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UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY AND MOLECULAR GENETICS http://www.uvm.edu/microbiology MMG NEWS SUMMER 2007 Welcome New Students Graduate Students: Alexandra Ledesma Barrera Anahi Cuppari Fernandez Jacqueline Leung Dario Lirussi John Midkiff Karl Zahn Undergrads: Amanda Arling ........Microbiology Christopher Deapo.Microbiology Ashley Delgrande...Moleculer Genetics Ryan Dundon............Molecular Genetics Patrick Dunseith ....Molecular Genetics Nicole Ferland ........Microbiology Haley Fongemie ......Molecular Genetics Jessica Godbersen Molecular Genetics Gordon Hemsley .....Molecular Genetics Ben Minden..............Molecular Genetics Elizabeth Nelson....Molecular Genetics Alexander Robles...Molecular Genetics Theresa Ruswick ....Molecular Genetics project was entitled “Pyrimidine nucleotide production: Engineering of the B. subtilis pyr operon”. Meredith also received a summer internship at Maine Medical Research Institute. Her research project was “Examining the molecular mechanism of Cthrc1-a novel inhibitor of TGF-Beta and collagen production”. Erin Burk is working with Chris Huston this summer on “Determining the function and specificity of serine-rich E. histolytica protein utilizing optimal RNAi gene silencing methods”. Where Are Our 2007 Graduates? Two of our new students are members of the Honors College. Welcome, everyone! Undergrad News Will Pinard received a HELiX grant this summer to work with David Pederson on “Mapping of Binding Domains of Clf1p”. Meredith Benson spent last semester studying aboard in Milan, Italy. Her research MMG NEWSLETTER/SEPTEMBER 2007 Back Row L-R: James Hemphill, JP Ishaq, Ty Curran Front Row L-R: Nikki Desch, Erica Nuzzo, Joy-El Barbour, Nicole Podnecky Joy-El Barbour is a research technician in David Pederson’s laboratory. Ty Curran is returning to school in the fall. Nikki Desch is a research technician at the University of Virginia. James Hemphill is a research Page 1 technician at Archemix (MA). JP Ishaq is entering the UVM MBA program this fall. Erica Nuzzo was a technician at Yale Genetics Counseling Center and a biology teacher this summer before leaving for Honduras. Nicole Podnecky will be starting a year-long fellowship at CDC Emmerging Infectious Diseases then she’ll head to graduate school at Colorado State University. Many thanks to Stephanie Phelps and Brenda Tessmann for providing the picture and news on our undergraduates. Undergrad Awards – 2007 Graduates Our two departmental awards went to exceptional students. The Warren R. Steinbring Outstanding Senior in Microbiology Award, given in recognition of academic excellence and professional growth, went to Nicole L. Podnecky. The Lucille P. Markey Outstanding Senior in Molecular Genetics Award, given in recognition of academic excellence and professional growth, was awarded to Joy-El Rene Barbour. Distinguished Undergraduate Research Awards, from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, recognizes students conducting original research under the immediate supervision of a faculty member. MMG students include: Joy-El Barbour, faculty advisor David Pederson, project entitled, “Mechanism of Action of a Protein that Functions in both DNA and MRNA Metabolism”; James Hemphill, faculty advisor John Burke, project entitled, “Florescent Characterization of a Protonated WobbleLike GC+ Base Pair in RNA Using PyrroloCytosine”; Nicole L. Podnecky, advisor Joyce Oetjen (MMG Alumnus now at the Vermont Department of Health), entitled, “Validation of the Real-Time PCR Diagnostic Assay for Bordetella Pertussis”. 2007 University Awards Joy-El Barbour graduated cum laude, was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, is a Green and Gold Scholar, and a member of the Golden Key International MMG Newsletter/September 2007 Honor Society. Nicole Podnecky is a member of Mortar Board, a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for distinguished ability and achievement in scholarship, leadership, and service. Mortar Board began in 1918 as the first national organization honoring women entering their senior year of college. Wedding Corner Several graduate students have married or will be married in 2007. This is the Chinese Year of the Golden Pig, a very lucky year that comes around once every 60 years. Under the Chinese zodiac, there are 12 rotating animal signs - rat, ox, tiger, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, rabbit, dog and pig. Each has different characteristics. In addition there are five rotating elements gold, water, wood, fire and earth. The combination of pig and gold is an especially lucky combination. The last Year of the Golden Pig was 1947. Color is also important. Red is an auspicious color in eastern culture meaning celebration, good luck, happiness and associations which are positive and joyous. A traditional Chinese bride would wear red, as would a bride from the northern parts of India. Yin Guo (Wallace Lab) married Songtao Wo on May 3, 2007. Songtao is a graduate student in the Physics Department. Yin is from Tianjin, Northern China, Songtao is from Ningbo, Zhengjia Province, Southern China. They Page 2 met here at UVM two years ago, then decided to get married in the Year of the Golden Pig. The wedding was at Beilun Harbour in Zhengjiang Province, China. and Mathematical Sciences. Minmin would like to thank Qing Tang for being her bridesmaid, and Jia Weng for the beautiful job he did taking pictures. Thanks, Qing and Jia! Chunxiao Yu (Mintz Lab) and Qin Yang (Doublié Lab) were married on July 10th, 2007, at Xiantao, Hubei, China. Chunxiao and Qin also met right here not only at UVM, but at MMG! Ben Stark (Johnson Lab) married his fiancée, Emily, in Iowa on a hot, humid and lucky day in July - 7/7/07. Snigdha Roy (Burke lab) was married in Delhi, India, on December 10, 2006, to Amit Gaur. They honeymooned in Bali. Minmin Liu (Wallace Lab) wed Jianhong Cui on August 12, in Winooski, Vermont. They also met here at UVM. Jianhong is in the Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. program in the College of Engineering MMG Newsletter/September 2007 Susan Wallace’s daughter, Deirdre, was married in May, in Venice, Italy. Molly Coseno (Doublié Lab) and Ray Rosner will be married on September 22, 2007. Page 3 Lab News Gilmartin Lab Krishnan Venkataraman is now a Research Associate at Dartmouth Medical School. He is working in the lab of Michael Spinella in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Dr. Spinella’s research addresses the molecular mechanisms of induced differentiation of human tumor cells and is focused on the effects of the vitamin A derivatives, the retinoids. Alec Stranahan, an MMG second year undergraduate student, is doing summer research in the lab. Bond Lab The newest collaborator with the Bond lab is James Vincent, Research Assistant Professor of Biology, and Director of the Bioinformatics Core for the Vermont Genetics Network (VGN). His background is in Computational Chemistry, and he worked at NCI before coming to UVM. He is hoping to integrate the proteomics and microarray facilities into the research programs of members of the Vermont Genetics Network. Ramiro also just participated in a Molecular Evolution two week workshop in Woods Hole, MA, with some of the best people in the field. In addition, he participated in a three week summer session here at UVM, with Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica. Rama Kocherlakota has added new meaning to the term telecommuting. He can be found Down Under. Here is his report all the way from Tasmania: “Hi, everyone! We've been in Hobart, Tasmania, for about ten days now and are having a blast. In many ways, it's a lot like Burlington - a smallish city nestled in a somewhat isolated, rugged state. There is an awesome open air market on Saturday mornings on the edge of a park downtown. The people are friendly, outdoorsy, and not easily ruffled. There's a lovely snow-capped mountain overlooking the skyline and a long narrow body of water borders the city on the other side. Ramiro Barrantes-Reynolds and Ingrid (from the CMB program) offered a six lesson salsa course to the MMG and CMB grad students in preparation for the MMG Retreat in May. About 20 students had a lot of fun and learned some latin dance! View from Cape Huay (taken by Jeanne Harris) L-R: Truc Nguyen (Finette Lab), Ramiro, Andrew Dunn (Wallace Lab), Stacia Rymarchyk (Kirkpatrick Lab), and Sam Foster (Poynter Lab). MMG Newsletter/September 2007 It's an amazing and beautiful spot. It's midwinter here, so mornings are chilly (just above freezing) and there is usually a lovely mist over the river (the Derwent) that lifts by mid-morning. We went hiking (bushwalking, in the local argot) yesterday with some folks from Jeanne's (Jeanne Harris, Plant Biology) department, up to a place called Cape Huay on the Tasman Peninsula. It was a pretty intense hike but we were rewarded with awesome views of towering rock pillars in the sea below us. Page 4 There's still a huge amount to see on Tassie, so we'll be puttering around checking the place out on weekends. The kids have a school break in September and we hope to make it to the mainland of Australia and see the Great Barrier Reef. Drop me a note if you have a chance - I'm still [email protected] and we'll be back in January.” Doublié Lab Congratulations to Sylvie Doublié and Mark Rould on the birth of their baby boy, Alexandre Rafael DoubliéRould, born June 17, 2007. He weighed 10 pounds 13 ounces, and measured 22.5 inches. Justin Meyette is the proud father of baby Shyam, born January 31. Being a technician in the Doublié lab seems to be the first step on the road to graduate school. Dylan Murray starts graduate school at Florida State University at Talahassee in the Biophysics Program, and Karl Zahn has been accepted into UVM’s Cell and Molecular Biology Program. Ph.D. student Sam (Jennie) Hyde joined the lab in May. Ward Lab Jeralyn Haradlsen’s baby girl, Heidi Patricia Haraldsen, was born on Saturday, July 14 at 8:43 am, weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz. Big sister Kate is really happy to greet the new little one! In other lab news: Grad student Lucas Tilley joined the lab this year. MMG Newsletter/September 2007 Francklyn Lab Ethan Guth, a grad student in Chris’ lab had a paper entitled: “Kinetic discrimination of tRNA identity by the conserved motif 2 loop of a class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase”, published in Molecular Cell in February. Mindy Farris is on track to finish her Ph.D. this fall and has already lined up a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Washington. Anand Minajigi and Ketki Hatle (Mercedes Rincon Lab), both CMB graduate students were married on Christmas Day 2006 in Mumbai, Maharashtra State, India. Karen Champagne (Ph.D. ’05) received a fundable score on her postdoctoral fellowship with Tatiana Kutateladze at the University of Colorado at Denver. Johnson Lab Karen Cole gave a talk on her Cdc24p research at the Yeast Cell Biology Meeting at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories this August. She is actively searching for a postdoctoral position once she defends her dissertation in Spring 2008. Benjamin Stark has added Ada, a beagle/daschund mix, to his family. John Midkiff, a first year MMG graduate student, has begun his rotation in the Johnson lab as well. Undergraduates Brittany Marble and Connor Morton graduated in May and both will be going on to graduate or vet school. Jessica Pearson and Betsy Welsh have been working in the lab this summer and will continue through the Fall semester. They will be joined by fellow undergraduate Chris Deapo. Page 5 Doug Johnson had a great time visiting his former postdoc Kurt Toenjes in May in Billings, Montana. Kurt is doing wonderfully as an Assistant Professor at Montana State University at Billings and he continues to collaborate with the lab on the C. albicans small molecules study. Word through the grapevine is that Tom Lewis, former MMG faculty member, will be joining Kurt’s department at MSUB as a professor in the near future. Pederson Lab Irene Rainville, who conducted her Ph.D. thesis research in the Pederson lab (’00), is now a Genetic Counselor at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Her new email address is: [email protected]. Laëtitia Bardot, who worked in the Pederson lab from 2002 through 2004, gave birth to Ilan on 7/10/07, just one day after his sister Maroussia had her third birthday. Laëtitia's husband, Boris, who conducted postdoctoral research in the Cedric Wesley lab during the same time, was recently appointed “Maitre de conference” at the Pierre and Marie Curie Institute, and is busy with research and teaching. Fives-Taylor/Mintz Lab With much enthusiasm (and an equal amount of sadness!), we bid a heartfelt goodbye to Maja Sedic who begins a doctoral program in Cell/Molecular and Developmental Biology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University this August. Christopher Lenox has also begun a new position in Dr. Ben MMG Newsletter/September 2007 Suratt's lab in the department of Pulmonary Medicine at UVM. New additions to the lab include Erin Chicoine, research/laboratory technician, and coming this fall second-year graduate student Xuan Jiang. The lab also celebrates some new publications, one by Gaoyan (Grace) Tang in Microbiology, one by Zhixiang Peng in Oral Microbiology Immunology, and the acceptance of another paper co-authored by Baiming Sun in the Journal of Bacteriology. Paula Fives-Taylor and Keith Mintz are also staying busy these days: Paula, despite her best efforts at retirement, continues her good work on Streptococcus parasanguis. However, she has every intention to officially retire on October 9, 2007; she will be missed. Meanwhile, between grant writing, meetings, and lab work, Keith continues to improve his new home and property in Ferrisburg. Marni Slavik, a former post doc, gave birth to a baby girl, Evey, December 17, 2006, weighing 6 pounds 6 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Also, Marni will return to UVM and MMG this fall to teach Immunology. Congratulations on two jobs well done. Dr. Claude Gallant has also successfully renewed her Visa, this time without the twelve-hour detainment at the U.S./Canadian border--we are extraordinarily happy that she made it back to us. Burke Lab This year saw the graduation of Melissa Tinsley. Melissa defended her Masters’ thesis with class and flare on the topic of the glmS ribozyme in March. She and her husband Andrew currently reside in the Boston area Page 6 where Andrew is a medical resident. Graduate student Krista Brooks has taken over where Melissa left off, plunging into the dark waters of glmS ribozyme biochemistry with unparalleled enthusiasm. Phil Chan, a former Burke lab graduate student, and his wife Juliette, welcomed their first child, Aliza Patton Chan, on July 11, 2007. By all accounts everyone is doing well. Several members of the lab were able to travel to India to attend Snigda Roy’s wedding. They are pictured below in their beautiful wedding outfits. Wallace Lab Welcome to the lab Ian Odell (MD/PhD) and Andrew Dunn (CMB). April Averill joined the Wallace/Doublié lab in June, relocating from San Diego, California. April and her husband drove for six days across the country with a toddler (her two year old daughter), a 14 year old cat and a turtle. Now that’s a wild ride! Professionally, April has spent the last nine years in biotech working for several protein based drug design companies studying HCV (hepatitis C) and cancer. Meredith Benson, an undergrad, is working on her senior honor’s thesis in the lab with Susan Robey-Bond. She hails from Portland, Maine, the hometown of Jeff Blaisdell, whose sister taught Meredith Spanish in high school. She spent last semester in Italy. From left to right: Karen Burke, John Burke, Cardy Raper, Joyce Heckman and Anne MacLeod. Karen and John Burke traveled to the western states for a vacation this summer. Included in the trip was camping at Arches National Park where this photo was taken. In July, Alicia Holmes followed in Susan Wallace’s footsteps and bought a house located on the side of a mountain. Andrew Dunn has two unique new hobbies; he recently built a fully functioning brew stand for brewing beer and is also learning to ride a unicycle. Jeff Blaisdell and his wife, former graduate student Rebecca Guy (Ph.D. ’01), are the proud parents of two children, Ava and new baby Isaac. Wendy Cooper was diagnosed last November with breast cancer, and has completed all her treatments. Happily, she is doing well now. We all wish her a long and cancer free life. Thanks to all for your donations last December to Camp! (Camp! was the MMG holiday charity.) Camp was very successful this year, due to your kind help. Commenting on the famous wind blown sandstone formations, John quipped, “If this is what comes from a lot of hot air, I’m surprised we don’t have at least a couple of these in Washington, DC or outside the Dean’s Office, for that matter.” MMG Newsletter/September 2007 Vishy Bandaru left the lab this summer and is now in West Virginia working in the analytical reseach and development department at Mylan Pharmaceuticals, maker of generic drugs. “At last I got the long needed break after graduate school and working at UVM.” MPI makes generic tablets/capsules whereas Shanti Jeedigunta’s (Vishy’s wife) (Lewis Page 7 Lab) company, Mylan Technologies (MTI) in St. Albans, Vermont, makes generic drug patches. Shanti and their daughter are still in Vermont and will be moving sometime in October. Uma Wesley Lab Uma and Cedric Wesley went to India to visit family this summer. Tristram Arscott is currently working on some exciting projects elucidating a developmental model of DPPIV expression in the sympathetic nervous system and recently gave a presentation on apoptosis and differentiation in neuroblastoma at the N.E. Regional IDeA Conference. Second year graduate student Annette LaBauve recently joined the lab and is currently working on several projects related to protease function in different cancer types. Tierney Lab Jamie Carter welcomed a new baby this year, Olivia Grace, born June 10th. She joins older sister Mackenzie Elizabeth (18 months). Another addition to the Carter family is Rorschach, a Great Dane, (named after the ink blot test as he is a harlequin). He joins Libby (a Great Dane) and Farley (a Border Collie). In lab news: Jamie and Mary Tierney went to Chicago to the American Society of Plant Biology Meeting and presented their data. Matrajt Lab Welcome to Veeru Patil, our new post-doc from India. The Matrajt lab had two visiting graduate students from Argentina this year, Julia Castro and Ivan Mascanfroni. Mariana Matrajt had an active vacation hiking, swimming and horseback riding in Patagonia, Argentina. Here she is hiking on a glacier. Cedric Wesley Lab Andrew Shepherd, left the lab in June. He is planning to apply to graduate school. Heng Guo has moved to Boston with his wife Zhiheng Pan. He is continuing his studies at Boston University. News from the Basement Stephanie Phelps and her family spent a wonderful, but very cold week at Disney last Thanksgiving. Who would have guessed that it would be warmer in Vermont than Florida! Thali Lab Dimitry Krementsov’s second son, Sebastian D. Krementsov, was born on September 26, 2006, at the Fanny Allen Health Center. MMG Newsletter/September 2007 L-R: Emily, Pluto and Steph-anie Page 8 Brenda Tessmann’s daughter Mary and sonin-law Seth welcomed their new baby girl, Cynthia, 7 pounds, 2 ounces, on August 21, 2007. Older brother, Trystan, age 7, is very excited. Lynn Willette and husband Paul celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on June 5, 2007. Here they are on top of Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, Maine. News from the Office Patty Laverty was presented with the CALS Staff Award, which recognizes outstanding efforts and achievements in staff support in CALS. Helen Brunelle and her husband Rick will be celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in December. They will be taking a trip to Nova Scotia in September, when the weather is warmer, to celebrate. Alumni News Erin Keith Bordeau ’98 writes that she enjoys these newletters as it is the only way she keeps in touch with other MMG alumni. After graduating with a BS in 1998, Erin worked for a short time in a temporary research position at Pfizer. Next, she worked at Kodak Scientific Imaging Systems in a variety of roles including technical support, marketing and sales, then moved to the Seattle, Washington, area in 2005, where she joined Matrix Technologies, now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, as a sales representative for liquid handling products, selling pipettes, automated pipetting systems MMG Newsletter/September 2007 and consumables to a variety of different labs in the Pacific Northwest. “It's a great job.” In her personal life, Erin married Brian Bordeau, also a graduate of UVM. They have two beautiful children - Brady, 3 and Graham, 6 months. An interesting note is that both children have the same birthday (February 28) so they're exactly 3 years apart. Erin sends her best wishes to everyone she knew at MMG, “Even though I do a terrible job at staying in touch, I think of you often.” W. Hunter White ’97 a Masters’ student in Doug Johnson’s lab, is at Elanco, now leading the Acquisitions/Antiparasitics research efforts for the company. Hunter writes, “Unfortunately, I don't get to spend much time in the laboratory any longer and my molecular skills have grown cobwebs on them!” His lab has been busy this past year, trying to come up with the next generation of new therapies to help control nasty flea, tick and heartworm problems in dogs and cats, as well as internal and external parasites that plague livestock. Speaking of dogs, his family had a new addition arrive this spring, Zebulon Montgomery Pike (Zeb), a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, reddish-orange with white markings, hazel eyes, lots of fur and tons of energy. Zeb likes to run, so Hunter is looking forward to bringing him along on some trail running excursions as soon as he's a bit older. In addition, Hunter is actively running and coaching high school cross country and track teams. Sean Garvey ’99, who was in the Wallace Lab as an undergraduate, sends his greetings to MMG. In April 2007, he defended his doctoral thesis at Duke University and has recently begun postdoctoral work with Dr. Brian Wamhoff and the Laboratory of Atherogenesis at the University of Virginia, studying the role of calcium signaling in phenotypic modulation of vascular smooth muscle. He is also integrally involved with several atherosclerosis genomics projects. “Please reserve some lab space for my future lab at UVM in 4-5 years!” Page 9 Rebekah Wilkins Herrick ’05, spent time as an undergrad in Tom Lewis’ lab working with microbial DNA. She is now a forensic chemist working with forensic DNA for the National CODIS database (Vermont Forensic Lab). Alysia vandenBerg Ph.D. ’04 (Doug Johnson’s lab) sends us greetings from Paris. Alysia moved with her lab at Mount Sinai in New York City to the newly created Institute of Myology in Paris, France. The lab renovation is finally nearly complete after one and a half years (and two years later than the scheduled completion date) but they are still struggling to acquire enough space for their mice with renovations continuing elsewhere in the hospital, properly organize the lab with sixty members (54 more than her boss had in New York), initiate a weekly seminar series with an international set of speakers, and get their lab web site up - Alysia’s new pet project. Alysia recently submitted an article to Science magazine about relocating with the lab, which is still in the editing process. She hopes to have more freelance work in the near future. Outside of lab, she is continuing to learn French and enjoying exploring France, having visited the Alsace region and Provence this summer. Alysia hiking in the Cantal region of France Do you think it looks a bit like Vermont? MMG Holiday Party Save the Date The MMG Holiday Party is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, December 19, 2007. If you have any suggestions for the party, e-mail Debbie at [email protected]. MMG Newsletter/September 2007 VASE Public Forum A Technical Community – How Do We Get There From Here? Tuesday, September 18, 2007 5:00 – 6:20 p.m. Davis Auditorium, Medical Education Building Dean Kamen, an inventor and entrepreneur and an inspiring speaker, will address a serious issue facing society. How can we attract the next generation to fields of Science and Technology? Society as a whole needs to start promoting careers in Science and Engineering to our youth. We live in a technical world. Vermont, like many other states, is having a difficult time attracting and retaining a technical work force, which is essential for the growth of local businesses. If Vermont is to have a high quality of life 20 years from now, we need more skilled scientists and engineers, with a broad vision of the society we want to create. Dean Kamen founded US FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology): an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use, and enjoy science and technology. He is perhaps most famous for inventing the Segway Transporter, and many types of medical pumps. Mr. Kamen was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2000, the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2002, and he is a member of the National Academy of Engineers. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2005. Page 10 Microbiology and Molecular Genetics The Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics strives to be competitive in the scientific community. The Department funds many activities that bring researchers, students, postdoctoral associates and technicians together in a collegial manner to share research and ideas. These activities include, but are not limited to, graduate student activities, seminars, a departmental library, monthly departmental gatherings and retreats. Annual gifts from alumni and friends help defray the costs that grant money will not cover, and keep the excitement and drive at a high level among the various laboratories. Please consider making a contribution in support of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. You may make your gift in honor of a UVM colleague or co-worker if you would like. Enclosed is my donation of $ _____________ . Name: ______________________________________________________________ Mailing Address: ______________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ My gift is in honor of ___________________________________________________ Please make checks out to The University of Vermont and send to The Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont, 95 Carrigan Drive, Stafford Hall, Burlington, Vermont 05405. Gifts may also be made by credit card American Express MasterCard Visa Discover Card Number: _______________________________________________________________________ Expiration date: ______________________________________________________________________ You may also send your gift via the Internet. Use the following web address, https://alumni.uvm.edu/giving/support.asp Under “Gift Designation” be sure to check “Other” and type in Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. All gifts are greatly appreciated, no matter how large or small. Thank you!!! MMG Newsletter/September 2007 Page 11