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Distinguished Biology Alumna to Lecture at UC

Asa Gray Welcomes Dr. Van Kessel '03

Written By Marissa Filletti '18, PR Intern

Contact - cleogrande@utica.edu

Utica, NY (09/23/2015) - On Monday, Sept. 28, Dr. Julia C. van Kessel, a 2003 Utica College graduate who is now an assistant research scientist at Indiana University, will give a talk on quorum-sensing gene regulation in vibrios.

Van Kessel was an honors graduate from UC’s biology program. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 and completed a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Bonnie Bassler, a highly renowned microbiologist, at Princeton University.

“We are thrilled to welcome Julia back to her alma mater to share her research with our students,” said Lawrence Aaronson, professor of biology at UC. “Julia is one of the two students who originally isolated and characterized UC's microbial mascot, Pseudomonas uticensis, a bacteria discovered right here at Utica College.”

Quorum-sensing is one method of cell communication. Bacteria are able to use this to sense and respond to changes in the population density of their environment as well as perform activities in groups such as virulence factor production, biofilm formation, antibiotic production, competence and bioluminescence. This fact is the basis for Kessel’s research in vibrios. In studying the bacteria’s transcription patterns and proteins, their findings suggest a general mechanism for quorum-sensing gene regulation.

This event is free and open to the public. It will be held at 4 p.m. in Donahue Auditorium. For more information, visit http://www.utica.edu/academic/as/biology/ or contact Thomas McCarthy, chair of biology, at tmccart@utica.edu or at (315) 792-2510.

About Utica College – Utica College, founded in 1946, is a comprehensive private institution offering bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. The College, located in upstate central New York, approximately 90 miles west of Albany and 50 miles east of Syracuse, currently enrolls over 4,400 students in 44 undergraduate majors, 30 minors, 21 graduate programs and a number of pre-professional and special programs.