NEB Podcast #67 -
Transcript
Interviewers: Lydia Morrison, Marketing Communications Manager & Podcast Host, New England Biolabs, Inc.
Interviewee: Rita Colwell, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor Emerita, University of Maryland
Lydia Morrison:
Welcome to the Lessons from Lab & Life podcast, brought to you by New England Biolabs. I'm your host, Lydia Morrison, and I hope this episode brings you some new perspective. Today, I'm joined by Dr. Rita Colwell, an internationally recognized expert on cholera and other infectious diseases. Dr. Colwell was the first woman to become the director of the National Science Foundation. She is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and she was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2006. Additionally, Dr. Colwell is the author of A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science. Thank you so much for joining us for the Lessons from Lab & Life podcast today Rita.
Dr. Rita Colwell:
It's a pleasure to be talking with you.
Lydia Morrison:
I have so many questions for you, but I would love to start today by talking about your personal career journey. What made you want to be a scientist when there were so few role models to look up to who looked like you?
Dr. Rita Colwell:
I was very fortunate in that my sister had a boyfriend who was a physicist. And he would come to visit with his friends. He was at MIT at the time. So I was surrounded by the MIT physics group as a young teenager, and it intrigued me that they were very interesting for people and they seemed to have very interesting careers. But more to the point, I spent my time... Because I lived in a little town in Beverly Cove, Massachusetts, right near the beach, one block from the lighthouse. So I spent most of my summers wandering along the beach and collecting rocks and various clams and mussels and whatever. So it was intriguing to see nature, but at the same time also to hear discussions about the very fundamental parts of nature, namely physics of structure and that deep connection with science.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, it sounds like a really magical childhood, being able to explore the ocean coast in Massachusetts. Certainly, there's lots of marine life as well as geological. And I love that a lot of people's stories about how they became scientists start early. I think, with an early curiosity and a curiosity that they continue to feed throughout their lives.
Dr. Rita Colwell:
I think it's interesting that it wasn't so much knowing that I wanted to be a scientist as being intrigued by the nature and the structure of nature and the interactions of nature, and then later on understanding that this was science. So I think for many young children, it's not really thinking being a scientist, but it's more very intrigued with the world around you.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah. I'm curious, in looking back now, can you offer any advice for women who are considering careers in STEM?
Dr. Rita Colwell:
I think the most important is to persevere. There's so many dissuasions that come up in a young girl's life where everything from, well, girls don't do science or girls don't do math, which is sheer nonsense, to the kinds of suggestions that there are careers that are more suitable for girls. Well, I think any career is suitable for a girl. So I think perseverance and doing what you really love, that helps really all through life. You can pursue what you really enjoy doing and that makes life very, very pleasant. I must say even now I find that it's very exciting the work that we're doing. And one would think that after a career of science, you might become a little jaded, but I don't think so. It becomes ever more exciting when new discoveries come up. So I think that's the best part of being a scientist. Persevere, do what you love, and don't be dissuaded. Find a way to get through whatever blocks that come up.
Lydia Morrison:
I think those are some super valuable lessons. Thank you for outlining them for our listeners. So you recently visited NEB and gave a talk entitled Oceans, Climate, and Metagenomics: Predicting Pandemics. And in that talk, you focused on the population of bacteria, Vibrio species, and models for predicting population blooms of those bacteria. Could you give our listeners an overview of that research?
Dr. Rita Colwell:
Yes. The research is very exciting. It turns out that with climate change, we're experiencing changes in our immediate environment. I give the example of Vibrio species, a certain group of bacteria that are naturally occurring in aquatic systems, whether it's seawater or freshwater. And so there are many, many different species of this group of bacteria, this genus of bacteria and family. So they're very much attuned to the salinity of the water. For example, in freshwater lakes, they are able to persevere even though they have a requirement for sodium, that the very low concentration of sodium in a freshwater lake can be accounted for by the high calcium concentration. And similarly, in seawater, the salinity again is moderated by the magnesium that's in seawater. So nature has this balancing and the Vibrios are attuned to it.
The discovery that we had made many years ago was that Vibrios are naturally occurring in the aquatic environment, particularly in coastal waters, nearshore waters. Now, they are not dominant under natural normal conditions, but when climate change occurs and the temperature of the water goes up. For example, off the coast of Florida near Miami, the seawater temperature has risen to a hundred degrees. That's amazing, but it's also a temperature that's ideal for the bacteria. So they become very, very active. They reproduce rapidly, they become very abundant. And then the other factor is the salinity. And so during a heavy rain and a storm surge, the rain that falls in abundance reduces the salinity in the beach areas as the water rushes in from the storms that are delivering heavy rainfalls as occurred off the coast of Florida. And then with the heavy winds that come up with the severe storms, the hurricanes, it stirs up the sediment, the bottom component of the shoreline, and so the water becomes very rich with nutrient, and then the salinity becomes elevated.
And so this is precisely the kind of enrichment that we use in the laboratory to make Vibrios grow abundant. So here we have Mother Nature creating the conditions for these Vibrios to become abundant. Now, there's one Vibrio that's really a nasty one, and that's Vibrio cholera. It's the causative agent of cholera, and there have been epidemics and pandemics of cholera over the eons of time. In fact, we're currently in what we term the seventh pandemic because about 50 countries are suffering cases of cholera, some very intense large numbers, others just occasionally. But when you have these changes in the environment, then the outbreaks then become predictable, particularly using satellites. Satellites since 1980 have been used, particularly the Landsat satellite, which measures sea surface temperature and chlorophyll in seawater. That combination then allows us to use satellites and to couple it with the modern techniques of DNA analysis to determine the numbers of Vibrios so that we can create a computational model that allows us to predict conditions that are very ripe for an outbreak.
And so we can now provide risk maps for the United Nations in countries where cholera is a big danger, like in Malawi or in Ethiopia, in Yemen, and even more recently in Gaza. So what we're finding is this relationship of Vibrios in the environment being turned upside down with climate change. Where they're normally in low numbers, now they're encouraged to become very prolific and very abundant, and as a result... One would say, "Well, we don't have cholera in the United States, so is that a problem?" Well, it turns out there's a Vibrio species, Vibrio vulnificus. It's a nasty one. In that, it doesn't cause pandemics where you ingest it and large numbers of people become ill. What happens is if you have a cut or you step on a shell and you cut your foot and then you go swimming and it becomes infected with that Vibrio. If you don't pay attention to the infection, it can go systemic and it has a 50% mortality rate. So it's very dangerous. You just need to get an infection, and if you don't get treated right away, then you can die.
After Hurricane Ian in Florida, there were about 70 cases of Vibrio vulnificus and about 10 or so deaths. And more recently, as the waters along the East Coast of the US have been rising, we find that it goes about a temperature increase every 50 kilometers over a year. And we now have cases of Vibrio vulnificus occurring in New York and Connecticut, with last year two deaths in New York, a death in Connecticut, and then just last month a death in Rhode Island, which ended up closing all the beaches. So there is a change going on with the environment that affects the microbial populations.
Lydia Morrison:
The mention of the satellite-based predictive models that you brought up, they sound like a really powerful tool. With warning of outbreaks through these predictive models, what are the prophylactic measures that can be taken?
Dr. Rita Colwell:
Very clearly we can benefit, for example, working with the United Nations. They are able then to locate geographically where the risk is highest because we can pinpoint it with a satellite observation. So then instead of having to mobilize public health throughout the entire country, such as in Yemen, we were able to locate in the western part of that country and rather precisely geographically where the risk was the very highest. And so the medical personnel, medical supplies can be stockpiled and be prepared for a case coming up. So instead of waiting until you've got a large number of cases, you can be there with the treatment as soon as a case appears, and you can tamp down the potential for a massive epidemic.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, it sounds like in terms of preparedness, these models are very helpful. I'm curious if there are any environmental changes that we can make as humans to mitigate the blooms of the bacteria.
Dr. Rita Colwell:
Well, I think we really need to take seriously the changing climate due to the warming of the waters and the subsequent increase of heavy storms. We are seeing the number of hurricanes going up. Florida seems to be pummeled by them. This will continue. And so I think we have to take seriously the recommendations for reducing greenhouse gases so that we can prevent the climate from becoming much too warm for our own safety. And I think what's interesting is that we have not really focused on the fact that climate change is creating these kinds of effects on microorganisms and therefore a direct effect on our health through disease and the inability to control the disease when the conditions are causing the microorganisms to proliferate. And I don't think this has really reached public consciousness. And I think if they understood that it's pretty direct the effect of climate change. For example, having to close the beaches in Providence in Rhode Island over the last month, that's a coming right straight home kind of message.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right that when people think about the threats of climate change, they don't necessarily think about the changes in microorganism populations and how those might affect them personally. And certainly, this is a powerful example of that and a great example of really how climate change can directly affect human health. So I think this research is so important and it's scary to see these climate changes working their way up the coast into more northern territories where previously the water temperatures had been cooler preventing these sorts of bacterial blooms. I'm curious what sort of future planning there is and what work you're doing with the government. I know that you were the first woman to become director of the National Science Foundation. You were director from 1998 to 2004, over two different administrations. Can you tell us what that experience was like, and if you have any direct involvement with official government entities around this climate change phenomenon that you've observed?
Dr. Rita Colwell:
I think the experience of serving as NSF director was terrific. It's a wonderful agency with very, very dedicated personnel. It was a great experience. You get to serve as director for a single term. No director serves for more than one term. The first director did serve for two terms, but Congress decided that was not going to happen again. That was 50 some years ago. The work at the NSF is really critical for the country. It is the basic research that leads to discoveries and translation of discoveries to application. It's everything from computational sciences, which I was very fortunate to be able to increase funding by working with the previous director Dr. Neal Lane, who had become the science advisor to President Clinton. Neil and I worked very hard together to bring the new infusion of funding for computers and computational sciences. And, of course, I'd like to say that that laid the groundwork for AI and machine learning, which is now taking over in terms of the new innovations in life and applications for improvement of life for everybody.
I think what's very important to say is that the basic research that's done and funded by the National Science Foundation is really the underpinning of the industrial expansions and the economic development for the country. And so I think it's important to say that the funding is critical for the NSF, not just funding for application directly because it's the basic research that leads to the new applications. And so there needs to be a balance of funding from a very fundamental research, but also sure of funding for the applied engineering and science. But that balance is really critical. I think average citizens who are the taxpayers very much want to see that there is an output for the investment. And too often the output is the immediate application, and the lack of attention to the input, which is the basic science, is often overlooked.
I just want to say that I think the NSF plays an important role in the economy and the well-being of the US and the kind of work that's funded in the geosciences on understanding weather and weather patterns and understanding climate and the geophysical properties of planet Earth and how they drive the well-being of all citizens of the world. Again, just to be a bit repetitive, understanding the role of fundamental research is really critical, and continuing support of the National Science Foundation in the years ahead will be really, really necessary.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, you raised some really good points and all of which I think are going to become increasingly important as we continue to suffer the consequences of climate change. You are also the author of a book entitled A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science. I'm curious, why was it important to you to write and share this book and to share your story?
Dr. Rita Colwell:
It's really important for young women, as I said, to persevere. And too often there are obstacles that come up. And I think what's really important is for the individual girl or woman to understand that these obstacles are systemic. They're not your problem, they're not your fault. Too often as women, we are conditioned to take blame for whatever happens or goes wrong or to take on responsibility when in fact it's really the system against which you are working. I felt it was important to share these obstacles as I went through my career as a scientist. And what's very important is that I have learned some things that I think can be very helpful. First of all, I think it's really important for young women to, I call it create a posse. This is simply to have a group of colleagues, whether it's friends as an undergraduate, where you get together and you discuss how you progress through your studies.
And if you're a young faculty member, you gather other women who happen to be... Not necessarily just in your department, but other departments and other schools, and meet on a regular basis and just discuss how you progress through gaining tenure, for example, at the university or in a company or in an industry. Again, to have your posse where you can share experience so that you can progress in your career fully and completely without the obstacles diverting you from your ultimate objective. I guess one of the lessons too is that it's important not to have anger drive you. In other words, I like to say, don't get mad, just get even. So I found that I have a temper, but I control it because you can do a great more change with humor. So these are just a few homilies or lessons that I wanted to share in the hopes that it would help young girls and women pursuing their careers, whether it's in academia, industry, government foundations, to be able to really contribute throughout their careers.
Lydia Morrison:
Yeah, I couldn't agree more, and I appreciate your sharing your story. As a woman in science myself, I think that most women in science have experienced obstacles or challenges or difficult people or felt like they've been treated differently than male peers. And so I do think it's an important thing to talk about. And I do certainly appreciate your suggestion of building a strong group of like-minded women to share experiences with and help drive career growth and career trajectory. And I love that one of your take-home messages too is maybe not necessarily one of revenge but not getting angry about something, but really working toward making a difference and improving one's own ability. I think they're such important life lessons, not only for women but for everyone to be able to maintain a calm and level-headedness when experiencing obstacles and to persevere.
I'm so glad that you've been here today to share your story with us. What an important research topic you have brought to light. And you've done so much important work at the NSF in increasing funding, and we're thrilled to call you one of New England's own. So proud to have been able to make your acquaintance and to have you visit New England Biolabs. And just so wonderful to meet you. You're such an inspirational pillar, I think, of women in science, and we all appreciate the strength that you've shown throughout your career. And so thank you so much for being here with us today.
Dr. Rita Colwell:
Thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure. It's a delight to return to my birthplace in Beverly, Massachusetts, which is a stone throw from the New England Biolabs, which is thriving beautifully.
Lydia Morrison:
Thanks so much.
Dr. Rita Colwell:
Thank you.
Lydia Morrison:
Thank you so much, Rita, and I hope we get to talk again someday. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Lessons from Lab & Life podcast. Please check out our show's transcript for helpful links from today's conversation. And as always, we invite you to join us next episode when I'm joined by 2024 Passion in Science winner Dr. Anne Madden. Dr. Madden founded the Microbe Institute and has dedicated her career to understanding microbes and educating others about their function and benefits to both ecosystems and human communities alike.
