microTalk

Watch out for this kind of "Crypto" Currency: Cryptosporidium is a parasite that causes diarrheal disease in humans. Cryptosporidiosis is a common cause of waterborne disease in the U.S., and responsible for serious and potentially fatal infections in HIV positive individuals and malnourished infants. Dr. Boris Striepen is a Professor of Pathobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Striepen studies Cryptosporidium and how it causes disease. Dr. Striepen talks about how Cryptosporidium multiplies rapidly and has sex inside your intestines, how Cryptosporidium is similar to its cousin the malaria parasite, how genetics can help in the search for new drugs, how someone can catch cryptosporidiosis from a swimming pool or a petting zoo, how bacteria influence the virulence of parasites, and how science beat a career as a harmonica player in a blues band. The microCase for listeners to solve is about the great, fantabulous, one and only Montana Jones, and his adventure in the Congo that almost led to his demise.

Participants:

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Boris Striepen, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)
• Huntyr Menezes (UTSA)
• Michelle Neiner (UTSA)

Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of diarrheal disease in humans.

However, C. jejuni is also naturally found in chickens and doesn't cause them any problems, so people frequently get sick from eating undercooked chicken. Dr. David Hendrixson is a Professor of Microbiology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Hendrixson studies C. jejuni and how it causes disease.

Dr. Hendrixson talks about why C. jejuni is preferentially found in chickens and other birds, how C. jejuni is also associated with the paralytic condition Guillain-Barre syndrome, how the motility of C. jejuni helps it cause disease, how the motility appendage (the flagellum) of C. jejuni is a beautiful nanomachine, why C. jejuni microaerophilic growth leads to underreporting of Campylobacter disease, could disease be reduced by preventing C. jejuni colonization of chickens, and how an off-the-cuff comment by his postdoctoral mentor led him to jump into a challenging and rewarding field of research.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Dusty Broome, a curio shop owner who gets a mysterious illness while cleaning out his shed.

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) David Hendrixson, Ph.D. (UT Southwestern Medical Center) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)

Our eyes are one of the most sensitive areas on our bodies, and they are constantly bathed in microbes, and yet we rarely get eye infections. However, certain microbes can take advantage of minor injuries to the eye and cause very serious infections that can lead to blindness.

Dr. Eric Pearlman is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California Irvine and the Director of the Institute for Immunology.

Dr. Pearlman studies how the immune system is able to fight against bacteria and fungi that manage to infect the cornea. Dr. Pearlman talks about how the eye is a specialized site that is resistant to microbial infections, what types of microbes can infect the eye, how neutrophils help protect the eye, how fungi can cause more serious eye infections due to lack of effective antifungals, why damage to the cornea results in so much pain, why everyone chopping wood should wear eye protection, and how his fascination with parasites led to him studying river blindness.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Ally Louia, whose mid-life crisis leads to an exotic vacation and a potentially deadly disease.

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Eric Pearlman, Ph.D. (University of California Irvine) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)

Cheese is delicious, and also the product of a complex mixture of microbes.

Different communities of microbes produce the wide variety of cheeses made around the world. Dr. Rachel Dutton is an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego who studies cheese microbiomes.

Dr. Dutton talks about how cheese is made, how the cheese microbiome is a great model for understanding how microbes interact with each other, how the microbial community determines what type of cheese is made, how her experience working on a cheese farm influenced her research, how the long history of cheesemaking practices gives great insight into microbial interactions, where the holes in Swiss cheese come from, and how studying the cheese microbiome has the added benefit of being able to eat your experiments.

microTalk was pleased to be joined by Dr. Jimmy Ballard (University of Oklahoma Health Science Center) when this podcast was recorded at the ASM Microbe 2019 conference in San Francisco, CA.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Houser Sampson, whose voracious appetite for sushi causes him to come down with a mysterious illness.

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Rachel Dutton, Ph.D. (University of California San Diego) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA) Jimmy Ballard (OUHSC)

Candida albicans is the most common cause of fungal disease in the United States. C. albicans can cause serious and often fatal systemic infections, especially in hospitalized patients with underlying conditions.

Dr. Cornelius Clancy is an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the Director of the XDR Pathogen Lab. Dr. Clancy talks about the clinical implications of fungal infections, how a physician should communicate with patients, how the unique perspective of a clinician enhances research, why there is a lack of effective antifungal drugs, why the societal cost needs to be factored into the cost of antimicrobials, why there has never been a better time to do science, and what the right motivation is to choose medicine as a career.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Alf Viddersane, who gets sick along with all his family and friends at his 50th birthday party.

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Cornelius Clancy, M.D. (University of Pittsburgh) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)

Lyme Disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. The bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi is transmitted to humans through the bite of a deer tick, and can lead to the debilitating disease that most commonly is associated with arthritis, but can also cause heart and neurological problems.

Dr. Tim Sellati is the Chief Scientific Officer at the Global Lyme Alliance (GLA). GLA is dedicated to development of more effective diagnostics and treatments of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases.

Dr. Sellati talks about how people can avoid Lyme Disease, what typically happens when someone is infected with Borrelia burdorferi, how the immune response against the bacteria is the cause of disease symptoms, why people in the Northeast U.S. are more likely to get Lyme Disease, whether tick eradication is a possibility for the elimination of Lyme, how the internet can spread misinformation that inhibits the control of this disease, and what the likely prospects are for a Lyme Disease vaccine.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Wandering River Spirit, a young hippie who comes down with a potentially debilitating disease while trying to volunteer with a global health charity.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Timothy Sellati, Ph.D. (Global Lyme Alliance)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)

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Some bacteria have the amazing ability to orient themselves using the earth's magnetic field, due to the presence of an intracellular organelle called the magnetosome, which are estimated to have evolved 3 billion years ago.

Dr. Arash Komeili is a Professor at the University of California Berkeley who studies bacterial magnetosomes.

Dr. Komeili talks about how magnetotactic bacteria were discovered, how the earth's magnetic field orients the bacteria in the aquatic environment, whether a Martian meteorite had bacterial magnetite in it, how bacterial magnetosomes can be exploited for targeting cancer cells, and whether bacterial magnetosomes could be used to generate energy.

microTalk was pleased to be joined by Dr. Marvin Whiteley (Georgia Tech) when this podcast was recorded at the ASM Microbe 2019 conference in San Francisco, CA.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Randy Farmer, a businessman who comes down with an uncomfortable disease after a trip to Bangkok.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Arash Komeili, Ph.D. (University of California Berkeley)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)
• Marvin Whiteley, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most prevalent infectious diseases in the world, with approximately 10 million people becoming sick and 1.5 million people dying every year from Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.

Dr. William Jacobs is a Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and member of the National Academy of Sciences who studies M. tuberculosis.

TB is notoriously difficult to treat, due to the slow growth and persistence of the bacteria in the lungs, requiring extensive antibiotic treatment over a long period of time.

Dr. Jacobs talks about the history of tuberculosis ("consumption") in humans, how M. tuberculosis can hang out in the lungs for an entire lifetime, how slow growth is a bacterial strategy to avoid killing by antibiotics, how growth in armadillos is required to study the closely related M. leprae (causes leprosy), just how scary drug-resistant TB strains are, and how dirt from the Bronx Zoo was hiding a genetic tool that was a game-changer for the study of TB.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Ella Copta and Lana Jorgia, two internet vloggers who become ill after visiting an African shaman.

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) William Jacobs, Ph.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA) Abigail Blaschke (UTSA) Jacobi Brown (UTSA)

What happens when a bacterium gets old? Continuous culture of bacteria without any added nutrients can reveal the dynamics of "old" bacteria.

Dr. Steve Finkel is a Professor at University of Southern California who studies what happens beyond "stationary phase" in bacterial cultures. Finkel studies the Growth Advantage in Stationary Phase (GASP) phenotype, which dominates in "old" bacterial cultures, and which represents adaptive evolutionary change.

Finkel talks about how studying old bacteria gives insight into aging in other organisms, whether bacteria can divide forever, how bacteria choose not to divide unless they are certain they can finish dividing, how carbohydrate modifications in old bacteria can help illuminate diabetes, how small differences in bacterial growth conditions can result in huge differences in bacterial physiology, and how building Mission Control in his kindergarten class ignited his passion for science.

microTalk was pleased to be joined by Dr. Marvin Whiteley (Georgia Tech) when this podcast was recorded at the ASM Microbe 2019 conference in San Francisco, CA.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Yakov Smirnov, a Siberian lab worker who comes down with a life-threatening disease at work. Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Steve Finkel, Ph.D. (University of Southern California) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA) Marvin Whiteley, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Steve Finkel, Ph.D. (University of Southern California) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA) Marvin Whiteley, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology)

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Despite comprising half of the population, women are underrepresented as scientific professionals. The reasons for underrepresentation are multi-factorial.

Dr. Joan Bennett is a Professor at Rutgers University who studies fungi; she is a past president of the American Society of Microbiology, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Throughout her career, Bennett has taken a special interest in the advancement of women in science and she continues to work on behalf of women's issues at local, national, and international levels.

Bennett talks about how women's scientific accomplishments have been frequently overlooked, what individuals can do to address gender disparity, how she's proud of the ASM for promoting female scientists, how studying mycotoxins took advantage of the knowledge of antibiotic production by fungi, how fungal volatile compounds make mushrooms taste delicious, and how fungi got their revenge on her after Hurricane Katrina.

The microCase for listeners to solve is about Tess Tamoni, a retired teacher who gets a nasty infection while on vacation at a tropical resort.

Participants: Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA) Joan Bennett, Ph.D. (Rutgers University) Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA) Mylea Echazarreta (UTSA)