(Note: this post isn’t nearly as sad as it might seem from the title or the introduction below)

Yesterday I lost two close friends. We had been friends for five years, though our relationships had extended a tumultuous 10 or so months before that. Given that we still have unfinished business I expect our friendships to straggle on a little longer. But really, it’s over. My friends have helped me grow in a number of important ways- become more mature, deal with different personalities, forced me to communicate more clearly and to take criticism in a constructive light. The friendships both challenged me in different ways and supported me through a fragile time in my life. I will miss both of these friends for some different reasons- and some of the same reasons.

Like many friendships they have ended because of what other people thought about them. A small number of people had comments on our friendship- some of the comments, upon reflection, were probably well-placed, others certainly were not. But that outside influence is what really broke us apart. I hope that we can become friends again in the future- but we both will have changed so much in the intervening time that we may well be unrecognizable to each other. Still it would be nice to continue this friendship.

Farewell Systems Biology of Enteropathogens and Systems Virology Centers – you will be missed but not forgotten.

Here are a few mementos of our time together….

1. Ansong C, Schrimpe-Rutledge AC, MitchellH, Chauhan S,Jones MB, Kim Y-M, McAteerK, Deatherage B, Dubois JL, Brewer HM, Frank BC, McDermottJE, Metz TO, Peterson SN, Motin VL, Adkins JN. A multi-omic systems approach to elucidating Yersinia virulence mechanisms.Molecular Biosystems 2012. In press.
2. McDermott JE, Corley C, Rasmussen AL, Diamond DL, Katze MG, Waters KM: Using network analysis to identify therapeutic targets from global proteomics data. BMC systems biology 2012, 6:28.
3. Yoon H, Ansong C, McDermott JE, Gritsenko M, Smith RD, Heffron F, Adkins JN: Systems analysis of multiple regulator perturbations allows discovery of virulence factors in Salmonella. BMC systems biology 2011, 5:100.
4. Niemann GS, Brown RN, Gustin JK, Stufkens A, Shaikh-Kidwai AS, Li J, McDermott JE, Brewer HM, Schepmoes A, Smith RD et al: Discovery of novel secreted virulence factors from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium by proteomic analysis of culture supernatants. Infect Immun 2011, 79(1):33-43.
5. McDermott JE, Yoon H, Nakayasu ES, Metz TO, Hyduke DR, Kidwai AS, Palsson BO, Adkins JN, Heffron F: Technologies and approaches to elucidate and model the virulence program of salmonella. Front Microbiol 2011, 2:121.
6. McDermott JE, Shankaran H, Eisfeld AJ, Belisle SE, Neumann G, Li C, McWeeney SK, Sabourin CL, Kawaoka Y, Katze MG et al: Conserved host response to highly pathogenic avian influenza virus infection in human cell culture, mouse and macaque model systems. BMC systems biology 2011, 5(1):190.
7. McDermott JE, Corrigan A, Peterson E, Oehmen C, Niemann G, Cambronne ED, Sharp D, Adkins JN, Samudrala R, Heffron F: Computational prediction of type III and IV secreted effectors in gram-negative bacteria. Infect Immun 2011, 79(1):23-32.
8. McDermott JE, Archuleta M, Thrall BD, Adkins JN, Waters KM: Controlling the response: predictive modeling of a highly central, pathogen-targeted core response module in macrophage activation. PLoS ONE 2011, 6(2):e14673.
9. Aderem A, Adkins JN, Ansong C, Galagan J, Kaiser S, Korth MJ, Law GL, McDermott JG, Proll SC, Rosenberger C et al: A systems biology approach to infectious disease research: innovating the pathogen-host research paradigm. MBio 2011, 2(1):e00325-00310.
10. Buchko GW, Niemann G, Baker ES, Belov ME, Heffron F, Adkins JN, McDermott JE (2011). A multi-pronged search for a common structural motif in the secretion signal of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium type III effector proteins. Molecular Biosystems. 6(12):2448-58.
11. Lawrence PK, Kittichotirat W, Bumgarner RE, McDermott JE, Herndon DR, Knowles DP, Srikumaran S: Genome sequences of Mannheimia haemolytica serotype A2: ovine and bovine isolates. J Bacteriol 2010, 192(4):1167-1168
12. Yoon H, McDermott JE, Porwollik S, McClelland M, Heffron F: Coordinated regulation of virulence during systemic infection of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. PLoS Pathog 2009, 5(2):e1000306.
13. *Taylor RC, Singhal M, Weller J, Khoshnevis S, Shi L, McDermott J: A network inference workflow applied to virulence-related processes in Salmonella typhimurium. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2009, 1158:143-158.
14. *Shi L, Chowdhury SM, Smallwood HS, Yoon H, Mottaz-Brewer HM, Norbeck AD, McDermott JE, Clauss TRW, Heffron F, Smith RD, and Adkins JN. Proteomic Investigation of the Time Course Responses of RAW 264.7 Macrophages to Salmonella Infection. Infection and Immunity 2009, 77(8):3227-33.
15. *Shi L, Ansong C, Smallwood H, Rommereim L, McDermott JE, Brewer HM, Norbeck AD, Taylor RC, Gustin JK, Heffron F, Smith RD, Adkins JN. Proteome of Salmonella Enterica Serotype Typhimurium Grown in a Low Mg/pH Medium. J Proteomics Bioinform. 2009; 2:388-397.
16. *Samudrala R, Heffron F, McDermott JE: Accurate prediction of secreted substrates and identification of a conserved putative secretion signal for type III secretion systems. PLoS Pathog 2009, 5(4):e1000375.
17. *McDermott JE, Taylor RC, Yoon H, Heffron F: Bottlenecks and hubs in inferred networks are important for virulence in Salmonella typhimurium. J Comput Biol 2009, 16(2):169-180.
18. *Ansong C, Yoon H, Norbeck AD, Gustin JK, McDermott JE, Mottaz HM, Rue J, Adkins JN, Heffron F, Smith RD: Proteomics Analysis of the Causative Agent of Typhoid Fever. J Proteome Res 2008.

*these were really from slightly before our time- but I’ll count them there anyway