Fortune

August was a month of great fortunes.  The PET scan was once again all clear, with a minor exception of a possible blood clot in my neck.  A neck ultrasound revealed that it was nothing, and so I go on living as a NED person -- no evidence of disease.  The great fortune of being NED is sometimes overwhelming, but it's a burden I'll happily bear.

Additionally, I was invited to write a short essay for the magazine called Living Well.  I'm presuming that it's for an October breast cancer awareness issue or something.  They want to publish a small series of essays on the diversity of breast cancer:  one written by a doctor, and two written by patients.  They targeted one patient with early-stage disease and one patient with late-stage disease.  Remarkably, I am the patient with late-stage disease they invited to write a piece.

At first I felt that it was a bit disingenuous for me to write the late-stage disease piece because I am not living with late-stage disease.  I am living with a late-stage disease diagnosis, but not the typical manifestations of late-stage disease.  It turns out that that is what they were looking for:  someone who could put an atypical face on late-stage disease.  The person certainly could be me.

So, I wrote.  The first page of stuff was crap.  I had trouble knowing where to start.  Perhaps I'll turn it into a blog post, lol.  Then it started to get better as I wrote the easy stuff about the timeline of my journey.  Then I thought of a pretty sweet introduction, so I went back and rewrote the beginning.  Then I rambled as I discussed the second cancer, and it was just feeling like a whole lot of cancer treatment (maybe because it was a whole lot of cancer treatment, lol) so I cut some details.  Finally, I thought of a poignant ending and finished it up.  I solicited feedback from two of my writer friends, edited the piece, and sent it off tonight.  Woo hoo!

It was quite fun, really, and didn't take that much time once I let go of the pressure associated with writing a real-live article rather than a blog post.

Another cool thing I did this month was a tiny bit of activism.  I was invited to sit on a panel discussion of safe routes to school in my town.  I was invited because apparently I organized the first Walking School Bus in my town.  This sort of cracked me up because I didn't even know I was doing it.  I just wanted to walk my kids to school every day, and I figured that some neighbors might be interested, too.  So two years ago I started lightly coordinating about 4 neighboring families, and we all walk to school together.  Sometimes if a parent is sick or has an appointment, they just send their kids with the group, myself included.  We used to text each other at 7:30 am or so ("walking today?" or "running late!"), but now there is no question and everyone just shows up at the designated corner at the designated time.  We have anywhere from 1-4 adults with 2-12 kids, and we walk pretty much rain or shine.  In 1986 this would simply be walking to school, and it would be normal.  Today it's a Walking School Bus, and I'll go down in the history books as organizing our town's first.  Lol.

I also went to Montreal for a work conference where I heard about some amazing microbial ecology. I hadn't attended this conference since 2010, and it was scrumptious.  I have over 20 pages of typed notes (nerd salute!) and wish there had been two of me to catch the other great presentations I necessarily missed by being confined to one seminar at a time.  Also, this conference has one of the best conference dinners of all, with a DJ to spin some crazy beats and get the mad scientists dancing.  At 9pm the dance had yet to start, but my buddy A and I decided to change that.  That's right, with our labmates we opened the dance floor and got that party started.  A crowning achievement, to be sure.  

The effect of antibiotics on swine gut microbiomes

As promised, here is more information about the research of mine (+ lovely coauthors) that was published today.  The below article was posted on the mBiosphere blog and was written by Merry Buckley (please use this original source when reposting).  I am reposting it because it 1) has a cute picture, 2) gives a nice framework and summary of the paper, and 3) I am feeling too lazy to write my own synopsis for you.  Enjoy!   

Antibiotics stimulate gene exchange in swine gut microbes

Antibiotics: they’re not just for curing the sick. Livestock farms in the U.S. regularly use antibiotic drugs as feed additives to boost animal growth, but a study in mBio this week reveals new evidence that adding antibiotics to pig feed stimulates gene exchange in the guts of these animals, a development that could move antibiotic resistance genes where they’re not wanted.

Using antibiotics in animal feed saves farms money, but opponents argue the practice encourages antimicrobial resistance among bacteria that could well be consumed by humans. Today, livestock producers in the U.S. use an estimated 24.6 million pounds of antimicrobials for nontherapeutic purposes every year.

The study by Allen et al. adds to what we know about what happens to the microorganisms that populate animal digestive tracts when they are exposed to these low, persistent levels of anitbiotics. Researchers at USDA’s National Animal Disease Center (NADC) in Ames, Iowa studied how two in-feed antibiotic formulations affect prophages, segments of DNA found in bacteria that can encode antibiotic resistance genes and other genes that impact bacterial fitness. Prophages can cut themselves out of the larger chromosome of DNA in a process called induction, then replicate and package themselves as viruses. These viruses explode the cell from the inside, then move on to infect other organisms and deliver their genes.

Lead author Heather K. Allen says when pigs were fed antibiotics, the actual numbers of antibiotic resistance genes carried by the phages remained steady, but the microorganisms still reacted to the presence of antibiotics. Prophages underwent a significant increase in induction when exposed to antibiotics, indicating that medicating the animals led to increased movement of prophage genes among gut bacteria.

“Induction of the prophages is showing us that antibiotics are stimulating gene transfer,” says Allen. “This is significant because phages have previously been shown to carry bacterial fitness genes such as antibiotic resistance genes.”

Studies that explore the impacts of in-feed antibiotics most often focus on the bacterial residents of the gut, according to Allen, but phages and other viruses move a significant amount of genetic information around the community. This makes changes in prophage induction an important collateral effect of antibiotic treatment, she says. Resistance genes are the unit of currency among microbes experiencing the duress of an antibiotic, so following the movement of genes is arguably more important than following certain changes in bacterial communities. And if bacteria in humans acquire resistance genes from animals, there can be serious health consequences.

“What’s important is the transfer of a gene that could get into the wrong place at the wrong time,” says Allen. “Increased gene transfer is a critical event in the evolution of gut bacteria.”

I'm in the Netherlands!

In March my boss was invited to give a seminar at a conference in the Netherlands in November.  He was unavailable, so the conference settled for a replacement speaker:  me.  It was a lengthy process to get all of the ducks in a row, but a mere six weeks ago the dust settled and my flight itinerary appeared in my inbox.  I guess it's official.

I'm giving a presentation on alternatives to agricultural antibiotics.  I won't post my slides, but I will post a link to my accepted manuscript (huzzah!) that I'm heavily summarizing, when it becomes available.

The conference doesn't start for a few more hours, and I've been enjoying myself immensely!  The conference is not in Amsterdam, but I wanted to see Amsterdam, so here is the tour that I wanted to take:  

Do be do be do! Unfortunately this tour was cancelled due to a festival celebrating the original Santa Claus.  But I found a different tour that was FANTASTIC.  It included a few quick stops, including a tour of a cheese factory.  It was a quaint little farm where we spoke with the 8th-generation cheese maker.  Huzzah for keeping the business in the family for so long! 

I'm off to see if I can rent a bicycle for an hour or so.  This country has bike paths flanking nearly every major road, and bike lanes on nearly every non-major road.  Incredible. 

Cancer can suck it or bite me or whatever

It's that time of year when Federal employees are evaluated for their performance.  A performance year runs from October 1 through the following September 30.  Last week I assembled all of my accomplishments and attempted accomplishments into one 3-page bullet-ed list.  At the risk of being egotistical, I am going to share a portion of this list with you.

I spent a lot of time debating whether or not to write this post.  You see, I want to share my excitement over what I was able to accomplish this year IN SPITE OF cancer.  I want to write this post and tell cancer to shove it.  I want to show the world that I am still a productive human being even though I went through this brain-killing experience.  I want to inspire future patients.  However, I don't want to be too prideful.  I want to stay on the good side of the line between self-confidence and egotism.

But at the end of the day, I'm pretty dang pleased with myself, so let's just give me this one post to gloat a little bit, please?  Thus far in 2011, my collaborators and I have 5 publications that are either published (1), accepted (2), or submitted (2).  I just submitted one of the papers today.  Wow did that feel good.

This is more than I've ever had in a single year, and it happens to be the year of the cancer.  I get all misty-eyed just thinking about the dichotomy between the above list and what I've been through.

Huzzah and boo-ya and virtual high-fives to everyone!  YES you may buy me a drink.

Cancer can suck it.

Woman (with two kids and cancer) in Science

The New York Times recently ran an article in which they interviewed four female scientists at the top of their fields.  These women are role models for women everywhere, in every field, regardless of aspirations.

I was eager to listen to the full interview that is available with the article.  I have always benefited from learning the milieu of ways that other women have progressed in science.  Taking time off to have kids, hiring some help at home, and choosing (not settling) to teach are just some of the ways that women strike a harmonious balance between Science and Life.  And so it was with great disappointment that I heard three of the four women interviewed say that they would not recommend a scientific career to their daughters.

What?

They say it has been hard, perhaps too hard, and that they have become hardened.  They have made too many sacrifices for too little pay-off.  I really am in no position to judge, but it seems to me that so much unhappiness should amount to a career change.      

Everyone has struggles.  Right now my struggles happen to be fighting cancer and being a fantastic mom while trying to build my scientific career.  It's hard, and I could do without the cancer, but I love it.  Yea, it's a lot of work, but the best things in life often result from Work.  No other field would allow me to be as creative, innovative, and challenged as I am in science.  In no other field could I isolate DNA, take photographs, and read (scientific) stories all in one day.  I am a microbial explorer, and it's awesome.    

I don't profess to be at the top of my field, or even in the middle of it.  Also, I recognize that I am fortunate in ways that are particularly essential to building a scientific career:  supportive spouse, family, boss, mentors, and work environment.  Perhaps these top-of-the-field women struggled with some of the individuals in their would-be support network, thus souring their perspective.  Maybe getting to the top is harder than simply chugging along in the pile.  I wouldn't know.  Their experience is theirs, and I suppose that painting a falsely rosy picture never helped anyone.  I guess I just would have preferred to hear a more positive perspective from the top, because I guarantee there are some happy-at-the-top women out there.

Azalea and Eleanor, you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up.  I'll love and support you no matter what.  But for the record, science rocks.