FINAL PROGRAM

All time in Central US Time

Sunday October 6, 2024

2:00-5:00 pm Registration and Check-in, The Abbey Resort, Fontana-on-the-Lake, WI

5:00-7:00 pm Opening Session

5:00 pm Opening Remarks:
Steven Blanke, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Conference Chair
Min Dong, Boston Children's/Harvard, Vice Chair
5:10-5:30 pm Jennifer Bomberger, Dartmouth
"Type VI Secretion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa promotes persistence and competition during viral co-infections"
5:30-5:50 pm Matthieu Haudiquat, Institut Pasteur
“Evolution of antiviral immunity across domains of life"
5:50-6:10 pm Timothy Cover, Vanderbilt University
"Helicobacter pylori CagA and Cag type IV secretion system activity have key roles in triggering gastric transcriptional and proteomic alterations"
6:10-7:00 pm Burroughs Wellcome Fund Opening Address
Joseph Mougous, University of Washington
“It's raining toxins; diverse mechanisms of interbacterial antagonism”

7:00-8:30 pm: Opening Dinner
8 pm to close: Waterfront Restaurant (Cash bar and patio Bonfire)

Monday October 7, 2024

7:15-8:15 am Continental Breakfast

8:15-11:30 am Session I

How toxins do the amazing things they do: Structure and Function underlying toxin mechanisms

8:15 am Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Roman Melnyk, University of Toronto
8:20-8:55 am Liang Tao, Westlake University, China
“Toward Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Implications for Host Recognition of C. difficile Toxin B”
8:55-9:15 am Michael Sheedlo, University of Minnesota
"Structural Characterization of the Clostridioides difficile Transferase Reveals Intermediates that Occur During Intoxication"
9:15-9:35 am Annie Doyle, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
"Characterization of a multimeric complex associated with Clostridioides difficile TcdB autoprocessing"
9:35-9:45 "Fresh Take" Talks I
- Megan Ringling, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
- Adam Oliver, Rice University
- Jori Mills, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

9:45-10:10 am Coffee Break and Poster Viewing

10:10-10:30 am Baohua Chen, UC Irvine
"Tuning the selectivity of a botulinum neurotoxin towards sensory neurons"
10:30-10:50 am Michaela Grobarcikova, Czech Academy of Sciences
"Identification of residues involved in post-translational modification of Bordetella pertussis adenylate cyclase toxin"
10:50 - 11:25 am Alejandra Bravo de la Parra, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
“Beyond the Umbrella model: the Folding-Cane Model describing the conformational changes needed for membrane insertion of Bt Cry insecticidal toxins”

11:25 - 11:40 Group Photo

11:40 - 1:30 pm Poster Session I with Lunch

1:30-4:30 pm Session II - Monday Afternoon
Pore-forming toxins: There’s much more than meets the membrane…

1:30 pm Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Chen Chen, Louisiana State University
1:35-2:10 pm Rodney Tweten, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
"Unexpected features and effects of distant cholesterol-dependent cytolysin relatives in gut Bacteroidales"
2:10-2:30 pm C.A. Jabeena, University of Iowa
"Molecular mimicry of the human SNARE complex by Chlamydia trachomatis inclusion membrane proteins"
2:30-2:50 pm Hunter Abrahamsen, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
"A surface lipoprotein protects prominent members of the human gut microbiome from antibacterial antagonism"
2:50-3:00 pm "Fresh Take" Talks II
- Yung-Hui Victoria Wen, Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
- Shan Li, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
- Jesse Pak, Washington University, St. Louis

3:00-3:25 pm Afternoon Break and Poster Viewing

3:25-3:45 pm Somnath Dutta, India Institute of Science
"Cryo-EM Reveals the Mechanisms of Bacterial Toxin-Mediated Membrane Damage and Remodeling"
3:45-4:05 pm Alex Johnson, Brandeis University
"Mechanism and evolution of gasdermin pore formation"
4:05 - 4:40 pm Victor Torres, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
“Breaking the species-specific barrier to probe the role of pore-forming toxins in vivo"

4:45 - 6:00 pm Career Session, Everyone Invited!
Esteemed Panel:
- Abby Kroken, Loyola University
- Max Burroughs, NIH
- Todd Christian, List Biological Laboratories, Inc.
Moderator: Joe Barbieri

6:00 - 7:00 pm Free time

7:00-8:30 pm Conference Dinner
8 pm to close: Waterfront Restaurant (Cash Bar and Patio Bonfire)

Tuesday October 8, 2024

7:15-8:15 am Continental Breakfast

8:15-11:30 am Session III - Tuesday morning
The Secret Garden: The complex world of intracellular acting protein exotoxins and effectors

8:15 am Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Jana Kamanova, Czech Academy of Sciences
8:25-9:00 am Kim Orth, UT Southwestern
“Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: Tales of Bacterial Effectors”
9:00-9:20 am Paige Allen, Virginia Commonwealth University
"An Orientia tsutsugamushi nucleomodulin impairs p53 production to inhibit host cell apoptosis"
9:20-9:40 am Alix McCullough, University of Iowa
"The Chlamydia trachomatis T3S Effector TmeA Directly Interacts with Multiple Host Proteins to Facilitate Invasion"
9:40-9:50 "Fresh Take" Talks III
- Jana Kamanova, Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences
- Tristan Sanford, The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
- Steven Huang, University of Iowa

9:50-10:15 am Coffee Break and Poster Viewing

10:15-10:35 am Seema Mattoo, Purdue University
"Fic-mediated GMPylation: Discovery of a Bordetella Fic protein with guanylyltransferase activity"
10:35-10:55 am Jonathan Pruneda, Oregon Health & Science University
"A functional screen for ubiquitin regulation identifies an E3 ligase secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa"
10:55 - 11:30 am Kim Samirah Robinson, Ph.D., York University, UK
“Indirect sensing of bacterial exotoxins by the NLRP1 inflammasome”

11:30 - 1:30 pm Poster Session II with Lunch

1:30-4:30 pm Session IV - Tuesday afternoon
Toxin-mediated remodeling of the host environment

1:30 pm Opening Remarks by Session Chair, Jimmy Ballard, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
1:35-2:10 pm Neal Alto, UT Southwestern
"The Host-Pathogen Battle Over Cholesterol Accessibility."
2:10-2:30 pm ShiBo Cao, University of Toronto
"Elucidating the Mechanism of Action of an NF-κB degrading Enzyme"
2:30-2:50 pm Abby Kroken, Loyola University Chicago
"Toward a complete ADP-ribosylome of Exotoxin S from Pseudomonas aeruginosa"

2:50-3:15 pm Afternoon Break and Poster Viewing

3:15-3:35 pm Edward Culbertson, University of Pittsburgh
"Molecular Evolution of Bacterial Iron Piracy in Amoeba Hosts"
3:35-3:55 pm Molly Crowder, U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
"Microbial-mediated genotoxicity remodels host intestinal epithelium"
3:55 - 4:30 pm Karla Satchell, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
"What's next for MARTX toxins?"

4:30 - 5:00 pm Free time

5:15 - 7:30 pm Special Dinner event TBA

Wednesday October 9, 2024

7:30-8:30 am Breakfast

8:30-11:30 am Session V - Wednesday morning
Peeling back the complexity of protein toxins and effectors during infection

8:30 am Opening Remarks by Session Chair
Chair, Carrie Shaffer (University of Kentucky)
8:35-9:10 am Dena Lyras, Monash University, Australia
“Non-antibiotic strategies to mitigate C. difficile toxin-mediated infection: insights from discovery research”
9:10-9:30 am Ezequiel Valguamera, Washington University at St Louis
"Antibacterial toxins from human gut bacteria engender neonatal colonization advantage"
9:30-9:50 am John Manion, University of Pittsburgh
"C. difficile intoxicates neurons and pericytes to drive neurogenic inflammation"
9:50-10:10 am Huazhu Liang, University of Toronto
"Engineering a bacterial effector as a novel pan-RAS targeting biologic for an aggressive brain tumor"

10:10-10:35 am Morning Break/Check-out

10:35-10:55 am Hunter Kuhn, Washington University at St. Louis
"E. coli Alpha-Hemolysin Exploits LDL Receptor and Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis to Damage Renal Epithelium"
10:55-11:15 am Deepak Patel, University of Calgary
"Global analysis of Legionella pneumophila Dot/Icm translocated effectors expands the repertoire of functional domains involved in eukaryotic host manipulation"
11:15 - 11:50 pm Borden Lacy, Vanderbilt University Medical School
“The difficulty of understanding the C. difficile toxins in a physiological context”

11:50 Closing Remarks - Steven Blanke, Conference Chair
12 pm: Conference Ends - Lunch on your own
~12:30 pm Transport to O’Hare and Mitchell Airports

Conference Supporters