U of A prof Christine Szymanski loves to get people excited about bacteria, like the Campylobacter jejuni, a food-borne pathogen at the centre of her research. (Photo credit: Kate Black)
In her office, Christine Szymanski, '97 PhD, digs past a pile of lab paperwork and pulls out what appears to be a small stuffed mustache with eyeballs.
"I've always worked on food-related pathogens, like this one, Campylobacter jejuni. They just called it 'diarrhea,' though," she laughs, pointing at the tag on the plush bacterium, its unscientific moniker printed in cartoonish scrawl.
Campylobacter, found primarily in chickens, is one of the major causes of diarrheal disease in Canada - an estimated one in 100 people become infected every year. It's a more common cause of diarrhea than E. coli, salmonella, shigella and listeria combined. Szymanski's team is working to develop a carbohydrate-based vaccine to prevent Campylobacter in chickens so fewer people get sick from eating improperly handled meat.
But Szymanski, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and principal investigator in the Alberta Glycomics Centre, believes quests like hers begin far earlier than the lab: they start with getting young people excited about science, research and the complexities of bacteria.
She often visits her son's elementary school to teach students about the basics of microbiology and infection, and says they're quick to pick it up. Her outreach also includes being involved with the U of A WISEST program, which encourages underrepresented groups such as young women and Aboriginal students to study science, engineering and technology through summer research programs and networks.
Szymanski also makes a point of exposing the undergraduates she teaches to lab research and the fascinations of microbiology. In her class, Analysis of Microbial Macromolecules, and its lab component, Microbial Laboratory Techniques, she brings in graduate students to talk about theories they are trying to test in the lab. It gives her undergraduates a glimpse of what graduate work is like and, she hopes, inspires them to pursue it themselves.
Christine Szymanski works in her lab with graduate student Ritika Dwivedi.
She has five undergrads working in her lab, in addition to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians and research associates. She makes use of funding programs such as Science without Borders, which has allowed her to host an undergraduate from Brazil, and Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions to get more young people into the lab.
"In the end, I'm trying to get as many people excited about science and doing research as possible. So that's why I try to infuse that - not just into the public outreach programs but into the classrooms and my lab. The idea is to get everyone excited about microbes and the importance of microbiology."
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