Robert Marquis Mini-Symposium for Young Investigators
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA
About Robert Marquis
Dr. Robert E. Marquis, PhD, was chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry, and a beloved teacher to many students who trained at the medical school and at
the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. He died in January 2014 at the age of 80. Originally from Ontario,
Canada, “Bob” earned his M.S. and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He spent two years as a
post-doctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he studied under the guise of Peter Mitchell,
a British biochemist who was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Bob began his career at the University of Rochester in 1963 as a senior instructor in Microbiology and was
continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health until his retirement as a professor in 2012. During his
early years at the medical school, he studied energy transduction – how cells and bacteria develop energy from food.
From the 1970s until the end of his career he focused on oral streptococci, a type of bacteria present in the mouth
that are major contributors to tooth decay. He had a secondary appointment in the Center for Oral Biology and his
work on the effects of fluoride on cavity-producing bacteria earned him international recognition and the 2006
Distinguished Scientist Award for Research in Dental Caries from the International Association for Dental Research.
As passionate as Bob was about his research, he was equally, if not more passionate about the colleagues, trainees,
and students he worked with every day. He influenced the lives of many graduate students who considered him to be a
remarkable colleague, mentor and friend. It is not surprising then that many of Bob’s graduate students went on to
assume distinguished careers in academia, industry, or public health service.
Bob's influence also included undergraduate students on the University of Rochester’s River Campus, where he was a
founding director of the Undergraduate Program in Biology and Medicine. This program combines the College of Arts
and Sciences and the School of Medicine and Dentistry to provide courses for undergraduate students with lectures,
laboratory work, specialty seminars and research experiences. Bob helped start the program in the early 1980’s and
it led to the creation of the Bachelor’s of Science degrees in Biological Sciences, which includes tracks in
Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Genetics,
and Neuroscience. Thanks to Bob’s work, the program is a major conduit for undergraduate students into research labs
at the medical school.
Outside of the University, Bob loved the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and was a huge fan of theater, traveling
annually to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario. He was also
known to fly to London with his wife on a regular basis to catch plays in London’s West End. Another hobby was
custom brewing, an art that he shared and passed on to many.
Purpose
This mini-symposium honors the memory of the late Robert E. Marquis and the knowledge he eagerly shared with
students, trainees and early career faculty members. Its main objective is to promote information exchange among
scientists who engage in oral microbiology and immunology research and clinical studies pertaining to oral health
and disease, and to provide a forum through which new investigators entering the field can network with established
investigators and so create contacts that can help nurture their research progress and productivity.
Scientific Program
8:00 am Continental Breakfast and Sign-in
8:30 am Dr. Robert Quivey, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for Oral Biology, University of
Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY
“Well actually……, 40 years of bacterial physiology, from the late Robert E. Marquis.”
9:00 am Alejandro Aviles-Reyes, PhD candidate, (2015 recipient of the Arnold Bleiweis Travel
Grant), University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY
“S. mutans modification of Cnm by a novel glycolytic pathway”
9:25 am Dr. Roger M. Arce, DDS, MS, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Periodontics, College of
Dental Medicine, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, GA
“Exploring the in-vivo effects of pathogen-differentiated dendritic cells”
9:50 am Dr. Lauren Mashburn Warren, PhD Senior Research Scientist, Center for Microbial
Pathogenesis, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH
“A novel approach to target the removal of caries-causing bacteria.”
10:15 am Dr. Octavio Gonzalez, DDS, MS, PhD, Assistant Professor, Center for Oral Health Research,
College of Dentistry, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY “Adult and aged periodontitis: Two clinically similar
but molecularly different lesions.”
10:40 am Dr. Peng Zhou, PhD, Associate Research Scientist, Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, Oklahoma City, OK
“Role of veillonellae catalase in oral biofilm ecology”
11:05 am Dr. Brendaliz Santiago, PhD, Post-doctoral fellow, Center for Oral Biology, University of
Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY
“Amino acid metabolism: Acid adaptation and transcriptional regulation in S. mutans.”
11:30 am Natasha Singh, DDS candidate, University of Toronto Faculty of Dentistry, Toronto,
Ontario, CANADA
“Development of a novel surveillance method to monitor bacterial biomarkers under chronic periodontitis.”
11:55 am Yun-ji Kim, Master’s candidate, School of Dentistry, Department of Oral Microbiology and
Immunology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
“Dysbiosis of oral microbiota in recurrent aphthous ulcers.”
12:20 pm Dr. Jessica Kajfasz, Postdoctoral Associate, Center for Oral Biology, University of
Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY
“Transcription of oxidative stress genes is directly activated by SpxA proteins of Streptococcus mutans.”
12:45–1:15pm: Lunch and Discussion
1:20 pm Stephen Kasper, PhD candidate, (2015 recipient of the Susan Kinder Haake Award) SUNY
College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University of Albany, Albany, NY
“Natural product-based nanocapsules for sustained delivery of anti-biofilm agents”
1:45 pm Josefine Hirschfeld, DMD, Periodontology Resident/Research Associate, University Hospital
Bonn, Bonn, Germany
“Role of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in periodontal tissue destruction.”
2:10 pm Christina Sim, PhD candidate, National Dental Centre of Singapore, Singapore
“Development of an in vitro polymicrobial biofilm model of dental caries.”
2:35 pm Keum Jin Baek, Master’s candidate, School of Dentistry, Department of Oral Microbiology and
Immunology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
“Association of the invasion ability of Porphyromonas gingivalis with the severity of periodontitis”
3:00 pm Dr. Zhimin Feng, Senior Instructor, Case Western Reserve School of Dental Medicine,
Cleveland, OH
“Further studies of Acinetobacter baumannii interaction with human oral epithelial cells: Invasive capacity and
induction of hBD3.”
3:25–3:35pm Coffee/Refreshment Break
3:35 pm Dr. Samta Jain, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Boston University Department of Medicine,
Boston, MA
“Trafficking of Porphyromonas gingivalis virulence factor Kgp to human endothelial cells.”
4:00 pm Dr. Kenneth Barth, PhD, Postdoctoral Associate, Boston University Department of Medicine,
Boston, MA
“Porphyromonas gingivalis gingipain-mediated modification of cellular kinases impairs host innate immune
signaling.”
4:25 pm Dr. Carolyn Kramer, Postdoctoral Associate, Boston University Department of Medicine,
Boston, MA
“The Oral Microbiome in Patients with Oral Cancers.”
4:50 pm Dr. George Papadopolous, PhD candidate, Boston University Department of Medicine, Boston,
MA
“Pathogen-induced Th17 cells link oral infection with systemic inflammation.”
5:15 pm Concluding Remarks