O'TooleLab

OToole Lab News

July 29, 2011

Welcome Gary Heussler, the newest member of the O'Toole lab.  Gary joined as a Ph.D. student, along with Laura and Kurt.


Steve Bernier, a former post-doc in the lab, recently published an article describing the role of amino acids in the control of swarming motility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.  This work is of relevance to cystic fibrosis because previous studies from Whiteley and colleagues indicate that amino acids might be a critical nutrient resource for this microbe in the CF lung.  This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

July 25, 2011

Chelsea Boyd, a Ph.D. student in the lab is attending the Kadner Institute, which focuses on career development activities for students interested in pursuing a career in microbiology.  Chelsea is the third student in the lab to attend the program.


Alicia Ballok, also a Ph.D. student in the lab, just returned from the Advanced Bacterial Genetics course at Cold Spring Harbor.  She felt it was a tremendous educational experience.  Alicia is the 3rd member of the lab to take the course.

Pete Newell, a graduate student in the lab recently published a paper that describes the role of four different diguanylate cyclases (DGC) in controlling biofilm formation by the soil organism Pseudomonas fluorescens.  These DGCs control both the localization of a large surface adhesin to the bacterial cell surface and also impact the control of motility.  This work, supported by the National Science Foundation, is the first step in trying to understand the complex regulatory pathway that controls biofilm formation by this "biocontrol" organism.  Biocontrol organisms are microbes that can naturally protect crop plants from disease-causing organisms in the soil.

July 15, 2011

Kyle Cady just returned from the CRISPR meeting in California where he presented findings from his recent publication.

July 13, 2011

July 13, 2011

A belated welcome to Kurt Dahlstrom and Laura Filkins, 2 new Ph.D. students in the lab.

July 13, 2011

We just returned from the 11th annual lab retreat which was held in York Maine this year.  We have 14 people attend, with most of the current lab members presenting their work.  We cooked in one night (thanks Laura and Taylor!), and the second night we went out for lobster at a local lobster pound.

Here's Dae-Gon Ha, a 4th year student, doing his presentation. 
Each Ph.D. student and Post-Doc in the lab presents for 2 hrs at the retreat.  
~1 hr covers last year's work, and ~1 hrs covering future plans.  
We also had new students and summer students attend.



A visit to Chauncey's Lobster Pound in Kittery Pt, Maine


On the deck at the retreat house.

The view from the retreat house.  It was a great location.

July 06, 2011

July 6, 2011

Welcome to the rebuilt O'Toole lab web page!  It has a new look and some new links.  Enjoy!

Due to some technical reasons, I have not been able to update the blog, but that is all sorted out, so I'll be posting news again regularly, starting in the next week or so.