Central Texas College English Essay

1. Pick a long-form narrative (recorded talk, interview, written narrative) that offers a global perspective from a professional working in infectious disease prevention/intervention. (Multiple options are below, but if you find a different narrative you would like to summarize, you can message Dr. Lainoff to request to use it)

2. Write a double-spaced 2 page summary of the narrative, summarizing the narrative. Describe the professional’s task and also what the limitations of their task are or have been. Address in particular, Why is community engagement, international relations, critical for addressing the spread of infectious disease?

3. Submit here by Tuesday, November 29th.

Some options of narratives you can choose from:

• This Week in Virology (TWIV) video episode: “Public Health with Laurie Garrett: Wastewater Testing”

Science journalist Laurie Garrett discusses the role of wastewater testing in public health and her idea of a device that could be used by anyone to analyze water samples. Talk discusses the role or potential role of wastewater testing for a variety of different pathogens and populations, and also highlights the power of citizen science.

Link: https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/public-health-with-laurie-garrett/ Links to an external site.

• Two part option for someone interested in potential solutions for combating antibiotic resistance… by harnessing the ability of some viruses to attack bacteria… :

Part 1: Read science writer Carl Zimmer’s article “A virus fished out of a lake may have saved a man’s life”

Link: https://carlzimmer.com/a-virus-fished-out-of-a-lake-may-have-saved-a-mans-life-and-advanced-science-23/Links to an external site.

Part 2: Watch American Society of Microbiology video podcast episode “Editors in Conversation: Phages as Therapeutic Tools Against Multidrug Resistant Bacteria” featuring three guests. Vincent A. Fischetti, Ph.D, Professor and Director, Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY. Saima Aslam, MBBS, Professor of Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, Calif. Anthony Maresso, Ph.D., Professor and Founder of TAILOR Labs, Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Link: https://asm.org/Podcasts/Editors-in-Conversation/Episodes/Phages-as-Therapeutic-Tools-Against-Multidrug-Resi Links to an external site.

• This Podcast Will Kill You: “Episode 81: Chagas Disease: The Reverse Triple Discovery”

Chagas disease bears the dubious distinction of the most neglected of all the neglected tropical diseases. In spite of this, many people are dedicated to easing the global burden of Chagas disease, and two are interviewed here. Daisy Hernandez, Associate Professor at Miami University, joins us to discuss the inspiration for her recent book The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease, and Dr. Sarah Hamer, Associate Professor at Texas A&M University, delves into the ecological aspects of this disease and shares the incredible community science program that raises awareness about T. cruzi and the bugs that transmit it.

Link: https://thispodcastwillkillyou.com/2021/09/07/episode-81-chagas-disease-the-reverse-triple-discovery/Links to an external site.

• American Society of Microbiology’s Meet the Microbiologist podcast episode: “Microbiome Diversity and Structural Variation with Ami Bhatt”

Dr. Ami Bhatt discusses her research on the human gut microbiome, from surveying microbiomes around the world to the role of the microbiome in cancer therapy. “The microbiome, in contrast to the human genome, varies a lot based on environmental exposures, culture, lifestyle, food, et cetera, and we know that these things vary broadly across the world. If we really want to understand the variation of the microbiome in these many different interesting contexts, it really is important that we study individuals from outside of the few, very intensely studied populations.”

Link: https://asm.org/Podcasts/MTM/Episodes/Microbiome-Diversity-and-Structural-Variation-with Links to an external site.

• University of Washington 2021 Stephen Stewart Gloyd Endowed Lecture “Challenges with Partnerships and Scientific Recognition in International Settings: The Case of Ebola”

Talk by the co-discoverer of Ebola, Dr. Jean Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, General Director of the Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Link:https://youtu.be/d9Nb7avpLNALinks to an external site.