infection limit its neutralization. C. A lack of gp180 increases BoHV-4 susceptibility to serum neutralization. We further compared the of GAG-deficient cells. Several hypotheses could sensitivity of BoHV-4 strains expressing gp180 (WT, Bo10 Rev) or not explain these observations. Therefore, gp180 could (Bo10 Del, Bo10 STOP) to neutralization by sera of rabbits infected regulate virion attachment to cells by covering a with the BoHV-4 WT strain. WT and Bo10 Rev virions were poorly neutralized. Bo10 Del and Bo10 STOP virions were neutralized much GAG-independent cell binding epitope until displaced better. In particular, complete neutralization was possible. Thus from that site by interaction with GAGs. gp180 seemed to limit virion neutralization. All together, these results suggest that gp180 O-glycans provide part of a glycan shield for otherwise vulnerable viral epitopes. x PhD Corner - Bénédicte Machiels

In this section of the newsletter we will highlight the work of a recently graduated PhD student who obtained his or her degree at a Belgian university.

A possible rationale for this complex mode of entry In conclusion, this thesis work proposed a would be that gp180 protects an otherwise mechanism for BoHV-4 entry that could allow vulnerable entry protein from antibody during free protection of vulnerable epitopes. This evasion virion exposition. mechanism, potentially widespread in the gammaherpesvirinae subfamily, may also provide The hypothesis of a protective role of gp180 from original therapeutic perspectives. antibody neutralization was investigated in a second study (Machiels et al., 2011b).

Gammaherpesviruses glycoproteins involved in cell binding provide potential neutralization targets. Bénédicte Machiels obtained her Bachelor and However, the capacity of gammaherpesviruses for Master degrees in Veterinary Medicine at the long-term transmission from immune hosts implies University of Liege in 2007. She joined the that in vivo neutralization is incomplete. This part of laboratory of Immunology-Vaccinology with a the work exploits the BoHV-4 model to determine grant from the FRS-FNRS and she graduated in how its gp350 homolog - gp180 - contributes to virus May 2011 with Ph. D in Veterinary Sciences replication and neutralization. A lack of gp180 had no (Promotor: Dr. L. Gillet, co-promotor: Prof. A. impact on the establishment and maintenance of Vanderplasschen). She is currently pursuing BoHV-4 latency, but markedly sensitized virions to postdoctoral studies on the gammaherpesvirus neutralization by immune sera. Antibody had greater immune evasion mechanisms. access to glycoproteins B, H and L on gp180-deficient virions, including neutralization epitopes. Interestingly, gp180 appeared to be massively O- glycosylated, and removing O-linked glycans from virions sensitized them to neutralization. It therefore appeared that gp180 provides part of a glycan shield for otherwise vulnerable viral epitopes. We finally showed that this O-glycan shield could be the Achilles’ heel of the virion as it could be exploited for neutralization by lectins and carbohydrate-specific antibody as recently proposed for other persistent viruses such as HIV. A combination of agents targeting glycans and the epitopes that they protect could be particularly effective, since the evasion of the one predisposes to recognition by the other. The conservation of O-glycosylation sites in all gp350 homologs suggests that this is a general evasion mechanism that may also provide, in the future, a 13 therapeutic target.

Composition of the BSM Board

President & FEMS delegate : Jozef Anné (KU Leuven) Secretary & representative in the IUMS : Paul De Vos (UGent) Treasurer & liaison with NVVM : Tom Coenye (UGent)

Members : Spiros Agathos (UCL), Abdelmounaaim Allaoui (ULB), Alfons Billiau (KU Leuven), Pierre Cornelis (VUB, liaison officer ASM), Paul Cos (UA), Herman Favoreel (UGent), Isabelle George (ULB), David Gillan (UMons), Laurent Gillet (ULg), Natalie Leys (SCK-CEN), Max Mergeay (SCK-CEN), Dominique Schols (KU Leuven), Jos Vanderleyden (KU Leuven)

Contributed to this issue: Jozef Anné, Alfons Billiau, Tom Coenye, David Gillan, Laurent Gillet, Bénédicte Machiels

Call for contributions

With this quarterly newsletter the BSM board wants to improve its communication with BSM members and we hope to bring you useful microbiology-related information on a regular basis.

Of course this is only possible with your contributions and we would like to invite you to submit these contributions to [email protected] (preferably as a Word document).

What can you submit ? Basically anything that is microbiology-related : vacancies in your lab, announcements of seminars, a summary of important/interesting research findings etc. If you want to discuss whether something would be suitable for inclusion in the newsletter prior to preparing the text, feel free to contact us as well.

VISIT US AT : http://www.belsocmicrobio.be/ 14