---

News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Three Indiana University scientists elevated to microbiology's top ranks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 18, 2009

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Bloomington biologists Carl Bauer and Malcolm Winkler and Stanley Spinola, an infectious disease specialist at the IU School of Medicine, are new fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology, the professional society announced yesterday.

Bauer, Winkler and Spinola will receive certificates marking the honor, and are invited to attend a special luncheon at the American Society of Microbiology annual meeting in Philadelphia (May 2009).

Fellows are elected each year "through a highly selective, peer-review process based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology," according to the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM).

"The American Academy of Microbiology is pleased to honor doctors Bauer, Spinola and Winkler and acknowledge their contributions to microbiology," said R. John Collier, chair of the Board of Governors, American Academy of Microbiology.

Spinola is a physician, researcher and director of the IU School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases. He studies chancroid, a disease caused by the sexual transmission of the bacterium Haemophilus ducreyi. In particular, Spinola is interested in how chancroid facilitates HIV-1 infection and how the bacterium evades human immune responses.

Winkler, director of IU Bloomington's Biotechnology Training Program, studies the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that induce the human respiratory pathogenic bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, to become virulent, resist antibiotics, and sense its environment to build cell surface and cell wall components and produce hydrogen peroxide.

Bauer's work does not fit neatly into the categories of cell biology, biochemistry, microbiology, genetics or molecular biology, as his interests span each of these fields. Among many scientific discoveries, Bauer has elucidated key systems that bacteria use to sense and grow in different levels of oxygen and light. Bauer is also director of IU Bloomington's Interdisciplinary Biochemistry Program.

Bauer, Winkler and Spinola follow biologist Patricia Foster, who was elected an AAM fellow in 2008.

The American Academy of Microbiology (Academy) is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the world's oldest and largest life science organization. The Academy's mission is to recognize scientists for outstanding contributions to microbiology and provide microbiological expertise in the service of science and the public.

To speak with Bauer or Winkler, please contact David Bricker, IU University Communications, at 812-856-9035 or brickerd@indiana.edu. To speak with Spinola, please contact Mary Hardin, IU School of Medicine, at 317-274-7722 or mhardin@iupui.edu.

---

---