When the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta notified Heartland Health’s Dr. Scott Folk, who specializes in infectious diseases, that they wanted to conduct research on a new virus that he had discovered in northwest Missouri, Scott immediately suggested that the center work with a Missouri Western professor and his students. Scientists at the center complied, giving Dr. David Ashley’s biology students a valuable experience they won’t soon forget.
Once in the fall of 2011 and three times last summer, personnel from the CDC and several local and state agencies, up to 30 at times, visited two area farms to track the cause of a virus that had infected two northwest Missouri patients treated by Scott in 2009. David and five students were able to assist the scientists with their field research on all four visits.
They helped trap ticks, mosquitoes, birds and mammals, and helped remove ticks from the mammals so the ticks could be frozen and sent to CDC laboratories for testing. The blood of the mammals and birds was also drawn for testing in laboratory space set up in the Missouri Department of Conservation regional headquarters building on campus. “The students got a lot of experience with field methodology and surveying habitat,” David said. “They participated in a wide variety of activities.”
Brandon Grieshaber, a sophomore from St. Joseph, plans to become an infectious disease specialist and had shadowed Scott two different times before the research opportunity came about. Scott had mentioned the tick research to Brandon, and he was immediately interested.
“I knew it would be a great opportunity to work with the CDC,” Brandon said. “It was really cool to be a part of science. I enjoyed everything about it; the whole experience was awesome.”
“The CDC scientists wouldn’t let you just stand around and watch. They’d ask you to come over and do it yourself,” Breana Higdon, one of the student researchers, said. “Just knowing you were working with the CDC, it felt like an honor to work with the people who keep disease under control.”
A paper on the virus was published by the CDC, with Scott as a co-author, in the New England Journal of Medicine in August 2012.
Why Scott knew David and recommended him to the CDC goes back to an incident that happened several years ago. David became very ill and was admitted to Heartland Health, and Scott diagnosed his illness as tick-borne. They became friends, and Scott has assisted students in David’s Medical Parasitology class twice each semester every year since.
David said it was unique for students to have the opportunity to interface with globally recognized experts, but it was not unique that Missouri Western’s biology students were engaging in undergraduate research with faculty members. “This is what we do here,” he said. “This is what we want our students to be doing.”
“I think it is amazing and fantastic that Missouri Western allows their students to get involved in research with professors and scientists,” said Nicole Wallace, one of the students who helped with the research. “It helps build resumes so students have a higher chance of getting a job or getting into graduate school, medical school or veterinarian school.”
She added that some of the CDC researchers were working on earning their doctorates, so she gained a lot of valuable advice about getting accepted into graduate schools. “They were all extremely nice and very interesting.”
Katie Kilpatrick, another student researcher, agreed with Nicole. “It was very rewarding to hear the scientists’ experiences working for the CDC and hear where they went to school and other opportunities they had.”
David said two students who were involved hope to pursue internships at the CDC, thanks to the contacts they made through the research.