Virginia L. Miller

Virginia Miller
At the 2022 Microbe annual meeting
Alma mater	University of California at Santa Barbara Harvard University Stanford University
Scientific career
Institutions	UCLA WUSTL University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Thesis	Analysis of the cholera toxin positive regulatory gene, toxR (1985)

Virginia L. Miller is a microbiologist known for her work on studying the factors leading to disease caused by bacteria. Miller is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2003) and a former Pew Charitable Trust Biomedical Scholar (1989).[1]

Education and career

Miller has a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1979).[2] She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1985 where she worked on the expression of genes associated with Cholera toxin.[3] Following her Ph.D., she was a postdoc at Stanford University.[4] She moved to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1988 and earned tenure in 1994.[5] She moved to Washington University in St. Louis in 1996, and then to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008.[4] As of 2021, Miller is a professor of genetics, microbiology, and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[2]

Research

Miller is known for her research into bacterial pathogenesis, the factors leading to the onset of disease from specific species of bacteria.[6][7][8][9][10] Her early research examined the synthesis of the cholera toxin by Vibrio cholerae[11][12] and identified environmental signals that lead V. cholerae to express the proteins needed to make the cholera toxin.[13] She went on to examine the mechanisms by which another bacteria pathogen - Yersinia pestis - enters cells[14] and cause disease.[15] She has also worked on how Salmonella[16][17] and Klebsiella pneumoniae[18][19] cause disease. In brief, she mostly worked in the areas of Microbiology, Yersinia enterocolitica and Virulence.[20]

Awards and honors

In 1989, Miller was named a Pew Scholar.[1] In 2003, Miller was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.[21][5]

Selected publications

• Miller, Virginia L.; Taylor, Ronald K.; Mekalanos, John J. (1987-01-30). "Cholera toxin transcriptional activator ToxR is a transmembrane DNA binding protein". Cell. 48 (2): 271–279. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(87)90430-2. ISSN 0092-8674. PMID 3802195. S2CID 28576010.
• Miller, V L; Mekalanos, J J (1988-06-01). "A novel suicide vector and its use in construction of insertion mutations: osmoregulation of outer membrane proteins and virulence determinants in Vibrio cholerae requires toxR". Journal of Bacteriology. 170 (6): 2575–2583. doi:10.1128/jb.170.6.2575-2583.1988. PMC 211174. PMID 2836362.
• Taylor, R. K.; Miller, V. L.; Furlong, D. B.; Mekalanos, J. J. (1987-05-01). "Use of phoA gene fusions to identify a pilus colonization factor coordinately regulated with cholera toxin". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 84 (9): 2833–2837. Bibcode:1987PNAS...84.2833T. doi:10.1073/pnas.84.9.2833. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 304754. PMID 2883655.

References

1. "Virginia L. Miller, PhD". PEW Trusts - Biomedical Scholars (1989). Retrieved 2022-03-16.
2. "Virginia Miller, PhD". Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
3. Miller, Virginia L (1985). Analysis of the cholera toxin positive regulatory gene, toxR (Thesis). OCLC 17572198.
4. "Virginia Miller, Ph.D." ASM.org. Retrieved 2021-11-30.
5. "Miller biographical sketch" (PDF). 2014-02-23. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-02-23. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
6. Schmiel, Deborah H.; Miller, Virginia L. (1999-11-01). "Bacterial phospholipases and pathogenesis". Microbes and Infection. 1 (13): 1103–1112. doi:10.1016/S1286-4579(99)00205-1. ISSN 1286-4579. PMID 10572314.
7. Pepe, J C; Wachtel, M R; Wagar, E; Miller, V L (December 1995). "Pathogenesis of defined invasion mutants of Yersinia enterocolitica in a BALB/c mouse model of infection". Infection and Immunity. 63 (12): 4837–4848. doi:10.1128/iai.63.12.4837-4848.1995. ISSN 0019-9567. PMC 173693. PMID 7591144.
8. Young, Glenn M.; Miller, Virginia L. (July 1997). "Identification of novel chromosomal loci affecting Yersinia enterocolitica pathogenesis". Molecular Microbiology. 25 (2): 319–328. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2958.1997.4661829.x. PMID 9282744. S2CID 25748196.
9. Young, G M; Amid, D; Miller, V L (November 1996). "A bifunctional urease enhances survival of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica and Morganella morganii at low pH". Journal of Bacteriology. 178 (22): 6487–6495. doi:10.1128/jb.178.22.6487-6495.1996. ISSN 0021-9193. PMC 178535. PMID 8932305.
10. Weening, Eric H.; Cathelyn, Jason S.; Kaufman, Greer; Lawrenz, Matthew B.; Price, Paul; Goldman, William E.; Miller, Virginia L. (February 2011). Camilli, A. (ed.). "The Dependence of the Yersinia pestis Capsule on Pathogenesis Is Influenced by the Mouse Background". Infection and Immunity. 79 (2): 644–652. doi:10.1128/IAI.00981-10. ISSN 0019-9567. PMC 3028848. PMID 21115720.
11. Miller, V. L.; Mekalanos, J. J. (1984-06-01). "Synthesis of cholera toxin is positively regulated at the transcriptional level by toxR". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 81 (11): 3471–3475. Bibcode:1984PNAS...81.3471M. doi:10.1073/pnas.81.11.3471. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 345530. PMID 6374658.
12. Miller, Virginia L.; Taylor, Ronald K.; Mekalanos, John J. (1987). "Cholera toxin transcriptional activator ToxR is a transmembrane DNA binding protein". Cell. 48 (2): 271–279. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(87)90430-2. PMID 3802195. S2CID 28576010.
13. Miller, V L; Mekalanos, J J (1988-06-01). "A novel suicide vector and its use in construction of insertion mutations: osmoregulation of outer membrane proteins and virulence determinants in Vibrio cholerae requires toxR". Journal of Bacteriology. 170 (6): 2575–2583. doi:10.1128/jb.170.6.2575-2583.1988. PMC 211174. PMID 2836362.
14. Miller, V L; Falkow, S (1988). "Evidence for two genetic loci in Yersinia enterocolitica that can promote invasion of epithelial cells". Infection and Immunity. 56 (5): 1242–1248. doi:10.1128/iai.56.5.1242-1248.1988. ISSN 0019-9567. PMC 259798. PMID 2833444.
15. Miller, V L; Farmer, J J; Hill, W E; Falkow, S (1989). "The ail locus is found uniquely in Yersinia enterocolitica serotypes commonly associated with disease". Infection and Immunity. 57 (1): 121–131. doi:10.1128/iai.57.1.121-131.1989. ISSN 0019-9567. PMC 313052. PMID 2642465.
16. Hong, K. Heran; Miller, Virginia L. (1998). "Identification of a Novel Salmonella Invasion Locus Homologous to Shigella ipgDE". Journal of Bacteriology. 180 (7): 1793–1802. doi:10.1128/JB.180.7.1793-1802.1998. ISSN 0021-9193. PMC 107092. PMID 9537377.
17. Darwin, K. Heran; Miller, Virginia L. (1999). "Molecular Basis of the Interaction of Salmonella with the Intestinal Mucosa". Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 12 (3): 405–428. doi:10.1128/CMR.12.3.405. ISSN 0893-8512. PMC 100246. PMID 10398673.
18. Lawlor, Matthew S.; Hsu, James; Rick, Paul D.; Miller, Virginia L. (2005). "Identification of Klebsiella pneumoniae virulence determinants using an intranasal infection model: Klebsiella pneumoniae intranasal STM". Molecular Microbiology. 58 (4): 1054–1073. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2958.2005.04918.x. PMID 16262790. S2CID 44666800.
19. Lawlor, Matthew S.; O'Connor, Christopher; Miller, Virginia L. (2007). "Yersinia bactin Is a Virulence Factor for Klebsiella pneumoniae during Pulmonary Infection". Infection and Immunity. 75 (3): 1463–1472. doi:10.1128/IAI.00372-06. ISSN 0019-9567. PMC 1828572. PMID 17220312.
20. "Virginia L. Miller: H-index & Awards - Academic Profile". Research.com. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
21. "American Academy of Microbiology fellows". Retrieved December 3, 2021.