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Characteristics that Give Viruses Pandemic Potential – The Scientist

Even before COVID-19 swept across the globe this year, coronaviruses were on scientists radar as pathogens that could one day ignite a pandemic. Theyd threatened to beforein 200203, the SARS virus infected 8,000 people in more than two dozen countries and killed almost 800and they checked off several specific boxes that emerging infectious disease specialists worry about in a virus. But theyre not the only group of viruses that researchers are concerned about. Influenza and a handful of other viruses have long been viewed as pandemic threats.

One aspect that signals pandemic potential in a virus is having an RNA, rather than DNA, genome. Thats because the process of copying RNA typically doesnt include a proofreader like DNA replication does, and so RNA viruses have higher mutation rates than the DNA variety. This means they can change and become more adaptable to human infection and human transmission, says Steve Luby, an epidemiologist at Stanford University.

Researchers on the lookout for dangerous pathogens also pay close attention to viruses with track records of leaping from animals to people. Smallpox, measles, Ebola, and HIV all originated in animals, as Luby estimates that 80 percent of our most devastating infections did.

An RNA virus that causes respiratory tract infections can evolve into something we havent seen before and spread rapidly.

Ralph Baric, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Once a virus makes the zoonotic leap from animals to humans, it must then transmit from one person to the next if it is to cause an epidemic. In this respect, SARS-CoV-2 seems to outperform the original and deadlier SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus, and some bird flu strains. But these less-transmissible viruses could always acquire some new mutation that revs up their R0, the expected number of infections caused by one person, increasing their potential to spread rapidly through human populations, says Raina Plowright, an infectious disease researcher at Montana State University.

How a virus is transmitted is yet another consideration when evaluating its pandemic potential. The most concerning situation is when a virus can spread through respiratory droplets, allowing it to jump from person to person through close interactions, as is the case for the seasonal flu and also SARS-CoV-2. An RNA virus that causes respiratory tract infections can evolve into something we havent seen before and spread rapidly, says Ralph Baric, a virologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Measles, an RNA paramyxovirus spread through respiratory secretions, is perhaps the most contagious disease known in humans.

As the world continues to grapple with SARS-CoV-2, The Scientistasked virologists to rank viruses with the greatest potential to cause a future pandemic. Three answers routinely popped up: influenza, coronaviruses, and paramyxoviruses, a large family of viruses that includes mumps and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as well as Nipah virus, which researchers say poses the biggest pandemic threat among them. There are lots of concerns to keep communicable disease epidemiologists up at night, says Luby.

Prior to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, most virologists rated influenza as the most likely agent to trigger a deadly pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic caused an estimated 50 million to 100 million deaths over two years, and there have been three flu pandemics sincein 195758, in 1968, and most recently in 2009.

Influenza is an RNA virus and thus prone to mutation, which necessitates a new seasonal flu vaccine each year. Virologists classify influenza strains according to two surface proteins: the hemagglutinin (H) protein that binds to a receptor on target cells and the neuraminidase (N) protein that virus particles use to escape host cells. There are 18 hemagglutinin subtypes and 11 neuraminidase subtypes. Its likely that all permutations occur influenza viruses that affect in influenza viruses that affect birds but only a handful have cropped up in those that infect people. Over the last one hundred or so years, we have had pandemics and seasonal epidemics caused by only three of the eighteen H subtypes and two of the eleven N subtypes, says virologist Kanta Subbarao, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne.

From time to time, influenza viruses in ducks and shorebirds spill over to infect domestic poultry and sometimes pigs. The H protein is critical. Concern mounts whenever the H protein of a bird flu virus gains the ability to infect human cells. This allows the virus to jump to humans, introducing people to a new strain with avian proteins to which they have little or no immunity. So far, says Luby, the H7N9 and H5N1 viruses still primarily connect to the cellular receptors in birds, but sometimes they infect people and cause serious disease.

The concern is that some of the viruses with killer characteristics might change in a way that allows them to more easily spread from person to person. Indeed, influenza has a radical way to shapeshift. Its RNA genome is split into eight segments. When two different subtypes of virus, be they bird or mammalian strains, are in one cell, viral segments can be shuffled to create entirely new strains. Pigs are suspected to be ideal viral melting pots. Pigs carry similar receptors to humans, and they can be infected by avian and mammalian viruses, says Subbarao. The 1957 and 1968 flu pandemics were caused by reassortant viruses, with some gene segments from avian influenza viruses and other segments from circulating human flu viruses. It is long proposed that this [mixing] happened in an intermediate host, possibly pigs.

The WHO has a constellation of national labs to watch for emerging strains of flu, and now collaborates closely with the World Organisation for Animal Health. We want to pick up any novel influenza viruses in animals, Subbarao explains. Scientists recently became concerned, for example, when a swine influenza variant of H1N1, called G4, circulating in pigs was shown to be able to infect and replicate in human epithelial cells. The virus carries genes from the H1N1 subtype that caused the 2009 flu pandemic.

Pandemic pathogens are rare, however, and are by their nature difficult to predict. We do know there are some things we should worry about, Luby says, yet we tend to get caught off guard.

Both the SARS and MERS coronaviruses are deadlier than SARS-CoV-2. Fortunately, human-to-human transmission of SARS and MERS is relatively low. But there is a tremendous diversity of coronaviruses in bat species. They mostly infect the gut, but can replicate in lung tissue as well. After the SARS outbreak in 200203, scientists searched for coronaviruses in bats in Chinese caves and found a trove of them in common insectivorous species. Moreover, antibodies identified in the blood of people in southern China suggest that some human populations are routinely exposed to bat coronaviruses. This gives the viruses ample opportunity to adapt to people.

Harbingers of coronaviruses propensity to jump to new species are the lethal outbreaks that often occur on farms. Three devastating swine coronavirus strains have emerged in pigs in the last couple of decades. These viruses are on the move, says Baric. He worries that we have toggled on a switch to promote coronavirus emergence from animal reservoirs into other mammalian species, including ourselves. This is mostly linked to human behavior, such as consumption and farming of wild animals in certain countries. Markets where lots of animals are in cages together can mean more animal transmission and more humans getting infected, says Luby, who says he believes China should close all its wet markets.

Our immediate highest risk is coronaviruses.

Steve Luby, Stanford University

The current coronavirus pandemic along with the first SARS outbreak are not the first we have experienced. MERS coronavirus seems to have been in camels for decades, occasionally infecting people. It has now caused 2,400 cases, mostly in the Arabian Peninsula. Some virologists say that the coronaviruses that are now endemic in people, causing common cold symptoms, may have sparked deadly pandemics when they first made the jump from animals to humans. The OC43 coronavirus, for example, seems to have come from bats via cattle and there is evidence that it caused a pandemic in the 1890s, says Baric.

Now, with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some researchers rank coronaviruses as the biggest threat. Id put coronavirus ahead of flu, says Luby. It demonstrated higher case fatalitynot with SARS-CoV-2, but we have seen it with SARS and MERS, and it looks like the live markets in China are allowing coronaviruses associated with bats to spread to other mammals. Our immediate highest risk is coronaviruses.

In 1994, a mysterious disease broke out in horses in a suburb of Brisbane, Australia, called Hendra. Twenty-one horses fell severely ill from a pathogen that was soon named Hendra virus. Then, a vet attending to the sick horses died from the virus, whose origin was traced to fruit bats in the genus Pteropus(aka, flying foxes). Four years later, a related virus called Nipah virus was identified as the cause of an outbreak among pig farmers in Malaysia. Two million infected pigs were slaughtered, halting the outbreak. In 2001, researchers realized that outbreaks of Nipah virus in people happened each year in Bangladesh, primarily from people drinking the sap of date trees that was contaminated with bat urine. But there didnt appear to be human-to-human transmission.

In 2018, however, an outbreak in southern India suggested that human-to-human transmission of Nipah virus was possible through close contact. A 27-year-old villager, who may have contracted the virus from fruit contaminated by bat saliva or urine, was admitted to the hospital in Kerala state and infected nine other people, including fellow patients, visiting relatives, and medical staff. He was referred to another hospital, where more patients and medical workers were infected. Twenty-one of the 23 infected people died from severe respiratory sickness and/or brain inflammation. One reason it doesnt take off is because it makes people so sick so quickly that they tend to be hospitalized and isolated, says Plowright, who studies bats and Nipah virus outbreaks. But Nipah viruss fatality rate of between 50 percent and 100 percent is exactly what makes it such a concern.

Nipah and Hendra belong to a group of paramyxoviruses now called henipavirus, and there are many more strains harbored in flying foxes in Asia, Oceania, and Africa, says Plowright. Although henipaviruses have not yet caused widespread outbreaks in people, other paramyxoviruses, such as measles and mumps, have. Some of these viruses spread really well, says Rebecca Dutch, a molecular biologist at the University of Kentucky. If Nipah moved efficiently from one person to another, perhaps mutating so it transmits before making someone really sick, this would be devasting, says Luby, more like the Black Plague.

Viruses that did not top the list but still demand attention are filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg virus, which cause hemorrhagic fever and can infect apes, monkeys, and bats, in addition to humans. The fact that Ebola requires blood or body fluids to be transmitted means that it is harder to transmit and so less likely to be a global threat, explains Luby. And as with Nipah virus infections, people get sick quickly and thus are isolated early. For a filovirus to cause a pandemic, it would need to be transmissible in respiratory form or spread readily in diarrhea, experts say, and its not yet clear how easily that might happen. The big question is, what is the diversity of the Ebola viruses in nature? says Baric.

Other viruses that scientists are keeping tabs on include those in the Bunyavirus and Arenavirus families, which primarily infect rodents, and mosquito-transmitted dengue, Zika virus, and West Nile virus. Vector-borne pathogens have the potential to infect two billion people, says Baric, but if you are in the northern latitudes it may be low risk for you. As the geographical range of mosquitoes spreads to higher latitudes with climate change, however, so too will the diversity of the pathogens they carry.

There is also disease X. The WHO uses this term to acknowledge that a serious epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease. But studying an undescribed pathogen is a tall order. Until SARS emerged in 2002, those who study coronaviruses had trouble getting anyone to fund their research, says Dutch. There certainly could be things out there we dont know about.

Experts warn that humans are creating conditions for more viral spillover events by disrupting natural habitats and by packing different wild animals together in wildlife markets. We are creating the perfect storm for new viruses to emerge, says Plowright, who recently coauthored a review on bat-borne virus diversity, spillover, and emergence. Despite this, the scientific community is largely unable to accurately forecast future outbreaks, she adds. No one predicted that a flu pandemic [2009] would come from pigs in Mexico, says Plowright. We have to keep an open mind as to what the next pathogen outbreak is going to be.

But researchers are hopeful that our experience with COVID-19 will turn the tide of pandemic preparedness. As Luby says, I anticipate there will be more attention to these threats.

Huge diversity in insectivorous bats and fruit-eating bats. Horseshoe bats (genus Rhinolophus) in Southeast Asia harbor SARS-like coronaviruses.

Water birds, poultry, and domestic pigs. Some outbreaks in dogs and horses.

Some family members abundant in fruit bats.

Four common cold coronaviruses may have origins in bats, possibly in last few centuries. SARS caused an outbreak during 200304. MERS continues to infect people, presumably jumping from camels.

Numerous pandemics throughout human history were likely due to flu. Confirmed flu pandemics include the devastating 1918 pandemic, as well as pandemics in 195758, 1969, and 2009.

Hendra virus infected horses and people first in 1994. Nipah virus first recorded in pigs and humans in 1998.

Varies hugely. COVID-19 possibly around 1 percent. SARS is thought to be closer to 15 percent. MERS has proved fatal in about 35 percent of patients.

In the case of the 1918 pandemic, the case fatality rate was around 2.5 percent globally.

Some of the deadliest known pathogens. Hendra virus rarely infects humans, but when it does, the fatality rate is around 50 percent. The case fatality rate for Nipah is even higher, ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent in some outbreaks.

Contact and airborne (droplets and aerosols)

Contact and airborne (droplets and aerosols)

Mostly urine and saliva from bats contaminating food of domestic animals and humans. Close contact between people for Nipah

Dogs, pigs, cats, cattle, camels, and others

Pigs, horses, ferrets, dogs, and poultry

Hendra virus infects horses and dogs. Nipah virus infects pigs (and lab animals such as hamsters and ferrets)

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Characteristics that Give Viruses Pandemic Potential - The Scientist

Physiology

The New Home of Sports Neuroscience: An Interview With Dr Jaime Tartar – Technology Networks

Jaime Tartar, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Nova Southeastern University and president of the Society for NeuroSports, an academic society dedicated to the interdisciplinary collaboration between the fields of exercise science and neuroscience. Dr. Tartar completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, where she studied the neurobiology of sleep. She is widely published in many areas of neuroscience on topics ranging from basic cell physiology to neurological impairments. Her research interests are focused on the mechanisms and consequences of acute and chronic stress in humans and the impact of normal sleep and sleep deprivation on emotion processing and physiological functioning. We spoke to Dr. Tartar about the need for sports neuroscience, and how this young field is rapidly advancing.As an academic society, how does the Society for NeuroSports hope to impact the world of sports neuroscience?Jamie Tartar (JT): We aim to be able to provide an academic home to researchers working across fields. For example, those working in neuroscience, exercise science, psychology or physical therapy who are looking at brain-exercise relationships. We would also like to be able to provide those working in the applied fields a place where they can interact with academics in the field to share information and strengthen their practice.A lot of people are currently doing work in the field of sports neuroscience, but because it doesn't have an established academic organization, I don't think that researchers right now identify themselves as sport neuroscientists, even though that's what they're doing.

Initially, our goal was to hold academic conferences and we had the first one in November 2019. This conference was exactly what we hoped it would be there were researchers across disciplines sharing information and learning from each other. In fact, new and interesting collaborations also came from this conference! We would like to see this happen more at future conferences as the field and the society grows.A secondary goal for us was to create and establish the first journal in the field of sports neuroscience. We have recently done that with the launch of the Journal of the Society for NeuroSports. We are very pleased to offer this as an open access journal that does not have submission fees. We were able to do this by partnering closely with our university library that runs the journal through a special program that they have.Because sports neuroscience often involves working across disciplines, we also offer a certification in the field of sports neuroscience. This allows academics and practitioners to share their knowledge across disciplines. People like me, for example I am a neuroscientist who is working closely in the field of exercise science.If money was no object, what subsets of sports neuroscience research deserve to see the light of the day the most?JT: I think that's a difficult question to answer. Most researchers would certainly pick their area because we love what we do!There has been a lot of attention given recently to the impact of exercise and physical activity on brain health. This is a hot and growing area in science. I'm not sure how much the general public is aware of the recent findings on just how powerful exercise can be as a way of keeping your brain healthy. If anything, I think that information needs to be translated better to the public.

Jaime Tartar, Ph.D. Credit: NOVA

Most people exercise for the physical benefits, but maybe more people would exercise for the brain benefits. Another area where we could use a lot of work is in brain injury in sports. Right now, the neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) that can develop as a result of impact sports is not well understood. CTE cannot be diagnosed currently until after death. It would be very helpful to have better translation or research in this area. Better understanding of one neurodegenerative disease can help the understanding of all of them so understanding more about CTE can also help with our understanding of Alzheimer's disease.In your presentation last year at the 16th Annual Conference of the International Society of Sports Nutrition in Las Vegas, you spoke at length about the deleterious effects insufficient sleep has on sports performance. Is sleep monitoring a part of the solution?JT: Sleep monitoring can definitely help in sports performance. Athletes spend a lot of time training for performance and eating the right nutrition to perform better. Improving sleep is also critical to performance, but many athletes are not aware of just how much of an impact poor sleep has on sports performance. Many people, not just athletes, restrict their sleep in order to increase their daytime waking activities, but for athletes studies have demonstrated very clearly that when they sleep better they perform better. Athletes and non-athletes alike need to give themselves permission to get better sleep and think of sleep as a basic hygiene, just like eating well and exercising. It's difficult to gauge ones sleep properly so monitoring this can be very helpful towards this goal.In your presentation on How to manage the misbehaving brain, you pointed out that in hunter-gatherer times, a drop in temperature was a reliable predictor of sleep onset, perhaps even more so than light. Would you expect this still to be the case today?JT: Not only would I expect this to be true today, but a good number ofstudies have demonstrated this to be the case. In general, sleep in humans and non-human animals is associated with a decrease in core body temperature. It has been clearly demonstrated that a decrease in core body temperature before sleep onset relates to faster sleep onset and better-quality sleep.Youve studied the role of acute and chronic stress, a topic of great interest in sports performance circles. Historically, most research was centeredaround cortisol and alpha amylase activity, however the latest advances in genotyping have allowed researchers to look at how genetic difference in dopamine levels affect athletic performance.In one of your recent studies, you investigated how a functional single-nucleotide polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene relates to catecholamine levels and allele types considered the warrior and the worrier genotypes. How does COMT allele status affect the athletes performance under stressful conditions? What about its impact on emotional processing?JT: People who carry 2 G nucleotide alleles for the COMT gene have less of a breakdown of dopamine in the brain and especially in the prefrontal cortex. We previously demonstrated that women who carry at least one copy of the "A" allele (who therefore have less dopamine breakdown/ more circulating dopamine in the prefrontal cortex) have better psychological health at baseline.However, with the onset of stress, dopamine levels rise so for people who carry the GG alleles this rise puts their dopamine levels at the sweet spot for performance whereas people who have higher baseline dopamine levels (people who carry at least one A allele) this pushes their dopamine levels too high to the point where they're not performing well. People with two G alleles are sometimes known as warrior allele carriers because they seem to be able to perform better under stress. In agreement with this idea, we recently published a paper showing that professional MMA fighters are more likely to carry the GG allele than would be expected based on population data.

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The New Home of Sports Neuroscience: An Interview With Dr Jaime Tartar - Technology Networks

Physiology

Stomach SIDT1 mediates dietary microRNA absorption: ending of the 10-year debate – Science Codex

In a new study published in Cell Research, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University School of Life Sciences, China, reports that SIDT1 in the mammalian stomach mediates host uptake of dietary and orally administered microRNAs (miRNAs), thus exerting biological functions in the host.

In previous studies, Chen-Yu Zhang's group has demonstrated that intact plant miRNA in foods can be absorbed through the mammalian digestive system and mediate cross-kingdom gene regulation. The discoveries also provide new insight into the oral administration of RNA therapeutic drugs. Although accumulated evidences showing the existence of intact dietary miRNAs within mammalian host, the absorption of dietary miRNAs in animal gastrointestinal tract has been frequently questioned, mainly due to the unknown mechanism of absorption.

In the current study, they show that SID-1 transmembrane family member 1 (SIDT1), mammalian homolog of SID-1 expressed on gastric pit cells in the stomach is required for the absorption of dietary miRNAs. SIDT1-deficient mice show reduced basal levels and impaired dynamic absorption of dietary miRNAs. Notably, they identified the stomach as the primary site for dietary miRNA absorption, which is dramatically attenuated in the stomachs of SIDT1-deficient mice. Mechanistic analyses revealed that the uptake of exogenous miRNAs by gastric pit cells is SIDT1 and low-pH dependent. Furthermore, oral administration of plant-derived miR2911 retards liver fibrosis, and the protective effect was abolished in SIDT1-deficient mice. This study not only reveals the major mechanism of dietary miRNA absorption, uncovers a novel physiological function of the mammalian stomach, but also shed light on orally delivered small-RNA therapeutics.

This work is important for the following reasons:

1.In this study, they demonstrated the molecular mechanism of mammalian dietary miRNA absorption, which is one of the most groundbreaking as well as most controversial discoveries in the field of extracellular RNA research in the last decade. Identification of the absorption mechanism provides strong evidence of the physiological existence and functionality of mammalian dietary miRNA absorption, thus ending the 10-year debate on this topic.2.This work also newly found that the stomach not only absorbs water and alcohol, as is broadly known in classic physiology, but also senses and takes up functional dietary miRNAs. This provides a unique new understanding of digestion physiology.3.A low-pH condition is required for efficient exogenous miRNA uptake via SIDT1. This finding reveals an evolutionary explanation for functional dietary miRNA absorption, in which the stability of dietary miRNAs is granted in stomach, where RNase activity is largely absent in this low-physiological-pH gastric environment.4.By oral administration, plant-derived miR2911 can be absorbed via SIDT1 and can subsequently alleviate liver fibrosis in mice, providing a new therapeutic strategy for small-RNA-based treatment. This natural mammalian absorption pathway of dietary miRNA will be easily harnessed for the oral delivery of therapeutic miRNAs, which could be a potential direction in for the development of RNA-based medicine.

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Stomach SIDT1 mediates dietary microRNA absorption: ending of the 10-year debate - Science Codex

Physiology

Unique high-tech track waiting for competition at Baldwin Wallace University – cleveland.com

BEREA, Ohio - Anyone watching track and field sees athletes who lace up the spikes, stretch, and take off. Practice and training shaves tenths of seconds off times. But at Baldwin Wallace University, a new track aims to give an added edge to competitive runners.

A lot of science, dedicated research, a keen understanding of physiology and a tree indigenous to the rainforest have contributed to the quarter-mile track at George Finnie Stadium.

We're a far cry from the days when runners traversed grass, dirt, cinder and asphalt surfaces in competition.

Synthetic material began to be developed in the 1950s and '60s, which makes Roger Bannister's 1954 vanguard achievement of becoming the first person to break the 4-minute mile all that impressive.

Some surfaces used to be poured to form a track, buckets of "goop" squeegeed out, said Joe Eby, who coaches B-W's men's and women's teams. It yielded an imperfect, uneven oval.

Technological advancements have resulted in surfaces like the Mondo Super X 720. It sounds like a video game, but it's a state-of-the-art-track.

"We're the only (college) track in the state of Ohio to have a Mondo surface," Eby said. "This is like the Cadillac of track surfaces."

The biggest challenge for Eby is the litany of coronavirus restrictions the Ohio Athletic Conference and other conferences are facing. So the school of just more than 3,000 students has a pristine track with no formal competitions scheduled.

The latex-based track is about half an inch thick and laid over the school's previous track, which was installed in 2008 and lies atop asphalt and a French drain. Workers in May began the installation process, laying it down from 49-foot rolls and assembling it with glue between seams. It took about a week or two, Eby said, and another week to paint the lines.

Mondo Super X 720 has a hexagon shape designed for "the way people move," said Phil Rickaby, regional sales manager for Kiefer USA, which distributes the line of tracks.

But as Eby strode on the surface recently, he sees a simple yet important necessity: "These tracks are built for competition."

Eby - who grew up in Silver Lake and went to Walsh Jesuit High School and ran for the University of Mount Union - has been coaching at Baldwin Wallace since 2015. He knows about competition. In 2016, the B-W women were national indoor champs and runner-up outdoors.

"This was always one of my favorite places to run," he said. "I've run multiple PRs (personal best times) at this facility on this surface. It's always been known as the fastest track in the area."

But behind the speed is a lot of science.

Baldwin Wallace University track coach Joe Eby checks out the new Mondo track.

It's a "dual durometer" surface, meaning it's a two-layered product. The top layer serves primarily for durability, energy return and traction. The bottom strip is a performance layer for shock absorption and energy return.

The track holds a "three-dimensional component of the way people move," said Rickaby, who competed for and coached at Kent State.

Down a straightaway, runners need that "forward and backward horizontal-type movement."

When taking off in a jumping event - like hurdles and pole vault, for instance - "you want that vertical energy return and also that shock absorption as you take off the ground and when you hit back down."

Then there are curves in the 400 or 800 meters, distance events and high jump. "You want that energy return," Rickaby said.

It all comes from the track's hexagon shape that allows for consistent energy return - athlete to athlete, lane to lane, event to event.

Rickaby puts the science into layman's terms:

"If you imagine a bow string, when energy is stored in a particular product, that energy return is very important to an athlete. If you have a track that is too soft - consider sand. It's a good shock absorber, but it has no energy return. You want to have a very fine balance of having a product that stores that energy with the force that an athlete applies to the ground but is able to return that energy without that energy disbursing through that surface."

Mondo, an Italian company, has had years to study tracks. The company has been around for about 70 years, starting with toy and bike-tire production, Rickaby said.

Its first Olympic track was for the 1976 Games in Montreal, and recently the company finished work for the 2020/2021 Games slated for Tokyo. To date, Mondo has installed tracks in 170 countries, with dozens throughout the United States, as well as flooring for recreation centers, weight rooms and multi-purpose gyms.

And it all starts with a tree.

All the product is extracted from the Hevea tree, much like latex is, he said. So its a latex-based product from a rubber tree where they take the product from the tree and then they harvest the raw material and turn it into a running track. Its a product of nature.

The sustainable effort is like tapping a tree for maple syrup. Bark is cut, latex is extracted. That liquid will harden and undergo vulcanization. The resulting surface is anti-bacterial and anti-microbial, decreasing staph infections, Rickaby said.

Surfaces have come a long way since Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile on May 6, 1954. AP

The physiology of the foot is the basis for much of the research.

"As the athlete hits the ground, they don't hit flat-footed; they actually roll from the first out to the fifth metatarsal. As the pressure is put onto the foot, it moves effectively from one toe out to the next toe. The track allows the energy to be stored, and as the pressure is applied and then released that energy also is released back to the foot as it lifts off the track."

The metatarsal bones are one to five, middle joints numbered from big toe on out.

The track minimizes contact time, allowing more energy to be returned. It helps reduce injuries because the track allows athletes to apply less force to take another step, Rickaby said.

Over time, those steps add up. The track's lifespan ranges with use. Some of the Mondo tracks in indoor facilities have lasted 29 years, Rickaby said. Outdoor surfaces can go about 15 years, and the tracks come in multiple colors.

Prices are based on square footage, from half a million dollars on up. B-W's was paid for mostly through donors, Eby said. Indoor hydraulic systems, creating banked curves resembling a NASCAR track for athletes to stay within the curve, "can run upwards of $3 million," Rickaby said.

This is B-W's third iteration of a Mondo track, and its newness compares to the football field turf, which is a year old.

All the technology can improve performance, but it cannot conquer coronavirus and its ever-changing restrictions. For now, the OAC has postponed all sports until Jan. 1, 2021, Eby said.

I feel so bad for the kids, he said. We had our spring season taken away, and all summer theyve been training and training and training, and now fall season is taken away. So a lot of them are Whats the point? Eventually were going to get back to it. Its hard to just train with no light at the end of the tunnel.

When they do get back, having a high-tech track can lead to a "wow factor" for recruiting, Eby said.

"We've got a brand new facility at this point," he said. "I'm glad we got it in when we did."

I am on cleveland.coms life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, heres a directory on cleveland.com.

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Unique high-tech track waiting for competition at Baldwin Wallace University - cleveland.com

Physiology

Gregory Carter, MD, MS, Honored With Ernest Johnson Outstanding Educator Award – Newswise

Newswise The American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) is honoring Gregory Carter, MD, MS, with the Ernest Johnson Outstanding Educator Award for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR). This award honors a PMR AANEM member for significant contributions related to neuromuscular (NM) and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine.

"Teaching, like the practice of medicine and research endeavors, is a challenging intellectual task," said Dr. Carter. "It is one of the most important things we can do in the course of our careers. Even in this age of nearly instantaneous information transfer, the most important aspects of clinical medicine cannot be learned off of a smartphone, website, or even a YouTube video. It is the hands-on, personal interactions with our trainees that passes on the knowledge that ensures the future of our field."

Dr. Carter's contributions to the AANEM Annual Meeting were a determining factor in his receiving the award. He has presented at over 20 sessions and was always a popular speaker. He is adamant about the value of being an AANEM member.

"The AANEM is an outstanding organization and has the highest quality training and educational materials, including an excellent journal in Muscle and Nerve. The meetings are always top-notch, and bring in a mix of educational and research topics, said Dr. Carter.

Dr. Carter graduated from Loyola University of Chicagos Stritch School of Medicine. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine. He completed a residency for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a research fellowship for neuromuscular disease at the University of California, Davis. He also earned a Masters degree in physiology there, before accepting a MayDay pain fellowship at the University of Washington. He holds faculty appointments at both University of Washington and Washington State University medical schools. He currently serves as chief medical officer for St Lukes Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Washington. He is now in the process of starting a new PM&R residency program. Dr. Carter served on the AANEM Board from 2013-2016 and served on the Muscle & Nerve Editorial Board as Senior Associate Editor. He also was a member of the following AANEM Committees: Research, Podcasting Editorial Board, and the NM Update Course Committee.

About the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM)

Based in Rochester, Minnesota, the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) is the premier nonprofit membership association dedicated to the advancement of neuromuscular (NM), musculoskeletal and electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine. The organization and its members work to improve the quality of patient care and advance the science of NM diseases and EDX medicine by serving physicians and allied health professionals who care for those with muscle and nerve disorders.

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Gregory Carter, MD, MS, Honored With Ernest Johnson Outstanding Educator Award - Newswise

Physiology

Free Webinar: Multi-Year Contraception for Wild Horses & Deer – Patch.com

FREE WEBINAR ADDRESSES MULTI-YEAR REVERSIBLE CONTRACEPTION FOR WILD HORSES AND DEER

The Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility Control (BIWFC) will host a free webinar addressing the development, assessment and application of PZP-22 controlled-release vaccine as a wildlife management tool, with a focus on wild horses and deer. "PZP-22: Multi-Year Reversible Contraception for Wild Horses and Deer" is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18 at 1:00 PM (EDT).

The management of wildlife in the face of robust reproduction and changing habitats is a major issue for both the present and future. The development and testing of contraceptive vaccines for this purpose began with a porcine Zona Pellucida (PZP)-adjuvant emulsion, which proved highly effective in preventing fertilization. This vaccine remains in use, but eventually the practical benefits of reducing the need to access animals repeatedly for treatment led to the development of PZP-22 as a single-injection, multi-year vaccine.

This webinar will be presented by John Turner, Jr. PhD, Professor of Physiology engaged in teaching and research at the University of Toledo College of Medicine (UTCOM) and Allen Rutberg, PhD, Director, Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy and Research Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

For more information or to register visit wwwwildlifefertilitycontrol.org/pzp22/.

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Free Webinar: Multi-Year Contraception for Wild Horses & Deer - Patch.com

Embryology

Relationship status and BMI used to determine access to IVF – BioNews

17 August 2020

Relationship status and body mass index (BMI), are being used to restrict people's access to NHS-funded fertility treatment.

A report, published by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), has outlined the policies of England's 135 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) for fertility services. They discovered that 24 CCGs require patients to be in a 'stable relationship' and that BMI restrictions for women exist across almost all CCGs (96 percent), with 24 percent also restricting on the basis of male BMI.

'Access to any form of healthcare should be rooted in clinical evidence', Dr Marta Jansa Perez, director of embryology at BPAS, told iNews, 'Sadly, this report demonstrates that for most patients in need of fertility treatment, this is simply not the case.'

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) state in fertility guidelines that women under 40 should be offered three cycles of IVF and women between 40-42 should be offered one cycle, a recommendation guided by cost and clinical effectiveness. They do not mention relationship status and only advise that men and women 'should be informed' of the risks to infertility associated with obesity or low body weight in women and obesity in men.

CCGs do not have to follow NICE recommendations, and there is significant regional variation in fertility funding, leading to a 'postcode lottery' where access to IVF is determined by where you live.

Some CCGs require proof of a 'stable relationship' by longevity, specifying couples should be together for at least two years. Others require evidence of long-term cohabitation or 'financial interdependence'.

Single women and women in same-sex female couples must use six to 12 cycles of artificial insemination to determine infertility, in alignment with NICE guidelines. But the majority (54 percent) of CCGs do not provide any funding for this process and 20 percent set a minimum length of time these cycles must occur.

The widespread denial of treatment based on female or male BMI is not backed up by evidence provided by NICE. Four CCGs require BMI is maintained for six months prior to treatment, a further barrier to IVF access.

BPAS conclude that withholding fertility services has 'real consequences' for patients and the health service. As well as experiencing psychological harm, patients unable to access fertility treatment in the UK often travel abroad for care. This is associated with higher rates of multiple births, the single biggest risk to mother and baby.

'Reform in this area is long overdue,' said Dr Emily Scott, founder of IVF Fairness, 'IVF Fairness stands with BPAS in urging policy makers at a local and national level to finally take action, for the sake of fair and equal access to reproductive health services and in genuflection to the governing principles on which our National Health Service is founded.'

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Relationship status and BMI used to determine access to IVF - BioNews

Embryology

Praxis Media Group and Global Brands network announces winners of the National Healthcare Excellence Awards, 2020 and Indias Top 50 Healthcare, 2020…

New Delhi [India], Aug 17 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Praxis Media in association with Healthcare Leaders announced the prestigious National Healthcare Excellence Awards on August 15, 2020 to celebrate and honor more than 30 winners at 5 different levels for epitomizing strength, ingenuity, knowledge and foresight for the growth of the healthcare sector with vision and inspiration. Winners of Indias Top 50 Healthcare, 2020 were also declared by the Global Brands Network.These awards are announced each year to identify, celebrate and encourage excellence in healthcare and medicine. The endeavor is to recognize and reward quality excellence, innovative initiatives and exemplary work in the healthcare Sector in a spectacular style. The exacting and daunting feat of zeroing-in on the winners is achieved by the Praxis Media Group, with support from its associates and partners, after an elaborate and meticulous selection process which included inviting nominations from potential nominees, substantial research and surveys, collation of feedback and opinions, screening based on judging parameters and subsequently choosing the winners through an independent jury panel.The significant parameters which were considered for selecting the winners included Qualification & Professional Experience, Infrastructure & Facilities, Market Presence & Competition, Growth & Profitability, Quality & Operational Excellence, Financial & Business Acumen, Innovation & Novelty in Services, Ingenuity and Imagination, Sustainability & Environmental Awareness, Job & Impact Potential, Client/Customer & Industry Feedback, Use of Technology & Trends, Efforts for Risk & Setback Mitigation, Previous Awards & Achievements etc.National Healthcare Excellence Awards and Indias Top 50 Healthcare are an initiative of Praxis Media Group which are designed to recognize excellence and showcase the outstanding work by healthcare professionals. It intends to celebrate the trailblazing people and organizations that make our healthcare system more skilled, more compassionate and more equitable.These awards are not limited to medical professionals, but also aims at acknowledging the outstanding services and commitment from those involved in administration, staffing, consultation, product development, laboratory services as well as those supplying peripheral services that acts as the backbone of the healthcare sector.These awards, as a hallmark of excellence are not only a defining moment for the winners, but also intend to inspire others towards bigger and better achievements.The initiative was well supported by Healthcare Leaders Brand Partner, The Pharma Times Online Media Partner, Health Vision Magazine Partner, Global Brands Network Associate Partner and Lawspective Consulting LLP Knowledge Partner who echoed the same objective of healthcare excellence.A comprehensive list of winners of the National Healthcare Excellence Awards, 2020:Dr. Ankita Bhargava Most Promising Endocrine Dietitian in Bengaluru, Homoeopathic & Lifestyle Clinic Best Homoeopathic Clinic in Delhi & NCR, Dr. Indrajeet Kumar Tiwary Best Gastrointestinal and Liver Transplant Intensivist in Eastern India, Dr. Achyut Trivedi Best Consultant Neuropsychiatrist in Rajasthan, Dr. Jasjit Singh Best Hospital Administrator of the Year, Dt. Chaitali Mondal Best Nutrition Consultant in West Bengal, Dr. P.C. Jagadeesh Best Orthopaedic Surgeon in Karnataka, Dr. Abhishek Massey Best Consultant Physiotherapist in Delhi, Dr. Neha Nasa Best Dentist in Patient Care and Treatment in Gurgaon, Plexus Neuro and Stem Cell Research Centre Best Centre for Stem Cell Therapy in India, 2020, Dr. Premkumar Balachandran Excellence in Hernia Surgery and Abdominal Wall Reconstruction, Dr. Lokesh Jain Healthcare Leader of the Year, Dr. Manish Jain Best Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeon in Rajasthan, Dr. VijaitaSyngle Best Obesity Medicine Doctor of the Year, Manorama Infosolutions Private Limited Best Healthcare IT Application Company in India, Ziva Embryology and Fertility Institute Best Fertility Centre in Telangana, Ziva Embryology and Fertility Institute Best Embryology Training Institute in India, Androcare Andrology & Mens Health Institute Best Male Fertility Centre in India, Operon Biotech and Healthcare Best In-Vitro Diagnostic Company in Karnataka, Mr. Navdeep Kanwer Best Consultant Audiologist in Punjab, Swasth Bhoomi Private Limited Healthcare Start-Up of the Year, Sidana Dental Care Best Dental Clinic in Mohali, Dr. KedarBakshi Most Promising Dentist in Maharashtra, Dr. Smita Sanjay Deorukhkar Best Alternate Medicine Practitioner in Western India, Dr. Sunil Kumar Singh Best Oral Implantologist in Azamgarh, SAAOL Heart Center Best Heart Care Centre in Delhi & NCR, Bhrigu Sons Pharmaceuticals Award for the Pharmaceutical Brand of the Year, Dr. Uday DattaramTalwadker Best Dentist in Goa, Dr. Jagdish Shinde Best Radiation Oncologist in Maharashtra, Osho Medicare Best Ayurvedic Kidney Speciality Clinic in Gujarat.Dr. Rushda Riaz Best Gynaecologist in North India and Dr. Monga Ayurvedic Medi Clinic Private Limited Best Ayurveda Treatment Clinic in New Delhi were the exclusive winners of Indias Top 50 Healthcare Leaders in 2020.The Founder-Director of the media group, Mrs. Swagateeka Patel Singh congratulated all the winners and said that each winner has exemplified excellence and typifies the very best of healthcare practices and ethics. The National Healthcare Excellence Awards, 2020 are a small token of appreciation from Praxis Media to all these inspirational individuals and organization.These recognitions will further strengthen their ability to steer their objective through turbulent times, apply the best of the professional modules to manage and keep their missions afloat.This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India)

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Praxis Media Group and Global Brands network announces winners of the National Healthcare Excellence Awards, 2020 and Indias Top 50 Healthcare, 2020...

Embryology

Mother’s partner not legal parent of donor-conceived child – BioNews

17 August 2020

'Appalling' planning between a lesbian couple and the man who acted as the sperm donor has resulted in a missed opportunity for the mother's partner to become a legal parent.

High Court Judge, Mr Justice O'Hara, declined to grant a parental order after criticising the lack of any agreements in regard to the role of the biological father in the child's life.

'It is appalling that the planning between the adults for something so important and long-lasting was so inadequate,' Justice O'Harasaidin his judgment. 'People put more care into arranging a holiday than these three adults did for [the child].'

In 2014 R and A,who at the time were not married or in a civil partnership, agreed to co-parent a child. P provided sperm with which R conceived a baby, C, who was born later the same year.

R was listed on the birth certificate as the child's mother and only parent. P willingly surrendered all parental responsibilities, but he argued that it had been agreed he would have some contact and at least one visit after the child's birth. R and A disagreed as no agreement had been drawn up and felt he should have no right to contact as he is not C's father in any legally recognised way.

R and A are now civil partners and wished for A to be added to C's birth certificate as a second mother. They argued that although P 'provided the gamete by which fertilisation occurred', he was not the natural father of C, and the two women were the child's only natural parents. The couple claimed that refusal would be discriminatory and that C was born when they were in a long-standing relationship which should be recognised officially.

The couple's request was opposed by P, the Department of Finance, the UK Secretary of State for Health, and the Attorney General.

In hisjudgment, Justice O'Hara explained that A does not meet the requirements of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 for legal parenthood, as they did not use a licensed clinic for treatment and they only entered a civil partnership after C's birth.

He ruled that 'Ms A is not and cannot be the natural parent of C. Had she and Ms R taken one of the routes open to them, they could have become the recognised legal parents. By failing to do so they have lost that opportunity, at least so far as Ms A is concerned.'

Justice O'Haraexplained that although he would not grant a parental order, there were other ways that A could legally recognise her relationship with C: 'In particular, orders can be made giving her parental responsibility and shared residence which, in the circumstances of this case, are likely to be long-lasting in their effect since Mr P isn't seeking anything more than some form of contact'.

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Mother's partner not legal parent of donor-conceived child - BioNews

Cell Biology

Following the data – Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom

Kiani Arkus Gardner, AB 07 (biology), was pretty confident she had the experiment right.

An ambitious Washington University sophomore in the lab of biologist Joseph Jez, she was sure she was asking the right questions, formulating the right hypotheses, following the right procedures.

But the answer wasnt coming up the way she had hoped.

We were one or two experiments away from wrapping it up, and having a result to publish, recalls Gardner, a native Hawaiian and self-professed science fair nerd, who matriculated at WashU in the fall of 2003 to study biology and see where the science would take her academia, research, ultimately perhaps college administration.

And when the eager first-year student couldnt find a lab those first two semesters, she landed a summer internship at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and found herself in the lab of Jez, who is now the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Biology and chair of the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences. She made an immediate impression, acing every task and earning the right to work alongside Jez and his graduate assistants.

She was utterly fearless and quite comfortable in the lab, recalls Jez, who at the time was in his second year as a lab head at the Danforth Center. We threw everything at her, and she responded beautifully.

Yet with her goal publishing her first paper before age 20 in sight, Gardner became frustrated when those last experiments didnt turn out the way she had envisioned. I was pretty upset, she says, almost in meltdown mode. Jez, ever the teacher, patiently listened to the young scientist and told her that the experiments were fine; it was her ideas that were getting in the way.

He said, Look. The data is what the data is, Gardner says. He told me not to be so in love with your ideas that youre willing to overlook the data, because thats where youre going to go wrong.

For Gardner, it was a light-bulb moment. I said, OK, well keep working the experiment, and well get to it, she says.

And get to it she did. Gardner studied the data, re-hypothesized and rethought the experiments, and ultimately published that paper, Mechanistic Analysis of Wheat Chlorophyllase Reveals a Connection to the Carboxyesterase Enzyme Family, as a sophomore. It was presented at a conference, won an award and appeared in the Notables section of the campus newspaper, The Record, a rare occasion for an undergraduate. And it was the first of a long line of published papers on the vitae for the now 34-year-old Gardner.

Gardner would work three years in Jezs lab and have eight published papers by the time she graduated in 2007. I had a bit of street cred, she says, entering Duke with more publications than most have when they leave the doctorate program.

I was brash, and I was bold. In fact, my program director told one P.I., If youre going to take her in the lab, you have to be sure you can handle her, she recalls. It made for some tough going early on, but she eventually ended up in the lab of Dukes Harold Erickson and earned her doctorate in cell biology.

All important lessons for a young scientist: the starts and the stops, two steps forward and one step back, stuck with her as she learned to trust the data at every turn. Jezs words, The data is what the data is, would become her catchphrase.

The words also would be the thread that would take her from WashU to Duke, to marriage and a family, to a career as a community college professor first in North Carolina, to ultimately the southern coast of Alabama in the Mobile metropolitan area.

Thats where this year, Gardner a Hawaiian, a wife, a mom, a scientist would throw her hat in the ring as a Democratic candidate for Congress in Alabamas 1st congressional district, a place that hasnt sent a Democrat to Congress since 1963. An unlikely candidate in an unprecedented time.

A force of nature is what she is, says Jez, who has kept in touch with Gardner through the years as both colleague and friend, and who remembers the day she told him she was a candidate. She was on the phone from a park, and you could hear her kids playing in the background, he says. Shes like, Yeah, Im running for Congress.

No rules

My life is a series of being in the right place at the right time, says Gardner via a Zoom call from her kitchen in her Spanish Fort, Ala., home with her two young sons, Ethan, 5, and Nolan, 3, playing nearby.

Its late June, about 3 weeks before a runoff election in which the voters of south Alabama will choose between two Democratic candidates for the November ballot. Its been almost four months since the initial primary in early March necessitated a runoff that can finally take place. Why? Because its a campaign season cloaked in COVID-19, with social distancing campaigns behind face masks and indoors with YouTube and Facebook Live providing both the messages and the medium.

Its good and its bad, she says, shrugging off the unprecedented challenge. As far as the pandemic goes, its a whole new world, but thats true for all the candidates. No one has the leg up here. I think Im a bit more tech savvy, though, and we already had a decent digital infrastructure set up.

When the campaign began in the summer of 2019, Gardner was a young mom using her PhD to teach biology at a community college, because thats where she felt she could be the most useful. Even when she was living in North Carolina, she gravitated toward teaching at that level. I really like the community college, the teaching philosophies and its role in society, she says.

But when the family moved to rural Alabama for her husband Matts job, she found a vastly different world, and she got involved in local politics because she wanted to improve the community in which she and Matt were raising their boys.

I had already begun to get involved, she says, insofar as How do I make sure the community in which I live is one that my children can enter into, and no one has to move across the world to get a good job?

When members of the local Democratic party witnessed her intellect and enthusiasm for public service, they came calling for a PhD with no political experience to run for Congress.

When members of the local Democratic party witnessed her intellect and enthusiasm for public service, they came calling for a PhD with no political experience to run for Congress. She first thought it was the craziest thing she had ever heard, but then she finally said yes with the support of her family. If youre going to do it, do it right and do it well, her husband advised her. Quit your job and make this what you do.

In July 2019, she made it official, and Gardner says the campaign was going pretty much as expected, with lots of hand-shaking and church picnics. But then you-know-what happened. The scientist simply took campaign matters in her own hands and pivoted. There are no rules in place for a pandemic campaign, she says. Since I had a following, and a platform and a message, the campaign pivoted from asking for votes to providing leadership.

The result was a Facebook Live video series called #QuarantinewithKiani, in which Gardner used a whiteboard to explain everything from what COVID-19 was, to how to safely re-enter the public sphere, to the importance of face masks. The campaign started food drives, distributed hand sanitizer and passed out masks. She offered step-by-step tutorials on absentee voting and helped explain personal finance in describing how best to use the stimulus checks.

Were making America to stop writing off south Alabama, and thats huge.

And she picked up endorsements. A few weeks prior to the July 14 runoff, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren endorsed her candidacy, a rare occurrence of a national candidate paying attention to Democratic politics in Alabamas first district. Were making America to stop writing off south Alabama, and thats huge, Gardner says. Im very proud of that.

Jez, her old professor, wasnt surprised. Kianis one of these individuals who can do anything, he says.

It wasnt just her work in the lab while a WashU student that had an impact on Gardner. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in late August 2005, Gardner had just begun her junior year. She remembers the university taking in students from Tulane University, and the food drives and social awareness the hurricane generated on the Danforth Campus.

The next spring, she took a seminar-style class through American culture studies called Hurricane Katrina: A Case Study in Disaster Relief, which was team-taught and looked at the disaster from all sides. The course also included a trip to New Orleans for spring break that year.

That was really powerful, she says. It was really the first time I thought that my academic life could be about service, which paved the way for where I am now.

The following summer, I packed up my car, left my dog with a friend, and went back to New Orleans by myself to work.

She always had a good sense of helping other people and finding ways to give back, Jez says. She was constantly looking for ways to connect with people.

Gardner is in her kitchen a week after the runoff, in which she lost by a 57-43 percent margin to James Averhart, who will face Republican Jerry Carl in November.

Thats politics. Thats runoffs, and why theyre so terrible for so many reasons. I am proud of the race I ran and the campaign infrastructure I put in place.

Thats politics, she says. Thats runoffs, and why theyre so terrible for so many reasons. I am proud of the race I ran and the campaign infrastructure I put in place.

Its hard not to think what might have been. Gardner hints that shes not finished with politics yet, that shell remain involved through November and try to help as many candidates as she can while being a mom and helping her boys navigate through the pandemic. And shes still using her voice to educate voters, disseminating public health information on COVID-19 and encouraging blood donations.

Asked if, like that experiment in the Jez lab so many years ago, perhaps this election setback could eventually produce something bigger and better for her?

She laughs. Yes and no, she says. The better analogy is one of those lab experiments in which you go where the data takes you.

The primary election was an experiment, we got that data, moved forward. July 14 was an experiment. Got that data, moved forward. Now its time to chart a specific aim. Between the virus and the runoff, for a lot of people it exposed the weaknesses of our electoral system that day-to-day voters arent aware of.

Shes proud of the fact, for example, that her campaign pushed hard for no-excuse absentee voting, and it will be allowed in Alabama this November. When we did that work, a lot of people saw how difficult absentee balloting is, Gardner says, and how the lack of it disenfranchises communities of color, low-income communities and, in a major way, disabled communities.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is so inspiring, but not everyone can go from bartender to Congress. We need narratives that are not about superstars, but just super interesting women

Whats more, she hopes her story might be inspiring to other women who are thinking about entering the political arena.

I think we are inundated with stories of these amazing political successes, she says. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is so inspiring, but not everyone can go from bartender to Congress. So many women who aspire to national office dont see a path for themselves, so there has to be a story thats told that says, Heres what it looks like to get involved.

It pushes back against the burdensome narrative that women can have it all. You dont have to have it all, but you can do it all because it all matters: City council. School board. Moms Demand Action. The Wall of Moms. We need narratives that are not about superstars, but just super interesting women.

And whatever comes next, Gardner will continue to define herself by being Hawaiian, and a wife, and a mom, as a scientist because the data is what the data is.

Its this really powerful idea that we live in the world we live in, Gardner says, and it doesnt necessarily matter what your idea of perfect is, or what you wish had happened.

You have to deal with what you have right now.

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Following the data - Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom