The UAB Department of Microbiology will welcome Roy Curtiss, III, Ph.D., to present the 28th annual Bertram M. Marx Lecture. Curtiss, professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida, will present “Inducing mucosal immunity – historical past and the present using Salmonella as our friend” on March 15, 2016, at noon in Volker Hall Lecture Room B, 1670 University Blvd. A reception will follow in the Edge of Chaos, fourth floor of the Lister Hill Library, 1700 University Blvd.Curtiss has 60 years of research experiences in genetics, molecular biology, microbiology, biomedical sciences and vaccinology. His current research focuses on the design, construction and evaluation of vaccines to elicit protective host immune responses in agriculturally important animals and humans, mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis and host immune responses to infections and vaccines. 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 (invented at UAB) as well as the first patents (with Guy Cardineau – a UAB MCB graduate) on genetically modified plants expressing pathogen-derived protective antigens as vaccines against bacterial and viral pathogens. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
The Bertram M. Marx Lectureship, which is hosted by the UAB Department of Microbiology, supports 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. The Marx Lectures are given by top leaders in their respective fields and have included Nobel Laureates and members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.