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Mitigating Tuberculosis, A Global Pandemic: Social Services and

BiotechnologyAmanda M. Curry1, Cristina L. DeScisciolo2, Celia S. Fung1, Michael A. Santana1 , Lene V. Samuelsen2, Lindsey J. Stretz1, Catherine M. Mageeney1 Dr. Kelly Austin2 and Dr. Vassie Ware1

1: Department of Biological Sciences, 2: Department of Sociology & Anthropology/Global Studies Program Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015

Why Study Tuberculosis?• Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the

greatest killer due to a single infectious agent.• In 2011, 8.7 million people fell ill with TB and 1.4

million died from TB. • In 2010, there were about 10 million orphan children

as a result of TB deaths among parents. • Over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-

income countries.

Questions of Interest• What social, economic, and environmental factors

cause some nations to have higher levels of TB than others?

• Why are the structural barriers to reducing TB rates in developing nations?

• Can mycobacteriophages be used to develop novel diagnostics and new treatment strategies for tuberculosis?

• Can mycobacteriophage genomes be genetically manipulated to affect Mycobacterial infection?

• Are the functions of novel genes required for infection? Could those gene products be useful in the development of novel therapies to eradicate the disease?

Future Research Directions

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: HHMI, Lehigh University Mountaintop Summer Pilot Project, and Lehigh’s Department of Biological Sciences for financial support; HHMI SEA Staff for infrastructure assistance; Bekah Dedrick in the Hatfull Lab, Kevin Bradley, and Lu Barker for assistance with BRED protocols; The Hatfull lab including Welkin Pope for QC’ing the Butters genome; Maria Brace for SEA Program support; Lee Graham for laboratory support and EM imaging, Mark Noble

• Understand motivations behind health care decisions in poor nations.

• Examine the causes of health care privatization in developing nations.

• Understand the role of health NGOs in addressing TB in poor nations.

• Continued genomic analysis through plaque screening to determine if each novel gene is necessary for infection.

• Use of mutant Butters phage for BRED to determine if multiple deletions produce infectious particles or if phage genome packaging is sufficient for infectivity.

Biotechnology Conclusions

Social Service Conclusions

Importance of Cross-Disciplinary Research

• Bio-medical and social approaches are necessary to fully address this disease.

• The development of effective medical interventions is important, but these are only successful if people can access and utilize the treatment properly and effectively, which depends on other factors, like provisions for health services and education.

• Co-infection with HIV, economic poverty, a lack of education, and high levels of foreign debt lead to higher rates of TB across nations.

• Additionally, public health care services reduce TB rates, while private health care services have no significant impact on national TB rates.

• Mycobacteriophages can be manipulated genetically to alter their ability to infect Mycobacteria.

• Preliminary data suggest that several novel gene products, in this study, are required for stable infection of bacteria in the Mycobacterium genus.

Social science students worked in the lab with biology students; and biology students also learned about TB as a “social disease”.

Cabrini College students visit

Visitors from Becton Dickinson (BD) Global Health Division.