RWL Newsletter #67 - bacteriophage special

Greetings from UNH! We've had a weird fall, with the temperature cycling up and down. This past week I finally came to terms with the fact that winter is coming and had two cords of wood delivered. Minivan provided for scale in case you come from a warm place and don't know what a cord of wood looks like. And that was how I spend last weekend - stacking wood. Good news is we are recreational wood burners - we have a cute wood stove in the livingroom that we enjoy - and have oil heat as a primary heat source - so this wood should last two or three years. There's nothing like sitting by a fire when the world is frozen solid and the snow is falling. We're looking forward to it.

This week's links were inspired by the podcast from the JAMA Network, Phage Therapy’s Role in Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogens (this week's "listen" suggestion). I am pretty far over my head with these links, but I found them really interesting. I track JAMA's occasional podcast just to hear about innovations in medicine, even if they are outside my educational background. I just thought the discussion of the use of phages, a virus that infects bacteria, as antibiotics, was so cool I wound up trying to understand a little more about this. While its not new science as the Bacteriophage article notes, it is a piece of what I understand the future will be. Especially with rising antibiotic resistance that is the result of an overuse of antibiotics.

This week's links are a little heavier than usual, but they're really cool! I hope you enjoy them.

Read

What: from the journal Bacteriophage, Phage treatment of human infections, by Stephen T Abedon, Sarah J Kuhl, Bob G Blasdel, and Elizabeth Martin Kutte

Why: Great history of phage treatment, and a highlight of how science and culture interact - and sometimes culture blocks the spread of science.

Watch

What: Bacteriophage T4 Virus - 3D Animation (2 minutes)

https://youtu.be/uFXuxGuT7H8

Why: Two minute visualization of how bacteriophages work. Very cool!

Listen

What: JAMA Network, Phage Therapy’s Role in Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogens

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2660168

Why: As I mentioned in the intro, this was a little above my head, but I follow the JAMA podcast just to hear about new and interesting innovations in medicine. The story is really fascinating. Using fire to fight fire.

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Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line by e-mail, or you can tweet to me at @bonicatalent .

Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica

Have a great weekend coming up and do amazing things!

Mark

Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
Twitter: @bonicatalent

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." - Henry David Thoreau