Infectious Diseases – How Do We Combat Them?
I did something super out of my comfort zone! I went to a "VTeen 4-H Science Pathways Café" at UVM. The basic concept is that teens do cool sciencey workshops and there's food. The one I attended was called "Infection Diseases- How Do We Combat Them?" and was lead by UVM grad students that learn about diseases and other sciencey things. Here is a breakdown of the two hours I spent there.
Upon arriving, I was told to make a nametag. They really needed sharpies instead of crayolas, because it was a very smudgey nametag. Then, I went to claim a spot at a table- the room was arranged in tables with chairs all around each one, so very much not lecture style, which made me happy. Once everyone arrived, it was "eat pizza" time, which I didn't participate in, and then the learning started.
The workshop speaker/leader, who has a name I can no longer remember, but couldn't spell anyway, introduced himself and the basics of the topic. Then, he introduced his fellow workshop leaders- all grad students (except for one undergrad) who were all incredibly different! That was really neat- that the girl with the nose piercings and messy bun and mouse tattoo is interested in the same thing as the women with the sweater and librarian style boots (you know, the kind really ordinary girls in their late 20s wear? Mid calf to knee length, usually black or brown, Michelle definitely has more than one pair?) is interested in. The variety of people studying the same thing was neat to see- especially all the various women involved in this STEM topic.
Anyway, back to the point: He told us that basically, the situation is that there is a (fictional) virus breaking out in America. We then brainstormed the symptoms of the virus, and where it started, etc, and then our tables (which were labelled with various roles) had to figure out the solution to certain parts.
I was in the group titled "Vaccinologists 1" (or something along those lines) and our job was to figure out how to make people immune to the virus. Picture below is what we were given.
Our table leader was Annalise, who had a nose piercing and a little mouse tattoo and very pretty hair. She's working to develop a vaccine for some disease, although I can't remember what. There are two ways to make a vaccine- one is "attenuation" which is basically putting the virus in an environment where it will adapt to be weaker. The other one, which my group didn't focus on, is basically killing the virus before giving it to people, or separating parts of the virus and giving that to people. All these ways have the goal of making the human body recognize the virus and increase antibodies capable of handling it, without causing someone to actually be sick.
The first thing our group had to figure out was if we wanted to put the microbe in a living animal, or put it in a "cell culture"- which is a controlled environment of the cells without the rest of the animal. The pros of the cell culture are that it isn't harming an animal, and is somewhat easier to control, but the cons of that is that there isn't a way of knowing what the virus will do in all the other parts of a body. Plus, it can be hard to get the virus to just infect the cells. We decided we needed to put our microbe in a living creature that had a sub-optimal environment to make sure it got weaker than it was in a human.
The next question was what animal? We knew monkeys could get this disease, but the problem with giving the monkey our virus was that monkeys are so similar to humans that it might not weaken the virus enough. We decided to instead give the virus to mice. Annalise told us a story about the current project she is doing. She had a disease, but couldn't get mice to contract it. She went through lots of different rodents before hamsters finally worked. It's hard to know what animals will be able to host a virus and still weaken it. For our thought experiment, mice would work fine.
After we got this weakened version of the virus from the mice, the next step was figuring out if it would work as a vaccine. One way of doing this is giving it to a different animal and seeing what happens. Primates are most similar to humans, so we decided our modified virus would be given to monkeys. The challenge with testing on primates- smart, bigger animals, is that it is very hard to create a controlled environment where there won't be any other variables, without creating more variables because of how unsimilar it is to a monkey's natural habitat. Annalise said for this project, we were given lots and lots of funding and could go bring our disease to the primate testing place in Seattle.
Once the monkeys got the virus, then we had to observe and see the side affects. If the monkeys were acting as if they got the full disease, the microbe might not have adapted enough. If they were better, but still had side effects, what were the side effects (fever, rash, death, etc)? If they seemed perfectly normal and then were exposed to the full blown virus, would they catch it? If so, we adapted it too much. Another way to see how the virus is working is to draw blood, and then spin it around really fast (I think??) so the proteins separate and the antibodies can be looked at. The goal is to have a major increase in antibodies. Even if everything looks great and the modified virus works great in the monkeys, you still need to wait, to see how long the "vaccine" works for! If you expose the monkeys to the vaccine after a year, will they still be immune? Only once all the testing is done, and good, do vaccines get to move on to the next step.
Human testing! Monkeys are pretty similar to humans, so if it worked on a monkey, chances are it'll be okay for humans. But it's still important to do tests before giving the vaccine to everyone. A small test group can receive the vaccine, and results will be carefully monitored. Many of the same things that were observed in monkeys are watched for in humans. Then, more and more people can receive the vaccine, and at that point, effectiveness is monitored most (how many people received the vaccine and still got the virus?).
After all this thinking, all groups paused and we shared out. The leader guy pretended to be a newscaster, and normally I don't like pretending things, but I actually liked this one! He started by handing the mic over to the group learning about the origin of the virus- in this case, bats! The bats had a disease in their saliva, and had infected the fruit that people were eating, causing humans to get the disease too. That group shared about their findings of the healthy bats vs the unhealthy bats, and what they believe was passed on to humans. Then we heard from a group investigating the virus from the other side- the humans symptoms, and the microbe itself. Next, a group shared out about ways humans could prevent the virus, and finally, our group announced the news of our vaccine.
There was a mediocre craft involving pipe cleaners, and then an interactive activity that didn't go quite as planned- I think it needed clearer instructions. Then, we had an opportunity to ask the speakers about themselves, had a short thank you, filled out feedback forms, and were done!
I really enjoyed it. I have never taken a real science class before, and didn't feel like I was in over my head, which was nice considering I was sitting next to a girl that was taking AP bio. I also didn't have much prior interest in the subject, but got super into it! The topic was presented in an understandable, interactive, and informative way, and although I was on the quieter side, I definitely felt comfortable. At the beginning, I did wish I had come with a friend, but after the first 15 minutes I was totally happy being independent and meeting new people. I definitely want to go to the next one, and get more involved in the whole program (they have a teen leader group that helps to plan the events, and I think I want to be a part of it!) but am sad that there is a two month break before the next one. However, the next one is about environmental mapping using drones, which is very interesting, and is actually a program that I was interested in doing this past Summer. So, I am looking forward to that! I also now want the chance to go see UVM's labs where they do all this testing!
Overall, a really awesome experience. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it, and am excited to take advantage of other opportunities. If you want to join me next time, let me know!
Upon arriving, I was told to make a nametag. They really needed sharpies instead of crayolas, because it was a very smudgey nametag. Then, I went to claim a spot at a table- the room was arranged in tables with chairs all around each one, so very much not lecture style, which made me happy. Once everyone arrived, it was "eat pizza" time, which I didn't participate in, and then the learning started.
The workshop speaker/leader, who has a name I can no longer remember, but couldn't spell anyway, introduced himself and the basics of the topic. Then, he introduced his fellow workshop leaders- all grad students (except for one undergrad) who were all incredibly different! That was really neat- that the girl with the nose piercings and messy bun and mouse tattoo is interested in the same thing as the women with the sweater and librarian style boots (you know, the kind really ordinary girls in their late 20s wear? Mid calf to knee length, usually black or brown, Michelle definitely has more than one pair?) is interested in. The variety of people studying the same thing was neat to see- especially all the various women involved in this STEM topic.
Anyway, back to the point: He told us that basically, the situation is that there is a (fictional) virus breaking out in America. We then brainstormed the symptoms of the virus, and where it started, etc, and then our tables (which were labelled with various roles) had to figure out the solution to certain parts.
I was in the group titled "Vaccinologists 1" (or something along those lines) and our job was to figure out how to make people immune to the virus. Picture below is what we were given.
Our table leader was Annalise, who had a nose piercing and a little mouse tattoo and very pretty hair. She's working to develop a vaccine for some disease, although I can't remember what. There are two ways to make a vaccine- one is "attenuation" which is basically putting the virus in an environment where it will adapt to be weaker. The other one, which my group didn't focus on, is basically killing the virus before giving it to people, or separating parts of the virus and giving that to people. All these ways have the goal of making the human body recognize the virus and increase antibodies capable of handling it, without causing someone to actually be sick.
The first thing our group had to figure out was if we wanted to put the microbe in a living animal, or put it in a "cell culture"- which is a controlled environment of the cells without the rest of the animal. The pros of the cell culture are that it isn't harming an animal, and is somewhat easier to control, but the cons of that is that there isn't a way of knowing what the virus will do in all the other parts of a body. Plus, it can be hard to get the virus to just infect the cells. We decided we needed to put our microbe in a living creature that had a sub-optimal environment to make sure it got weaker than it was in a human.
The next question was what animal? We knew monkeys could get this disease, but the problem with giving the monkey our virus was that monkeys are so similar to humans that it might not weaken the virus enough. We decided to instead give the virus to mice. Annalise told us a story about the current project she is doing. She had a disease, but couldn't get mice to contract it. She went through lots of different rodents before hamsters finally worked. It's hard to know what animals will be able to host a virus and still weaken it. For our thought experiment, mice would work fine.
After we got this weakened version of the virus from the mice, the next step was figuring out if it would work as a vaccine. One way of doing this is giving it to a different animal and seeing what happens. Primates are most similar to humans, so we decided our modified virus would be given to monkeys. The challenge with testing on primates- smart, bigger animals, is that it is very hard to create a controlled environment where there won't be any other variables, without creating more variables because of how unsimilar it is to a monkey's natural habitat. Annalise said for this project, we were given lots and lots of funding and could go bring our disease to the primate testing place in Seattle.
Once the monkeys got the virus, then we had to observe and see the side affects. If the monkeys were acting as if they got the full disease, the microbe might not have adapted enough. If they were better, but still had side effects, what were the side effects (fever, rash, death, etc)? If they seemed perfectly normal and then were exposed to the full blown virus, would they catch it? If so, we adapted it too much. Another way to see how the virus is working is to draw blood, and then spin it around really fast (I think??) so the proteins separate and the antibodies can be looked at. The goal is to have a major increase in antibodies. Even if everything looks great and the modified virus works great in the monkeys, you still need to wait, to see how long the "vaccine" works for! If you expose the monkeys to the vaccine after a year, will they still be immune? Only once all the testing is done, and good, do vaccines get to move on to the next step.
Human testing! Monkeys are pretty similar to humans, so if it worked on a monkey, chances are it'll be okay for humans. But it's still important to do tests before giving the vaccine to everyone. A small test group can receive the vaccine, and results will be carefully monitored. Many of the same things that were observed in monkeys are watched for in humans. Then, more and more people can receive the vaccine, and at that point, effectiveness is monitored most (how many people received the vaccine and still got the virus?).
After all this thinking, all groups paused and we shared out. The leader guy pretended to be a newscaster, and normally I don't like pretending things, but I actually liked this one! He started by handing the mic over to the group learning about the origin of the virus- in this case, bats! The bats had a disease in their saliva, and had infected the fruit that people were eating, causing humans to get the disease too. That group shared about their findings of the healthy bats vs the unhealthy bats, and what they believe was passed on to humans. Then we heard from a group investigating the virus from the other side- the humans symptoms, and the microbe itself. Next, a group shared out about ways humans could prevent the virus, and finally, our group announced the news of our vaccine.
There was a mediocre craft involving pipe cleaners, and then an interactive activity that didn't go quite as planned- I think it needed clearer instructions. Then, we had an opportunity to ask the speakers about themselves, had a short thank you, filled out feedback forms, and were done!
I really enjoyed it. I have never taken a real science class before, and didn't feel like I was in over my head, which was nice considering I was sitting next to a girl that was taking AP bio. I also didn't have much prior interest in the subject, but got super into it! The topic was presented in an understandable, interactive, and informative way, and although I was on the quieter side, I definitely felt comfortable. At the beginning, I did wish I had come with a friend, but after the first 15 minutes I was totally happy being independent and meeting new people. I definitely want to go to the next one, and get more involved in the whole program (they have a teen leader group that helps to plan the events, and I think I want to be a part of it!) but am sad that there is a two month break before the next one. However, the next one is about environmental mapping using drones, which is very interesting, and is actually a program that I was interested in doing this past Summer. So, I am looking forward to that! I also now want the chance to go see UVM's labs where they do all this testing!
Overall, a really awesome experience. I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it, and am excited to take advantage of other opportunities. If you want to join me next time, let me know!
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