27th Annual Research Symposium: March 17, 2016
Our twenty-seventh Annual Research Symposium will be held on Thursday, March 17, 2016 at the main college complex on the Virginia Tech campus.
The event showcases graduate student research and will feature keynote speaker Sandra Armstrong Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Armstrong's seminar is titled "Bordetella Iron Acquisition: Making a Living in the Host."
The symposium is sponsored by Zoetis and the Office of Research & Graduate Studies.
View the 2016 Symposium Program (PDF).
Symposium Keynote Speaker: Sandra K. Armstrong, Ph.D.
Sandra Armstrong earned her B.A. degree in Microbiology from the University of New Hampshire prior to pursuing graduate research on Bordetella pertussis pathogenesis in the laboratory of Charlotte D. Parker at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She earned her Ph.D. degree in 1986 and began postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Mark A. McIntosh, where she studied iron transport mechanisms in Escherichia coli.
In 1990, Dr. Armstrong accepted an academic faculty appointment at East Carolina University School of Medicine, where she initiated her research on iron uptake systems of B. pertussis and related Bordetella species. Since moving to the University of Minnesota in 1998, Dr. Armstrong and her research team have continued their studies on Bordetella biology, including mechanisms of nutrient uptake that are relevant to growth and persistence in the host environment.
Dr. Armstrong has published over 40 scientific reports, participates in grant and manuscript peer review, and is a member of the Editorial Board for the journal Infection and Immunity. She served as Director of Graduate Studies for the Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program at the University of Minnesota and teaches bacterial physiology and metabolism to undergraduate students.
Learn more about Sandra Armstrong and her research.