WHAT'S NEW
Meet the Scientist: Rachel Whitaker, Ph.D.
Rachel Whitaker is an assistant professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she has developed a research program focused on the evolutionary ecology of microorganisms. Much of Dr. Whitaker’s work centers around a hyperthermophile found in geothermal springs: the archaeon Sulfolobus islandicus.
Evolution is not just history – it’s still in action today, molding humans, plants, animals and, of course, microbes, in ways we still don’t completely understand. One of Whitaker’s focus areas is archaea, a group of single-celled microbes that are found in some of the harshest environments on earth. By looking at how one variety of archaea, Sulfolobus, varies from place to place, Whitaker hopes to find whether Sulfolobus is adapting new characteristics to suit its habitats, and whether this kind of adaptation can help us explain why there are so many different kinds of microbes in the world.
In this interview, Dr. Merry Buckley asks Dr. Whitaker about the hot springs where she studies Sulfolobus, whether it’s hard to communicate with ecologists who work with bigger organisms, and about new discoveries she’s made related to an immune system in archaea.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes or through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader of your choice.
MicrobeWorld Video 22 - Antibiotics: Is a Strong Offense the Best Defense? (Part 2 of 3)
On September 18, 2008 at the Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C., Dr. Stuart Levy, professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dr. Linda Tollefson, Assistant Commissioner for Science at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discussed how to optimize antibiotic use and how to minimize the emergence of drug resistant pathogens.
In part 2 of this 3 part video series, Dr. Levy discusses how antibiotic resistance develops, the development practices drug companies employ when producing antimicrobials, and how this process may change in the future. Dr. Tollefson outlines how the FDA is encouraging the development of antibiotics in an industry that is mostly focussed on manufacturing drugs for chronic illnesses.
Dr. Levy is Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine where he is the Director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance. He directs research on mechanisms of bacterial antibiotic resistance. Stuart Levy is also Staff Physician at the Tufts Medical Center and he also serves as the president of The International Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
Dr. Tollefson is Assistant Commissioner for Science at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She previously served as Deputy Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), where she led CVM's efforts to implement a risk-based approach to address antimicrobial resistance, fulfilling a 2001 Congressional mandate, and was instrumental in the founding of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria. Tollefson also served as Chief of Epidemiology in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition where she successfully investigated numerous outbreaks of food borne disease and served as liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Part 3 will be published next week. To view Part 1 scroll down this page or visit MicrobeWorld's video archives.
Live from ICAAC/IDSA 2008
Earlier this week MicrobeWorld Video live-streamed 11 press conferences from ICAAC/IDSA 2008 - one of the largest infectious disease meetings in the United States. All of the videos were recorded and are available online here. Topics include:
- The Success of the Rotavirus Vaccine
- ICAAC/IDSA 2008 Conference Overview
- New MRSA Drugs in the Pipeline
- Vaccine Update (Malaria and Mumps)
- HIV Update
- C.difficile: Have We Hit Bottom Yet?
- Emerging and Reemerging Infections
- Update on MRSA
- New Drugs Latebreakers
- Environmental Molds and Human Health
- Seasonal Influenza: Controversies on How to Protect the Population
Meet the Scientist: Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci is the director of NIAID – the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Disease – where he is also Chief of the Laboratory of Immunoregulation. Dr. Fauci’s research interests lie primarily in the molecular mechanisms of HIV and AIDS, and he has published extensively on the interactions of HIV with the immune system.
He’ll be speaking at the opening session of The Joint ICAAC/IDSA 2008 Meeting on October 25 in Washington DC, where he’ll describe some of the remaining challenges in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and antibiotic resistant microbes.
Dr. Fauci is not only a researcher, he is also an important player in science policy in the U.S. He was a primary architect of PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program that received reauthorization and has a budget of $48 billion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria around the world. In honor of his efforts to improve our understanding and treatment of HIV and AIDS, Dr. Fauci was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award.
In this interview, Dr. Merry Buckley talks with Dr. Fauci about progress in managing infectious disease on a global scale, why it’s the “devil you don’t know” that is still the scariest infectious disease of all, and about the roles of abstinence education and condom awareness in PEPFAR.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes or through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader of your choice.
MicrobeWorld Video 21 - Antibiotics: Is a Strong Offense the Best Defense? (Part 1 of 3)
Will we become defenseless against bacteria? Will bacteria always find a way to infect and even kill us? The emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria poses an enormous problem around the world. Scientists believe that the overuse of antibiotics is increasing the appearance of these pathogens. In the US, increasing casualties resulting from drug resistant staphylococcus infections received wide media attention.
While antibiotics only work on bacterial infections, many patients and doctors regard antibiotics as a front-line form of treating any type of infection. Antibiotics are often prescribed because the specific pathogen that is causing an illness is often difficult to determine. In some cases they are used as a preventative measure. But is this the best defense? Are there ways to beat bacteria at their own game?
On September 18, 2008 at the Koshland Science Museum in Washington, D.C., Dr. Stuart Levy, professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and Dr. Linda Tollefson, Assistant Commissioner for Science at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, discussed how to optimize antibiotic use and how to minimize the emergence of drug resistant pathogens.
In part 1 of this 3 part video series, Dr. Levy discusses the basics of microbial pathogens, bacteria, and antibiotic resistance. And, Dr. Tollefson outlines the various types and classes of antibiotic drugs, approved uses, and current levels of effectiveness.
Dr. Levy is Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine where he is the Director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance. He directs research on mechanisms of bacterial antibiotic resistance. Stuart Levy is also Staff Physician at the Tufts Medical Center and he also serves as the president of The International Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.
Dr. Tollefson is Assistant Commissioner for Science at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She previously served as Deputy Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), where she led CVM's efforts to implement a risk-based approach to address antimicrobial resistance, fulfilling a 2001 Congressional mandate, and was instrumental in the founding of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria. Tollefson also served as Chief of Epidemiology in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition where she successfully investigated numerous outbreaks of food borne disease and served as liaison to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Parts 2 and 3 will be published over the coming weeks. Please feel free to embed or distribute this video.
MicrobeWorld and ASM Present New Microbe Classroom Activities for K-12 Teachers
The American Society for Microbiology has created a new collection of 14 Microbial Discovery Activities for K-12 teachers that will help them incorporate microbiology within the basic science curriculum. Activities, such as "Extracting DNA from a Banana," "Taste Test: Can Microbes Tell the Difference?" and "Build a Bacterium: Scavenger Hunt," come from the community at large. All submissions have been reviewed by the ASM Committee on K-12 Education for scientific and educational content, pedagogical (e.g. active learning) processes, alignment with the National Science Education Standards, and clarity and completeness of instructional materials and assessment plans. Please check out the full list of these new activities here.
Meet the Scientist: Bruce Rittmann, Ph.D.
Bruce Rittmann, the Director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State, focuses his efforts on reclaiming contaminated water and producing renewable energy using microbes.
He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 and credited with pioneering development of biofilm fundamentals and contributing to their widespread use in the bioremediation of contaminated ecosystems. His research combines many disciplines of science, including engineering, microbiology, biochemistry, geochemistry and microbial ecology. Formerly with Northwestern University, Rittmann is also a leader in the development of the Membrane Biofilm Reactor, an approach that uses bacteria to destroy pollutants in water. The Membrane Biofilm Reactor is especially effective for removing perchlorate from drinking water, and it is being launched commercially.
In this podcast, Dr. Merry Buckley talks with Dr. Rittmann about the biofilm reactor process, the electricity hiding in our wastewater, and how we may some day grow fuel on the roofs of buildings.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes or through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader of your choice.
Meet the Scientist: B. Brett Finlay, Ph.D.
Brett Finlay is a professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories, and the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia.
His research program focuses on E. coli, how it interacts with the cells of the human gut, and mouse models of E. coli-like infections. Dr. Finlay will speak at the Conference on Beneficial Microbes in San Diego this October, where he'll describe the results of some of his latest research, which examines how E. coli infections effect the microbes that live in our guts.
Sadly, outbreaks of Escherichia coli infections in this country are common - just this summer a huge E. coli outbreak in Oklahoma sickened nearly 300 people and sent 67 of them to the hospital. Clearly, in an outbreak, not everyone is effected equally. When lots of people are exposed to E. coli, why do some of those people walk away unharmed while others wind up in the I.C.U.? Dr. Finlay would say part of the answer, at least, probably lies in which microbes live in our intestine.
In this podcast, Dr. Merry Buckley talks with Dr. Finlay about why we have so many different kinds of microbes in our guts, what happens to them when E. coli strikes, and why we have a long way to go before probiotics offer help - and not just hope.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes or through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader of your choice.
Meet the Scientist: David Relman, M.D.
David Relman is a Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University, and his research program focuses on the human microbiome - the microbial communities of bacteria, viruses, and other organisms that thrive on and in the human body. He'll be speaking at ASM's conference on Beneficial Microbes in San Diego this October, where he'll talk about our personal microbial ecosystems, how far we've come in research and how far we have to go.
Since Louis Pasteur first deduced that microbes are to blame for infectious disease, doctors and scientists alike have mostly seen infection as warfare between a pathogen and the human body. Dr. Relman sees things a little differently. To him, the complex communities of microbes that line our skin, mouths, intestines, and other orifices (ahem) are also involved in this battle, interacting with pathogens and with our bodies, and these interactions help determine how a fracas plays out.
In this interview, Dr. Merry Buckley asks Dr. Relman about our personal ecosystems of microbes, whether we’ll ever be able to understand and predict what these communities do, and about the sometimes distressing effects of oral antibiotics on our guts. We also talked about whether being MTV’s Rock Doctor back in the 1990’s had an impact on his other professional pursuits.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes or through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader of your choice.
Meet the Scientist: Ute Hentschel , Ph.D.
Ute Hentschel is a professor of chemical ecology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Her research focuses on characterizing the microbial communities associated with marine sponges, the diversity of these symbionts and their activities.
On this episode, Dr. Merry Buckley talks with Ute Hentschel about her research on the microbes that live on and in sea sponges – those squishy, colorful residents of coral reefs.
Dr. Hentschel describes some of the utterly unique microbes that are only found in sponges, what those microbes get from living in a sponge hotel, and why it’s nice to have a study site in the Bahamas.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes or through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader of your choice.
MicrobeWorld Video 20 - The Singing Toxicologist
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He's been referred to as the "Elvis of E. coli", the "Sinatra of Salmonella," and in this episode of MicrobeWorld Video the "singing toxicologist." Whatever you call him, Carl Winter, Extension Food Toxicologist and Director of the FoodSafe Program at UC Davis, performs parodies of contemporary popular music by modifying lyrics to address food safety issues such as bacterial contamination, irradiation, biotechnology, government regulation, and pesticides. The goal of his songs is to provide science-based food safety information in a fun, accessible way. Thanks to a grant from the USDA, Dr. Winter is now studying how to integrate his music into traditional food safety education programs.
Dr. Winter's music goes beyond simply educating those who work with food and in this video he shares some of his tips to empower the everyday consumer looking to prevent the spread of foodborne illness.
For more information about food safety please visit the following sites:
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