Curriculum Vitae

 

Petra Anne Levin
 
Department of Biology
Campus Box 1137
Washington University
1 Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130
Tel (314) 935-7888
Fax (314) 935-4432
plevin@biology.wustl.edu

 

 

Education | Professional
Honors and Fellowships | Teaching | Research Grants
Professional Service | Professional Organizations | Mentoring
Invited Presentations Since 2001 | Publications
 
Condensed Version Avalable as PDF

 

 

Education
1996 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Ph.D., Biology
Dissertation: Asymmetric Division During Spore Formation in Bacillus subtilis.
Advisor: Dr. Richard Losick
1989 B.A., Biology, Cum laude, with Highest Honors in Biology
Williams College, Williamstown, MA

 

 

Professional
2008-present Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biology
2001-2008 Assistant Professor
Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biology
1996-2000 Postdoctoral Fellow
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Biology
Advisor: Dr. Alan Grossman
1989-1990 Teacher
The American School In Switzerland
1987 Intern
New England Biolabs, Beverly, Massachusetts

 

 

Honors and Fellowships
2005-2010 National Science Foundation Career Award
2002 American Cancer Society, Research Scholar Award (Declined for NIH RO1)
1999-2000 MIT/Merck Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, MIT
1996-1999 Marion Abbe Fellow, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
1992-1993 Paul Mazur Fellow, Harvard University, Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
1988-1989 class of 1960 Scholar, Williams College, Department of Biology

 

 

Teaching
2006-present Washington University, Lecturer
Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis (BIO 5392)
2005-present Washsington University, Course Master
Microbiology Laboratory (BIO 3491)
2002-present Washington University, Course Director
Introduction to Microbiology (BIO 349)
2001-present Washington University, Discussion Section Leader
Molecular Cell Biology (BIO 5086)
2002-present Washington University, Advisor
Independent Study (BIO 200 and BIO 500)
1989-1990 The American School in Switzerland, Teacher
7th and 8th grade Earth Science, 9th grade Physical Science

 

 

Mentoring
Postdoctoral Scientists
Amy Zoch Buscher (2005-2007)
Recipient of Washington University Keck Fellowship and NIH NRSA Award
Current position: Forensic Scientist-DNA Analyst, Wisconsin State Crime Lab
 
Qingwei Luo (2007-present)
 
Graduate Students
Richard (Brad) Weart (2001-2007)
Ph.D. Molecular Microbiology, November, 2007.
Current position: Postdoctoral Scientist, Dr. Alan Grossman's laboratory, MIT
 
Daniel Haeusser (2001-2008)
Ph.D. Molecular Cell Biology, May 2008
Current Position: Postdoctoral Scientist, Dr. Ken Keiler Laboratory, Penn State University
 
Amy Lee: Molecular Microbiology Program, M.A. in Biology, December 2005
Current position: Ph.D. student in Genetics and Genomics at the University of Toronto
 
An-Chun (Jenny) Chien: Molecular Cell Biology Program Ph.D. candidate
Lee Foundation Fellow of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, 2006-present
 
Norbert (Bisco) Hill: Molecular Microbiology Program Ph.D. candidate
 
Paul James Buske: Biochemistry Program Ph.D. Candidate
 
Undergraduate Students (*denotes Honors in Biology)
Patricia Cheung, Summer 2008-present
 
David Erickson, Summer 2003, Prefreshman Summer Scholar
Current Position: Chinese studies student at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing China
 
Cristina Fernandez, Summer 2001, Prefreshman Summer Scholar
Current Position: Medical Student at Columbia University
 
Anna Cristina Garza*, Spring 2006 to Spring 2007, HHMI Fellow
Current Position: MD/Ph.D. student, Harvard Medical School
 
Dorothy Gregg, Spring and Summer 2006
Current Position: Research Technician, Washington University
 
Samantha Herman, Summer 2002 to Summer 2003, HHMI Fellow
Current Position: Medical Student at the University of Florida
 
Sherri Huang, Fall 2006-present
 
Tina Huang, Fall 2008-present
 
Gene Lee, Spring and Summer 2006
Current Position: Taking year off before attending medical school
 
Grace Lee* Fall 2005-present, HHMI Fellow
 
Michelle Oates*, Spring 2001-Spring 2004, HHMI Fellow, ASM Undergraduate Research Fellow
Current Position: Graduate Student in Genetics and Molecular Biology at UNC
 
Xiaoou Pan, Fall 2001-Spring 2002
Current Position: Graduate student in Cell and Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins
 
Sarah Schultz*, Summer 2002-Spring 2003
Current Position: Clinical Research Associate, Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University Medical School
 

 

 

Research Grants
NSF MCB-0448186 "CAREER: Identification and characterization of factors promoting cytokinetic ring formation in Bacillus subtilis." P.A. Levin, Principal Investigator
02/01/05-01/31/10.
NIH RO1 GM64671-01 "Temporal and spatial control of B. subtilis cytokinesis" P.A. Levin, Principal Investigator
7/1/02-7/31/12.
American Cancer Society (IRG) "Polymer dynamics and the regulation of an essential bacterial cell division protein." P.A. Levin, Principal Investigator
11/1/00-10/31/01.
Merck/MIT Collaboration Program, Postdoctoral Fellowship
1999-2000.
Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellowship, DRG-1397
1996-1999.

 

 

Professional Service
2008- Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Molecular Microbiology
2008 External Examiner, Ph.D. Thesis of Phoebe Peters, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2007 External Examiner, Ph.D. Thesis of Ying Zhang, Oregon Health and Science University
2006-2007 Member, Plant Biology faculty search committee, Department of Biology, Washington University
2005-present Member, Microbiology Graduate Program steering committee, Washington University
2005 Member, Biology Department Academic Planning Committee
2002-present Member, Ph.D. Admissions Committee, Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, Washington University
2002-2004 Member, Moog Scholarship review committee, Washington University College of Arts and Sciences
2001-2002 Member, Molecular Geobiology faculty search committee, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University
 
Scientific Review
2005-2006 Member, ACS Molecular Cell Biology of Cancer panel
2003-2005 Member, NSF Microbial Genetics review panel
2002-present Ad Hoc Reviewer, NSF multiple panels
Journal Reviewer Average of 10 reviews per year for various journals including: Molecular Microbiology, Journal of Bacteriology, Applied Environmental Microbiology, EMBO, PNAS, Genes and Development, FEMS Letters, Cell, Molecular Cell, Developmental Cell, Microbiology

 

 

Professional Organizations
American Society for Microbiology
Association for Women in Science

 

 

Invited Presentations Since 2002
April, 2009 Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
March, 2009 Spatial 2009 Meeting, Jerusalem, Israel
February, 2009 Bauer Forum, FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
November, 2008 Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
March, 2008 Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
March 2008 Cell Biology & Metabolism Program, NIH, Bethesda, MD
November, 2007 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI
November, 2007 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX
October, 2007 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Pathogenesis, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
September, 2007 Department of Environmental and Biomolecular Systems, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR
August, 2007 Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting, Madison, WI
May, 2007 American Society for Microbiology General Meeting, Toronto, ON
Convener, Session Title: The prokaryotic cytoskeleton: structure, function, and regulation
May, 2007 Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC
April, 2007 Section of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
March, 2007 Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
January, 2007 Department of Cell Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
January, 2007 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
November, 2006 Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
August, 2006 EMBO Workshop on Cell Cycle and Cytoskeletal Elements in Bacteria, Copenhagen, Denmark
June, 2006 Gordon Research Conference on Bacterial Cell surfaces, New London, NH
November, 2005 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL
October, 2005 Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
September, 2005 Biology Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
May, 2004 Department of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO
November, 2003 Department of Biochemistry, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
October, 2003 Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
July, 2003 School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
April, 2003 Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
August, 2002 Department of Biochemistry, UConn Health Center, Farmington, CT
August, 2002 Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages Meeting. Chair Cell Cycle and Development Session

 

 

Publications
  1. Haeusser, D.P., A.H. Lee, R.B Weart and P.A. Levin. (2009) ClpX inhibits FtsZ assembly in a manner that does not require its ATP hydrolysis-dependent chaperone activity, J. Bacteriol., 191:1986-1991.
     
  2. Haeusser, D.P. and P.A. Levin. (2008) The Great Divide: Coordinating cell cycle events during bacterial growth and division, Current Opinion in Microbiology, 11:94-99.
     
  3. Haeusser, D.P., A.C. Garza*, A. Buscher, and P.A. Levin. (2007) The division inhibitor EzrA contains a seven-residue patch required for maintaining the dynamic nature of the medial FtsZ ring, J. Bacteriol., 189: 9001-9010. (Cover image)
     
  4. Weart, R.B., A.H. Lee, A.C. Chien, D.P. Haeusser, N.S. Hill, and P.A. Levin. (2007) A metabolic sensor governing cell size in bacteria. Cell, 130(2): 335-47. (Cover image)
     
  5. Norris, V., T. den Blaauwen, A. Cabin-Flaman, R. H. Doi, R. Harshey, L. Janniere, A. Jimenez-Sanchez, D. J. Jin, P. A. Levin, P .A., E. Mileykovskaya, A. Minsky, M. Saier Jr, and K. Skarstad. (2007) Functional taxonomy of bacterial hyperstructures, Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., 71(1):230-253.
     
  6. Weart, R. B., S. Nakano, B. E. Lane, P. Zuber, and P.A. Levin. (2005) The ClpX chaperone modulates assembly of the tubulin-like protein FtsZ, Mol. Microbiol., 57:238-49.
     
  7. Haeusser, D.P., R. L. Schwartz, A. M. Smith, M. E. Oates*, and P. A. Levin. (2004) EzrA prevents aberrant cell division by modulating assembly of the cytoskeletal protein FtsZ, Mol. Microbiol. 52:801-814.
     
  8. Romberg, L. and P. A. Levin. (2003) Dynamic FtsZ rings in cell division: poised at the edge of stability. Annu. Rev. Micro. 57: 125-154.
     
  9. Weart, R. B. and P.A. Levin. (2003) Growth rate dependent regulation of FtsZ ring formation in Bacillus subtilis, J. Bacteriol. 185: 2826-2834.
     
  10. Levin, P. A. (2002) Light microscopy techniques for bacterial cell biology. In Phillipe Sansonetti and Arturo Zychlinsky (Eds.) Methods in Microbiology 31: Molecular Cellular Microbiology, 115-132. Academic Press Ltd., London.
     
  11. Levin, P. A., R. L. Schwartz, and A. D. Grossman. (2001) Polymer stability plays an important role in the positional regulation of FtsZ, J. Bacteriol. 183: 5449-5452. §
     
  12. Levin, P. A. and R. Losick. (2000) Asymmetric cell division in Bacillus subtilis. In Y. V. Brun and L. Shimkets (Eds.) Prokaryotic Development, 167-189. American Society for Microbiology Press, Washington, D. C.
     
  13. Levin, P. A., I. G. Kurtser and A. D. Grossman. (1999) Identification and characterization of ezrA, a negative regulator of FtsZ ring formation in Bacillus subtilis, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 96: 9642-9647.
     
  14. Levin, P. A., J. J. Shim, and A. D. Grossman. (1998) Effect of minCD on FtsZ ring formation and polar septation in Bacillus subtilis. J. Bacteriol. 180: 6048-6051.
     
  15. Levin, P. A. and A. D. Grossman. (1998) Cell cycle and sporulation in Bacillus subtilis. Current Opinion in Microbiology 1:630-635.
     
  16. Levin, P. A. and A. D. Grossman. (1998) Cell Cycle: The bacterial approach to coordination. Current Biology 8: R28-R31.
     
  17. Levin, P. A., R. Losick, P. Stragier, and F. Arigoni. (1997) Localization of the sporulation protein SpoIIE in Bacillus subtilis is dependent upon the cell division protein FtsZ. Mol. Microbiol. 25: 839-846.
     
  18. Lin, D. C.-H., P. A. Levin, and A. D. Grossman. (1997) Bipolar localization of a chromosome partition protein in Bacillus subtilis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94: 4721-4726.
     
  19. Jin, S., P. A. Levin, K. Matsuno, A. D. Grossman, and A. L. Sonenshein. (1997) Deletion of the Bacillus subtilis isocitrate dehydrogenase gene causes a block at stage I of sporulation. J. Bacteriol. 179: 4725-4732.
     
  20. Levin, P. A. and R. Losick. (1996) Transcription factor Spo0A switches the localization of the cell division protein FtsZ from a medial to a bipolar pattern in Bacillus subtilis. Genes Dev. 10: 478-488.
     
  21. Levin, P. A. and R. Losick. (1995) Generating specialized cell types by asymmetric division in Bacillus subtilis. Seminars in Developmental Biology 6: 335-345.
     
  22. Levin, P. A. and R. Losick. (1994) The cell division gene divIC from Bacillus subtilis is required for vegetative and sporulation septum formation. J. Bacteriol. 176: 1451-1459.
     
  23. Levin, P. A., N. Fan, E. Ricca, A. Driks, R. Losick and S. Cutting. (1993) An unusually small gene required for sporulation by Bacillus subtilis. Mol. Microbiol. 9: 761-771.
     
  24. Levin, P. A., P. S. Margolis, P. Setlow, R. Losick, and D. Sun. (1992) Identification of Bacillus subtilis genes for septum placement and shape determination. J. Bacteriol. 174: 6717-6728.
     
 
 
* Washington University undergraduate
§ This work was funded by an ACS-IRG award to Petra Levin, who is the corresponding author.