# Presentation: 574004

## Generations is Helping to Crack the Code on Bacteria Infectivity

**T O F F L E R   A S S O C I A T E S ****®**

**302 Harbor’s Point   .   40 Beach Street   .   Manchester, Massachusetts 01944**
**978-526-2444  .   Facsimile: 978-526-2445   .   Email: tofflerassociates@toffler.com**

***Generations***** is Helping to Crack the Code on Bacteria Infectivity**

**Tom Johnson, Steven Kenney, Carol Yin**
**May 31, 2002**

- SHORT

## What is salmonella?  It’s food poisoning ... and much more.
Salmonella is one of more than 250 food-borne diseases which collectively cause in the U.S. each year nearly 76 million illnesses ... 325,000 hospitalizations ... and 5,000 deaths.1
Salmonella is one of the most common infections affecting human beings, not just in the U.S. but throughout the world.
Between 2 and 4 million cases annually worldwide, hundreds of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in economic impact.2
The stakes with salmonella – both bad and good – are rising.
Emerging antibiotic-resistant strains raise human health threat ... 3
While we also learn how to use it to combat other diseases.4

**Salmonella is one of more than 250 food-borne diseases which collectively cause in the U.S. each year nearly 76 million illnesses ... 325,000 hospitalizations ... and 5,000 deaths.****1**
**Salmonella is one of the most common infections affecting human beings, not just in the U.S. but throughout the world.**
**Between 2 and 4 million cases annually worldwide, hundreds of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in economic impact.****2**
**The stakes with salmonella – both bad and good – are rising.**
**Emerging antibiotic-resistant strains raise human health threat ... ****3**
**While we also learn how to use it to combat other diseases.****4**

**Breakthroughs against killer diseases come when scientists employ new approaches, labs, and methodologies ... like research in space.**

**NASA is part of the attack against a major public health threat ... salmonella.**

**Notes:**
Typoid Mary.  

## What does salmonella have to do with NASA?  Thanks to the Generations program, plenty.

**Salmonella’s genes may hold the secret to the bacteria’s infect-ivity, and flying them in space may help us grasp how to switch these genes on and off, or identify novel targets for vaccines.**
**Different expression for 200 salmonella genes in modeled microgravity includes many whose functions are not yet understood ... infectivity increased twelve-fold as a result in experiments.****5**
**Next year, Dr. Nickerson’s work moves from Tulane University to the International Space Station.**
**First step among many planned space experiments to glean lessons from this “pioneer” organism for bacteria infectivity studies broadly.**
**Salmonella will be joined by three other well-understood organisms  to compare  the effects of space on a wide range of life forms.**

**The immediate aim is to use this knowledge to protect astronaut health ... but Earth benefits may be far greater.**

**Notes:**
This is the critical question.  Mel Liked this
Some of those have the
Salmonella is a bacteria.
Space and  ..   More virulant.   What makes them so much more virulant
It is so well understood.  Pioneer for infectivity.   Unique e

Have to frame this as a first step as one of many investigations.  The people who live in Washington DC.   If we have Chaney color bar. 
	Worried that this is a nice to have vs. a necessary.    Pioneering.   
Water supply / water supply protection.   Agent that.   Put in things that cause Typhoid, e-colie..    Bring in early, a new slide.  
Put the Bio-terrorist on the early slide.   
O’Keefe has enuncaited.   PROTECT THE HOME PLANET
	EXPLORE THE UNIVERSE
	EDUCATE THE NEXT GENERATION OF EXPLORER

Vision is LIFE HERE LIFE THERE LIFE EVERYWHERE

Vision has the bring the value back to earth.

## Understanding bacterial infectivity in new ways may be more critical today than ever before.

**Extensive prior study on salmonella makes it a “pioneer” organism, one that can teach us a lot about infectivity of other organisms, like anthrax, that threaten our society.**
**Studying the bacteria’s gene expression in space, and why infectivity increases, ****offers new insights we cannot gain in any other lab or method****.**
**Of $40 billion in the FY03 budget for homeland security, $5.9 billion is allocated for bio-terrorism defense, including significant efforts to protect against food-borne threats.****6**
**HHS Secretary Thompson said recently that “he was more fearful about the safety of the American food supply than anything else.”****7**
**$736 million of the new bio-defense funding is specifically for measures to protect farms and food ... an amount “roughly equal to the annual budget of USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service, which guards against introduction of diseases that could harm livestock and crops.”****8**

- Fulfilling part of NASA’s new mission: “to understand and protect our home planet.”9

## Now through the Generations program, we’re mounting a unique new attack against salmonella and other infectious organisms.

**Cheryl Nickerson’s previous work, using the NASA-developed bioreactor, has produced powerful insights into salmonella’s virulence, environmental resistance, and protein production.****10**
**The convergence of revolutions in IT and space technology –which NASA has helped drive forward – combined with dramatic advances in genomics, creates a new opportunity that NASA is pushing forward in *****Generations***** to make advances against bacterial infectivity.**
**This work follows pioneering NASA-sponsored work on kidney cells in space, shown to produce greatly increased genes and hormones like gamma interferon, erythropoietin, and Vitamin D3.****11**

**Space is the new laboratory and technique that may help us “crack the code” on salmonella and other bacterial infectivity.**

**Notes:**
Precident is kidney in space.  

Genomics is not NASA

Say combined with the breakthroughs in Genomics

## Ultimately this work can help to save billions of dollars and millions of lives on Earth.

**Over 1.4 million U.S. cases of ****salmonellosis in 1999 cost the economy more than $2 billion ... this work could help reduce those losses.****12 **
**Others put just the health care costs at $4 billion annually ... as antibiotic resistance emerges, these numbers and impacts could rise sharply.****13**
**Salmonella commonly is transmitted through poultry and related products ... this work could help protect a large and vital U.S. industry .**
**Total farm value of U.S. poultry production in 1999: $22.4 billion.****14**
**Researchers are investigating genetically-modified salmonella and other bacteria to deliver vaccines effective against a range of diseases.****15**
**Hepatitis B, HIV, bubonic plague (defense against biological weapons), even tooth decay ... diseases and challenges which threaten millions of lives and cost billions of dollars annually****.****16**

***Generations***** as a whole is only costing $11 million in FY03, and the potential benefits from just this one experiment are many many times greater.****17**

**Notes:**
Data on global data.   
Policy thrust to look at desease vectoring as part of the national security focus.   We get sick and over it.  That’s in backup.
National secureity.  HIV as a destabilizer.

## Citations.

**http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/foodpoison111101.cfm, quoting CDC Press Release of Dec. 2000**
**http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Coffeebreak/CB8_SipA/SipA.pdf **
**http://www.confex.com/ift/98annual/accepted/74-1.htm**** **
**http://www.iavi.org/reports/9/report_june2000_04.html; http://www.iavi.org/reports/142/An_Interview_with_Margaret_Liu.ht**
**Lecture by Dr. Cheryl Nickerson, NASA Ames, 5/10/02**
**http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2003/bud05.html**
**http****://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/31/dining/31WELL-WEB.html**
**http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/fsnet/2001/11-2001/fsnet_november_2.htm**
**Sean O’Keefe presentation to The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 4/12/02.**

## Citations.

**Interview with Cheryl Nickerson, 5/10/02**
**http://www.discover.com/sept_01/featgenes.html**
**http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Coffeebreak/CB8_SipA/SipA.pdf **
**http://www.public-health.partner.uri.edu/newsletter/031097.html **
**http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/poultry/background.htm **
**http://www.iavi.org/reports/9/report_june2000_04.html; http://www.iavi.org/reports/142/An_Interview_with_Margaret_Liu.htm**
_**[www.mannvernd.is/english/news/nyt_US_Monsanto.html](http://www.mannvernd.is/english/news/nyt_US_Monsanto.html)**_**; **_**[http://www.iavi.org/reports/9/report_june2000_04.html](http://www.iavi.org/reports/9/report_june2000_04.html)**_**; **_**[http://www.iavi.org/reports/142/An_Interview_with_Margaret_Liu.htm](http://www.iavi.org/reports/142/An_Interview_with_Margaret_Liu.htm)**_**; **_**[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_430000/430502.stm (1999](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_430000/430502.stm%20(1999)**_**)**
**http://spaceresearch.nasa.gov/general_info/OBPR-02-021.html**