Katherine Spindler, PhD, is M&I Professor Emerita

Professor Emerita Katherine Spindler is a distinguished virologist whose research focused on viral pathogenesis and host/virus interactions of viruses in three diverse viral families (adenoviruses, rhabdoviruses, and bacteriophages). She contributed to understanding persistent infections and how viral transcriptional regulators function. Her laboratory pioneered work on a mouse model of adenovirus infection that enables study of pathogenesis in the natural host and identified host susceptibility genes, mechanisms of blood-brain barrier disruption and evasion of a host antiviral response.

Spindler co-authored over 70 scholarly publications and served on several editorial boards and grant review panels. 

Spindler received teaching and scientific communication awards as well as the prestigious American Society for Virology Wolfgang and Patricia Joklik Distinguished Service Award. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mentoring at the bench

Since junior high school, Spindler has been passionate about working at the bench and performing hands-on experiments. “Every time we succeeded in making a mutant virus, it was so exciting! It was usually a long process using viral and cell reagents we prepared. Getting to the point where we could actually start studying how the mutations affected the virus behaviors that cause diseases was really thrilling.” These particularly exciting moments happened about 10 times in the course of her successful career.

“My joy came from doing experiments.” —Kathy Spindler, Ph.D.

Spindler is very grateful for the support she received from her first lab manager, Amy Ball, and credited her for making everything happen in the lab at the start. “We were such a good team!” Kathy said. 

Of her experience in the lab, Ball wrote: “Kathy took a chance on me when I was coming out of a rocky graduate school experience, and hired me for her new lab at the University of Georgia. She led a lab of grad students and techs and helped us all become better scientists, no matter where we started from. Kathy was generous in helping us live our own lives outside the lab and melded a group of people into a community. I will always be grateful to Kathy and wish her well in retirement!”

At the University of Georgia (UGA) and University of Michigan (U-M), Spindler mentored nine PhD students and 11 postdoctoral fellows. “It was really a lot of fun to interact at the bench -  trainees learning from me, and me from them. I enjoyed one-on-one teaching and showing others how to do something,” she said. “We also celebrated the successes and moaned about the failures together, and came up with solutions.” 

“We made cell culture media from powder and phenol from solid. We washed glass pipettes and plugged them with cotton. In the end, we knew what we were doing because we knew what was in our hands. Getting a PhD in Kathy’s lab was not about rushing to the next figure, the next paper. It was your craft, learning to learn, learning how to ask questions not at a screen but at your bench, questions for your system, your mutant, your hands, yourself. In that sense, getting a PhD in Kathy’s lab prepared me for a career in science and beyond.”—Marty Moore, Ph.D., a former student in the Spindler lab at UGA who completed some of his dissertation research at U-M.

Photos above: Kathy Spindler (top) and Amy Ball doing experiments at UGA, 1988.

Spindler Lab past and present at ASV 2005 at Penn State. Left to right, Clayton Beard, Marty Moore, Lisa Gralinski, Amanda Welton, Greg Stempfle, Scott Fisher, Jason Weinberg

Spindler was very much appreciated at U-M M&I, not only by her colleagues and students, but also by the staff. “I've had the privilege of working closely with Dr. Spindler for years now, and I've enjoyed every moment. She exudes professionalism, integrity, honesty and compassion - in all things. It's been wonderful working with and learning from her,” said Sheryl Smith, an Administrative Specialist Senior at U-M.

Diversity in science and service to the U-M community

All along, Spindler has been a strong advocate for diversity in science and has actively encouraged the development of young scientists, first as a graduate studies director at UGA and then at U-M on the Rackham Executive Board. 

At UGA, she founded a summer undergraduate research program for students lacking research opportunities at their institutions. “It was great seeing new people who otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity to come in and get exposed to scientific research work. Our graduate students also greatly benefited from interacting with these students with a different background.” 

At U-M, she was an interim director for the Program in Biomedical Science (PIBS) and also an interim associate director for the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program. She was Graduate Studies Chair in M&I from 2010-2013, and was also M&I departmental newsletter editor for five years.

On the STRIDE committee of the U-M ADVANCE program, she contributed to the recruitment of a diverse and outstanding faculty. With STRIDE, she found a very stimulating and witty community that made this activity very rewarding. “We were not reading virology literature, but learned about sociology, economics, psychology, interview processes, career advances, and it was different and intellectually very stimulating,” she said. 

As a woman in science, Spindler knows that there have been barriers for women, but all her mentors were men who were advocates for women in science. She was hired at U-M by Michael Savageau, who was M&I Chair at the time, and who was striving to diversify the department and increase the number of women faculty. “However I’m well aware that many women in science have suffered from gender discrimination,” she said.

Spindler was also committed to educating the general public and served as a co-host for the podcast ​​”This Week in Virology.” She was the first woman contributing to this podcast that was launched in 2008 by Vincent Racaniello, Ph.D., of Columbia University. “The podcast keeps me reading the literature that I wouldn't read otherwise, and that has been good.” She also participated in informational town halls about COVID-19 vaccines. 

The American Society for Virology (ASV)

Spindler was an outstanding leader in the American Society for Virology (ASV), serving in several leadership roles including as an Associate Program Chair and then Program Chair for the ASV Meetings, selecting presenters and identifying state-of-the-art speakers. From 2017–2024, she was the ASV Secretary-Treasurer. She oversaw the ASV Office at U-M and the annual ASV meetings throughout North America. 

She is very grateful for the support she has received from Andréa Garcia, ASV Program Manager. “Andréa is very talented and thoughtful. They know to be customer-service oriented!” Garcia also said: “I’ve had the honor and privilege of working side by side with Kathy at the American Society for Virology. Kathy brings dedication, passion, and ingenuity to every project she takes on, and ensures everyone has a voice at the table. She has taught me what it truly means to be a leader and team player. Kathy has been a wonderful mentor and colleague and I will miss working with her.”

“My service at ASV was very rewarding. I learned such great science at these meetings and met so many virologists. They are more than colleagues, they are friends!” —Kathy Spindler, Ph.D.

Felicia Goodrum, Ph.D., ASV Past President, Professor, Department of Immunobiology, University of Arizona, commented on Spindler’s contributions to ASV: “I have known Kathy Spindler since I was a graduate student at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. We met at a regional conference and she recommended an international meeting - the Small DNA Tumor Virus meeting - that we went to for years. It was so important to my development as a scientist. Kathy even offered to share her dorm room with her, which I did!  As I grew up through the field of virology, Kathy was always a guiding force. When I became involved with the American Society for Virology (ASV) and eventually served on ASV Council and became AVS President, I saw her true leadership in action. She has a very deep devotion to the Society and I think our missions are well aligned to do powerful things—like create the Global Partnerships and Advocacy Committee. She was a huge proponent of giving opportunity to others and a huge advocate for hosting Global scholars at ASV meetings. Kathy has been a rock in the field and a major contributor with a very successful career.”

Lisa Gralinski, Ph.D., a former U-M student, also shared about Spindler’s ASV contribution: “My favorite memories of Kathy are at the American Society of Virology annual meetings. My first meeting was Penn State 2005 and we were together again at Ohio State just recently! Kathy knows everyone at ASV and is amazing at making connections. She still makes a point of introducing me to other PIs who she thinks I should know, and now she looks out for my students as well.”
 

Spindler Lab past and present at ASV 2024, Columbus OH. Left to right, Jason Weinberg, Kathy  Spindler, Lisa Gralinski, Adriana Kajon

And Bert L. Semler, Distinguished Professor, Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, University of California - Irvine, said: “Kathy has been my close friend and fellow virologist for almost 50 years. Not only has she made exceptional research contributions to our understanding of how pathogenic respiratory viruses cause disease, but she has also made professional service contributions that should be a model for how scientists give back to their profession. Plus, she is lots of fun, has a terrific sense of humor, is kind and generous, and enjoys a mind-boggling array of non-scientific activities. Above all, Kathy is a loyal friend through thick and thin." 

Early Years

Spindler comes from a family of chemists and “there was a lot of science at the dinner table.” Like her dad, she started a rock collection, and while she was interested in performing music, she knew early on that she wanted to become a biology major. Her junior high school teacher in Cleveland, OH,  also greatly influenced her career choice. 

Spindler received her B.S. from Purdue University in 1975 and did her graduate studies at the University of California, San Diego, where she had the opportunity to rotate in different labs including a phage lab and eventually a rhabdovirus lab where she completed her Ph.D. in 1981. She went on to do her postdoctoral training first in human and then in mouse adenoviruses at the University of California, Los Angeles. This topic remained her main scientific interest for the rest of her career. She joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1985 as an assistant professor, was then promoted to associate professor in 1992, and to professor in 1998. 

Professor Spindler joined U-M M&I faculty in December 2001, as a full professor. There she met colleagues who were also interested in microbial pathogenesis, immunology and viruses, which was very attractive to her, because she didn’t have this opportunity at UGA. She also already knew several colleagues at U-M, and this move was an opportunity to be closer to her family who lives in Ann Arbor. She attributes her success as a faculty member at UGA and U-M to the supportive collegiality of fellow scientists in both places.

In Retirement

Spindler has nurtured her musical interest all along and sings in the UMS Choral Union, which among other things, performs Handel’s Messiah in Ann Arbor each December. In her retirement, she will keep singing and playing handbells. She is also considering taking up French horn. She will also continue to co-host the “This Week in Virology” podcast, and because she likes to travel, she looks forward to catching up with friends around the country.

Her words of advice are, “Don't be afraid to make changes in your plans; don’t be afraid to try some risky moves in your career. If things don’t work out, you can try something else. If you don’t, you might regret it later.” And she has never regretted any of her career choices!

Congratulations Professor Emerita Spindler!
 

Spindler Lab for first lab lunch at Angelo’s, Ann Arbor, May 2002. Left to right, Marty Moore, Lei Fang, Kathy Spindler, Amanda Welton, Jasmine Clair

Spindler Lab for last lab lunch before Angelo’s closed, December, 2023. Left to right, Dan Edwards, Kathy Spindler, Luiza Castro Jorge, Estela Pereira, Irene Althaus

The last day of the Spindler Lab (June 30, 2024), after the start of dismantling. Left to right, Dan Edwards, Irene Althaus, Luiza Castro Jorge, Kathy Spindler