Leading women in science and research at Bat OneHealth
Over 70 Bat OneHealth scientists and researchers spend their days in labs, in the field, or with communities living at the frontlines of spillover. Half of them are women, and nine of them are leading projects around the world to answer the biggest questions about how and when spillovers occur, and what we can do to prevent them.
11 female scientists share how their careers began, where their research is taking them, and how you can support their mission.
Dr Emily Gurley is working with her team in Bangladesh to improve disease diagnostics in the field and prevent the loss of human lives in developing countries.
Dr Emily Gurley, Epidemiologist
I am concerned about the causes of diseases, and how we can improve human health. I approach my research from the understanding that public health is inextricably linked to the health of other species and our environment. I want to be someone who works on public health that matters locally and globally.
I always wanted to travel because I enjoy learning about other places and about people from different places. So, when it was time for me to go to university, I decided to study history! In 1997, I joined the Peace Corp volunteers, and participated in an HIV education program for high schoolers in Romania. I got a $200 grant to help cover fuel costs. Winning that grant felt amazing, and the work fostered my interest in public health.
When I returned to the US, I asked myself, “What could I do to be useful?” I applied for a Masters in Public Health, and got an opportunity to do research in Bangladesh with an NGO called BRAC. My advisor Malabika Sarker, gave me the responsibility to research and recommend ways to improve outreach for HIV awareness. Some of my recommendations were implemented, and it was then that I realized the power that data could have in public health. This made me want to get into research.
Coincidentally, my PhD research in epidemiology, took me once again to Bangladesh where I worked with the ICDDRB. Soon after I arrived, there was an outbreak of what we thought was encephalitis. We later learned that this was Nipah. 2004 was a very scary time. I remember everything about that year.
What we know about Nipah today, correlations between weather and spillover from wildlife to humans, how ecology of animals affects disease dynamics, is because we stuck around to study these diseases before people realized they were important. The work we are doing now, would not be possible if we just showed up in the field today.
Everyone has a sphere of influence where they can promote their own health, the health of others and that of our environment. I am optimistic that global education can help people see how we are all connected and understand what they can do to keep and make a good place for all of us to live.
Dr Stephanie Seifert, Research Fellow
Dr Stephanie Seifert in a BioSafety Level 4 training suite at the Rocky Mountain Lab facility. Seifert and her team are developing laboratory models to study highly viruses like Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, and Hendra. They aim to create intervention strategies to minimize the risk of virus spillover from bats to humans.
I am a Research Fellow in the Virus Ecology Section led by Dr. Vincent Munster at the National Institutes of Health. I am interested in the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape the distribution and abundance of zoonotic pathogens in their natural reservoirs.
Before deciding to pursue a career in science, I was a barista at coffee shops, a zookeeper education assistant at a small zoo, and a manager at a large record store. I was lucky to have had many wonderful, brilliant mentors as an undergraduate researcher who encouraged me to pursue a PhD, during which I became curious about how zoonotic pathogens persist in nature.
I lead a study on Ebolaviruses in African bats. At our field site in northern Republic of Congo, we are trying to understand the ecological and environmental factors that contribute to Ebolavirus prevalence in African bats. We use mist nets to catch African fruit bats 20-30 meters in the canopy. We then take samples from the bats before releasing them and later test the samples for the presence of Ebolavirus genomic material and use their serum to test for antibodies against Ebolaviruses. We also collect local environmental and weather data to learn how seasonality, weather patterns, and tree fruiting phenology influence Ebolavirus prevalence in bats.
By sampling from a single population through time, we hope to add important ecological context to understanding Ebolavirus maintenance in African bats. If we are successful in developing a bat model to safely study these pathogens, we hope to address the many outstanding questions that cannot be answered with field observations or vitro experiments alone. If we can better understand virus shedding and transmission in bats, then we might better predict and prevent virus spillover.
While we often discuss bats from the perspective of spreading zoonotic pathogens, bats also serve important roles in functioning ecosystems. Our primary bat of interest is the hammer-headed bat I would be very happy to have people read more on the incredible ecosystem of the Congo Basin and the important conservation work of our collaborators in protecting the diversity in the region.
Shahana Praveen educates communities in Bangladesh about the impacts of life-threatening diseases such as Nipah, and what they can do to prevent transmission.
Shanana Praveen, Anthropologist
I work at ground zero of disease outbreaks in Bangladesh to identify potential exposures and design behavioral interventions in affected communities during the early stages of an outbreak. The focus of my work is to lead communication strategies that convey effective, and culturally sensitive information to people living in hotzones to prevent further transmission. A particularly challenging part of my job is to identify specific areas in need of outbreak response. The interactive approaches I’ve developed involve the use of lay language combined with photographic and illustrated information that is easy and effective for immediate implementation by rural communities. With funding support from the CDC, the Bangladesh government adopted this strategy to respond to subsequent recurrent outbreaks. It also served as a guide to outbreak response in India.
When I first joined the field team, I was with my 6-month old son who accompanied me on journey into the outbreak area. Through the first two years of his life, we travelled to eight districts together. As a working mother, it was extremely challenging to frequently travel across the country and abroad. I belong to a 13-member extended family and along with my husband, and their support has helped me to overcome this challenge.
Throughout my work, I have aimed to quantify how the inclusion of local context is extremely important for outbreak investigation and response, the design of biomedical intervention, and the communication of preventative messages during an emergency to a non-technical target population.
My long-term goal is to develop a realistic and applicable Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) intervention strategy for infectious disease patients in the Bangladeshi healthcare setting. Public hospitals in Bangladesh are overcrowded and resource constraints make it hard for IPC practices to be observed. Therefore, all my work related to IPC is extremely crucial to establish a basic IPC strategy in country context.
Shahana was a part of developing the international guidelines for Nipah virus infection and other viral encephalitis. She was also a member of the WHO research and development taskforce for Nipah virus, as one of the priority diseases.
Dr Amandine Gamble, Post-doctoral Researcher
Dr Amandine Gamble takes measurements of a brown skua in the Crozet Islands, Southern Indian Ocean, during a study of infectious diseases in remote seabird populations. December 2017. Photo: Thierry Bouliner/IPEV.
I am a disease ecologist working on the within-host dynamics of bat-borne henipaviruses. My research is focused on developing methods to extract as much information as possible from available data, since data collection in wild animals is very challenging and constrained by various factors such as costs or ethical concerns. I use mathematical models to integrate data collected from the field and the lab, with the aim of understanding the factors that drive epidemiological dynamics in wild populations.
My interests for biology and the outdoors drove my younger self to study veterinary medicine. Caroline Gilbert was my animal behavior teacher and was an ecologist. Chatting with her after classes made me realize that I was more passionate about biology and ecology compared to applied medicine. She helped me reorient my education towards research.
After graduating from veterinary school with a Master of Science in eco-physiology, I was convinced that I thrived in research and decided to stick to this path. My PhD was on the ecology of infectious agent circulation in seabirds, which gave me an opportunity to put my veterinary training to good use while learning about population ecology!
Through my career, I have received a lot of support from several of my collaborators. My PhD supervisor, Thierry Boulinier, gave me the opportunity to lead my own projects, and I now receive the same trust and support from my postdoc supervisor Jamie Lloyd-Smith.
I think that dynamic, early-career scientists can be better supported by grants that accept applications from researchers without a faculty position, so that they can focus on research instead of job hunting.
Kids in Morogoro, Tanzania, look on as Dr Alison Peel and Tiziana Lembo collect blood samples from Straw colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) as a part of a continent-wide study of their genetic population structure and viral ecology. August 2009, Photo: Alex Torrance.
Dr Alison Peel, Veterinarian and Wildlife Disease Ecologist
My research looks at how human-induced landscape change influences the ecology of flying foxes and the viruses they carry, and how pathogens like Hendra are transmitted from bats to other animals.
I’ve always been interested in wildlife. I caught skinks in the garden as a kid, and apparently told my parents when I was age three that I wanted to be a veterinarian. I didn’t know what an ecologist was then. Had I known; I would also have been happy to be an ecologist because it also involves a fascination with wildlife and a love of problem-solving. But ecologists as a profession were not very visible in daily life so I didn't make that connection.
I have my supervisors at Cambridge University and the ZSL Institute of Zoology to thank for convincing me that I had the curiosity, persistence and resilience to succeed in research. I realized this for myself when I undertook a PhD that involved fieldwork in 12 sites across 7 African countries, often on my own. I learned the importance of being open to learn from and incorporate local expertise, and how to be adaptable and flexible when working in challenging and unfamiliar environments.
I was drawn into research on bats because they are so interesting to study. Flying foxes are the silent night-shift workers of our forests, and I think they're definitely undervalued. There is also so much complexity and mystery around how they live with viruses, and I am just as fascinated by the diversity of their viral communities. Now I’m really hooked into the system and I can't imagine doing anything else until I’ve figured out some more answers.
I think that the more people learn about bats as individual animals, and the role that they provide to our environment, the more they will be valued by the general public. This will help better decisions to be made in the long term about how we manage bat populations as well as their viruses.
Brooklin Hunt, Undergraduate Researcher
Brooklin Hunt holds Gertrude, the Great Horned Owl, during a lab exercise at the Cornell University Raptor Barns in Ithaca, New York. This lab was a part of a 3-week class on captive raptor management that Hunt completed through Cornell University Summer College in July of 2017.
I decided to center my life around animals and veterinary medicine when I was 11 years old and got to assist in the birthing a lamb for the first time. My interest in infectious disease began when I got to try on a hazmat suit in the BSL 4 training lab at Rocky Mountain Labs as an 8th grader. When I read David Quammen’s Spillover and finally realized the huge connection between wildlife and disease (particularly bats), I became fascinated by the work of Bat OneHealth and decided to join the lab.
As a part of my work with black flying foxes and Hendra in Australia, I aim to develop a method to re-sample the same individual bat over time, something that is very challenging due to the huge complexity and scale of flying fox roosts—imagine giant 3D structures comprised of thousands of bats! Creating datasets from individual bats will allow us to look for pinch points in the availability of food and investigate infection patterns as well as any intra-roost viral genotype structuring that may be present.
I study the seasonal variations in the diet of black flying foxes, a large fruit bat that is native to Australia. This species is of interest because it is the host of the Hendra virus, which causes high mortalities in horses and humans.
Dr Elizabeth Shanahan, Public Policy and Political Scientist
Dr Liz Shanahan (left) meets with veterinarian and newly Hendra vaccinated horse at racing stable in Australia for work to understand how narratives about risk shape human decisions.
I examine how the mechanisms of policy narratives can influence the decisions of stakeholders, so that we can develop effective science-based communication to protect the health of people and our environment.
I grew up in a very politically active family. Since elementary school, I would listen to the political stories of candidates. As far back as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by people and the narratives with which they use to describe themselves.
I studied French Literature in undergrad. Deconstruction theory really upended everything I knew about classical forms of storytelling. It opened my mind to critical thinking and made me question everything that I had been told. But the process of deconstructivism also made it challenging to perceive things in black and white. This can be very disorienting since we are taught from young about what is good and bad. At that time, I didn’t think I was going to work in Public Policy. I have come to recognize how this fiercely questioning mindset was fundamental to help me relate to people and listen critically. Wanting to enhance my capacity to understand and serve communities, I undertook a Masters in Public Policy, and completed my Doctorate in Political Science. These were extremely challenging environments to work in at the time because they were largely male-dominated, and the notion of quantifying narratives had never been done before. We were truly on the frontier.
Hendra is a frightening disease that kills people and their horses. Bats are a reservoir for the Hendra virus, and this led some individuals and communities in Australia to have an aversion toward bats, but there were also those who remained indifferent. Others were nonchalant, and despite the deaths and outbreak did not feel that it was necessary to modify their behavior to prevent further transmission of the virus. Individuals were perceiving the outbreak very differently. My work was to quantify how mechanisms in the narrative were influencing their decision making.
We use this information to develop a strategy that can communicate the science behind disease prevention clearly and effectively, at the scale of individuals and public policy. Understanding these mechanisms will help scientists communicate science-based messages that can connect and resonate in the public sphere and develop narratives that can be transported across borders to educate people and protect lives.
Devin Jones exits a cave in Montana after a day of collecting temperature data loggers as a part of study to understand how microclimates affect bat physiology. May 2017. Photo: Dave Bobit.
Devin Jones, Graduate Student Researcher
My research is on how the diet of fruit and nectar-eating flying foxes shapes their gut microbiome, and how this could in turn be impacting host health. We know that gut microbes contribute significantly to host health in many mammalian systems, but it is not known how bat gut microbes contribute to bat health, if at all. Most studies only take broad dietary categories into account when assessing bat gut microbiomes, but I will be taking a more specific approach by comparing the gut microbiome of bats with their diets and roost-level diet data.
I've always been interested in animals and nature. When I was about 7, my mom gave me a microscope and I would collect water from the creek behind our home to look at it under the microscope. In 5th grade, I attended a nature camp where I touched a snake for the first time. That experience was a turning point, and I knew I had to work with animals. I think opportunities to safely interact with wildlife can help people connect and overcome fear and misapprehension.
I had been interested in animal health as a teenager but became more interested in diseases ecology when I joined a bat lab as an undergrad at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and I felt right at home! It was there that Veronica Brown, a research technician, taught me so much of what I know about bats, including lab skills. Her pro-tips have stuck with me to this day. The first time I caught a wild bat was at a church in Knoxville with Veronica. She helped me overcome my apprehension of bats by showing me how to safely catch and handle them.
The Bat OneHealth team is fantastic because of its diversity – there is so much to learn from everyone. I’ve been very fortunate to be encouraged and mentored by so many wonderful people like Riley Bernard, Melquisedec Gambe-Rios, Amy Russell, Alison Peel, and Raina Plowright. I hope that my work can contribute to the conservation of animals and our environment, and the protection of ecosystem health.
Nazmun Nahar leads a training program for the implementation and monitoring of interventions to prevent the transmission of Nipah virus in Rajbari, Bangladesh. 2012.
Nazmun Nahar, Anthropologist
I am a public health researcher interested in zoonotic disease research and prevention at the community level. My first experience with severe outbreaks was in 2004 when my team visited the epicenter of a Nipah virus outbreak in Faridpur, Bangladesh. At that time, little was known about Nipah, and I interviewed families of victims, their neighbors, caregivers, and health care providers to investigate the disease. In addition to learning about Nipah, I was confronted by how these outbreaks devastate peoples’ lives, and make them extremely vulnerable socially, emotionally, and financially. This motivated me to want to understand the risk of zoonotic disease transmission in low-income settings and develop low-cost prevention solutions.
The problems we are trying to solve comprise local and global variables. If we could reduce poverty, quality of life would improve and social and gender inequalities would diminish, and we would probably be able to solve many health issues. But this a long-term goal. My immediate goal is to prevent Nipah virus infections in Bangladesh by providing insight to this disease from the perspective of the people who are most vulnerable.
Drinking raw date palm sap is one of the main causes of Nipah virus infection in Bangladesh. My team and I work with sap collectors to develop community-based interventions to prevent transmission, and because pigs have been known to spread Nipah to people, we also create access to veterinary care for pig raisers; a marginalized minority group in Muslim-majority Bangladesh who often cannot afford treatment for sick pigs, which is a simple but effective intervention that could prevent the Nipah transmission.
To reduce the risk of zoonotic disease transmission, we need to consider the social, cultural, political, and economic conditions where humans and animals coexist. We can prevent spillover and protect humans by ensuring animal health, restoring ecosystem processes, and protecting habitat for wildlife. This can be done anywhere in the world.
Tamika Lunn, Post-graduate Researcher
Tamika Lunn with a thorny devil (Moloch horridus), captured during a month-long biodiversity monitoring survey or reptiles and small mammals in the Northern Territory - May 2016. Photo: Australian Wildlife Conservancy
I grew my roots in field-based ecological monitoring projects through my under- and post-graduate years in Australia, where I worked with bilbies, numbats, platypuses, echidnas - you name it! Though I loved being in the field with these critters, I really wanted the skills to better explain and predict the patterns I was seeing. I started my PhD to develop these skills in quantitative ecology, and to develop my research interests in human disturbance and wildlife disease.
Fruit bats roost in large, gregarious colonies where abundance and density are driven by dynamic patterns of spatial clustering. It is difficult to quantify the community dynamics of bats, but it is worth investigating because these factors influence infectious contacts between individuals. I combine on-the-ground fieldwork in bat roosts with statistical analysis of empirical data, to develop tailor-made, mathematical meta-population models, that help me delve into the drivers of infection dynamics.
What excites me most about this work is the bridging of perspectives and skills from field and analytical approaches. I am still learning the analytical skills, but I am already beginning to see our real-life system in a mathematical format. This new language and frame-of-thought has helped open new avenues for creative thinking and problem solving and, I hope, will enable me to bridge the spheres of field-ecology and mathematics in exciting new ways.
I am lucky to have a great immediate supervisory team, as well as connections to experts from diverse fields at Bat OneHealth. I have also met with many other amazing researchers in my field, which has allowed us to cross-fertilize ideas between our systems.
I enjoy promoting my research to audiences beyond my immediate research institutions. I am reaching out to as many researchers as possible to give talks at institutions throughout Europe and Australia, which are my two main bases. I hope to keep meeting new people along the way and to communicate positive and fascinating facts about bats!
Dr Nita Bharti sits partially surrounded by computer monitors that display maps of her research. Photo: Michelle Bixby
Dr Nita Bharti, Biologist and Anthropologist
I investigate the links between the environment, human behavior, and human health to improve access to health care by understanding and measuring the current gaps to identify where improvements must be made. This includes identifying at-risk populations and reducing their burden of infectious diseases, from endemic to emerging pathogens. I started down this path with an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree that included biology and anthropology.
Improving access to health care means identifying everyone who needs better access to care, including populations that are hard to measure or not conventionally considered at-risk. I use unconventional data sources and merge different fields to get more complete pictures of systems that integrate the host, the pathogen, and the environment. I came out of a mathematical disease modeling lab as a graduate student, but I was able to use my background in anthropology to think about models a bit differently. Having an interdisciplinary perspective has guided my scientific curiosity and career.
Building connections across communities of researchers who work on infectious diseases, biology, geography, and anthropology has been helpful. I’m usually within two degrees of global expertise when I need a collaborator with a highly specialized skillset. It’s also been critical to get input and feedback from industry partners. Combining ideas from a variety of minds helps solve problems.
Our world needs leaders who make sound decisions and investments on outbreak response, crisis preparedness, and even routine public health services. Support science by voting for politicians who support scientific research, discovery, and science-based decisions to solve problems from public health to climate change. Encourage kids to learn about science, and to blend it with their other interests. Our field needs the strength of different perspectives and different backgrounds.