Biorisk Assessment and Management With Saeed Khan
Meet The Microbiologist
Saeed Khan, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Molecular Pathology at Dow diagnostic research and reference laboratory and President of the Pakistan Biological Safety Association discusses the importance and challenges of biosafety/biosecurity practices on both a local and global scale. He highlights key steps for biorisk assessment and management and stresses the importance of training, timing and technology. Ashley's Biggest Takeaways Adequate biosafety and biosecurity protocols depend on a thorough understanding of modern challenges, and scientists must be willing and able to respond to new...
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From Hydrothermal Vents to Cold Seeps: How Bacteria Sustain Ocean Life With Nicole Dubilier
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Nicole Dubilier, Ph.D., Director and head of the Symbiosis Department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, has led numerous reserach cruises and expeditions around the world studying the symbiotic relationships of bacteria and marine invertebrates. She discusses how the use of various methods, including deep-sea in situ tools, molecular, 'omic' and imaging analyses, have illuminated remarkable geographic, species and habitat diversity amongst symbionts and emphasizes the importance of discovery-driven research over hypothesis-driven methods. Watch this episode: Ashley's...
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When Proteins Become Infectious: Understanding Prion Disease With Neil Mabbott
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From Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Neil Mabbott, Ph.D., has worked for nearly 2 decades on understanding the mechanisms by which prion proteins become infectious and cause neurological disease in humans and animals. He discusses the remarkable properties of prions and addresses complexities surrounding symptoms, transmission and diagnosis of prion disease.
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Trillion Dollar Microbes Make the Bioeconomy Go Round With Tim Donohue
Meet The Microbiologist
Episode Summary —ASM Past President, University of Wisconsin Foundation Fetzer Professor of Bacteriologyand Director of the (GLBRC) calls genomics a game-changer when it comes the potential of microbes to create renewable resources and products that can sustain the environment, economy and supply chain around the world. He also shares some exciting new advances in the field and discusses ways his research team is using microorganisms as nanofactories to degrade lignocellulose and make a smorgasbord of products with high economic value. Take the Ashley's Biggest...
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Rabies: The Diabolical Virus With Many Symptoms and Hosts With Rodney Rohde
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, Regents’ Professor and Chair of the Medical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University discusses the many variants, mammalian hosts and diverse neurological symptoms of rabies virus. Take the Ashley’s Biggest Takeaways: Prior to his academic career, Rohde spent a decade as a public health microbiologist and molecular epidemiologist with the and , and over 30 years researching rabies virus. While at the Department of Health Lab, Rohde worked on virus isolation using what he described as “old school” cell culture techniques,...
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Increasing Laboratory Capacity for TB Diagnosis With Aureliana Chambal
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ASM's Young Ambassador, Aureliana Chambal, discusses the high incidence of tuberculosis in Mozambique and how improved surveillance can help block disease transmission in low resource settings. Ashley's Biggest Takeaways: Mozambique is severely impacted by the TB epidemic, with one of the highest incidences in Africa (368 cases/ 100,000 people in the population). Human-adapted members of the . These 7 lineages may vary in geographic distribution, and have varying impacts on infection and disease outcome. For decades, 2 reference strains have been used for TB lab research, H37Rv, which...
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Good Science, Bad Science and How to Make it Better with Ferric Fang and Arturo Casadevall
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The scientific process has the power to deliver a better world and may be the most monumental human achievement. But when it is unethically performed or miscommunicated, it can cause confusion and division. Drs. Fang and Casadevall discuss what is good science, what is bad science and how to make it better. Get the book!
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Using AI to Understand How the Gut-Brain Axis Points to Autism With James Morton
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Dr. James Morton discusses how the gut microbiome modulates brain development and function with specific emphasis on how the gut-brain axis points to functional architecture of autism. Watch James' talk from ASM Microbe 2023: Using AI to Glean Insights From Microbiome Data https://youtu.be/hUQls359Spo
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Atypical Metabolism of Leishmania and Other Parasitic and Free-Living Protists With Michael Ginger
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Dr. Michael ginger, Dean of the School of Applied Sciences in the Department of Biological and geographical Science at the University of Huddersfield, in West Yorkshire, England discusses the atypical metabolism and evolutionary cell biology of parasitic and free-living protists, including Leishmania, Naegleria and even euglinids.
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IBS Biomarkers and Diagnostic Diapers With Maria Eugenia Inda-Webb
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, Pew Postdoctoral Fellow working in the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT builds biosensors to diagnose and treat inflammatory disorders in the gut, like inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. She discusses how “wearables,” like diagnostic diapers and nursing pads could help monitor microbiome development to treat the diseases of tomorrow. Subscribe (free) on , , , , or by . Ashley's Biggest Takeaways Biosensors devices that engineer living organisms or biomolocules to detect and report the presence of certain biomarkers. The device consists of a bioreceptor...
info_outlineDr. Wun-Ju Shieh, worked as a pathologist and infectious diseases expert with the CDC from 1995-2020. He recounts his experiences conducting high risk autopsies on the frontlines of outbreaks including Ebola, H1N1 influenza, monkeypox and SARS-CoV-1 and 2. He also addresses key questions about factors contributing to the (re)emergence and spread of pathogens and discusses whether outbreaks are becoming more frequent or simply more widely publicized.
Ashley’s Biggest Takeaways:
• Pathologists are a group of medical doctors serving behind the line of the daily hospital activities.
• Pathology service can be divided into atomic pathology and clinical pathology. The field covers all the laboratory diagnostic work in the hospital, and clinical microbiology or medical microbiology is actually a subdivision within the clinical pathology service.
• Usually, a pathologist working in a hospital will examine and dissect tissue specimens from surgery or biopsy.
• The pathologist also performs autopsies as requested to determine or confirm the cause of death.
• Serving as first a clinician in Taiwan and then a pathologist in the United States has provided Shieh with the unique experience of evaluating patients from both the outside-in and the inside-out!
• Even when a major outbreak of a known etiologic agent is taking place, confirmatory diagnosis is necessary for subsequent quarantine, control and prevention of the outbreak.
• During major disease outbreaks, other pathogens do not go away, and we must simultaneously facilitate their timely diagnosis to ensure effective patient treatment and care.
• SARS-CoV-2 appears to be transmitted more easily than SARS-CoV-1. One possible explanation for this is that the amount of viral load appears to be the highest in the upper respiratory tract of those with COVID-19, shortly after the symptoms develop. This indicates that people with COVID-19 may be transmitting the virus early in infection, just as their symptoms are developing…or even before they appear or without symptoms.
• SARS-CoV-1 viral loads peak much later in the illness.
• Asymptomatic transmission is rarely seen with SARS-CoV-1 infection.
• Almost 99% of SARS-CoV-1 patients developed prominent fever when they started to carry infectivity. Temperature monitoring was therefore, very effective at detecting sick patients and facilitating prompt quarantining procedures, which effectively contained/minimized transmission of the virus.
• This was not as effective for SARS-CoV-2, despite early attempts at temperature. monitoring.
• SARS-CoV-2 was much harder to contain both because of the milder display of host symptoms and the demonstration of higher viral transmissibility.