College of Health faculty and students win award for microbiology poster
by Alison Miller |
A poster by Medical Laboratory Science program director Grace Leu-Burke and her team has been selected as a Blue Ribbon Finalist by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) 2025 Annual Meeting. Theirs is one of six finalists in the Basic Science Category that were selected for oral presentation out of an initial pool of more than 1,500.
The poster, explores the prevalence of Cryptosporidium, a microbial parasite that infects humans and animals and causes diarrhea. It also raises questions about the potential health risk that Cryptosporidium poses to humans through contact with wildlife and polluted waters.
The poster represents years of research that Leu-Burke and her students 鈥� among them, Rieluis Martin, an undergraduate departmental honors student who was instrumental in data analysis and literature review for the project -- have been doing in her Medical Laboratory Science classes. In addition to being presented at the ASCP annual meeting, the poster will be published in an upcoming edition of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology.
Not in Kansas anymore: from moose scat to microscope
When Leu-Burke moved to 熊猫在线视频, she couldn鈥檛 believe that no one seemed to care about all the moose poop. Previously, she lived in rural Kansas with her husband, who owned a farm. In Kansas, strict rules governed animal waste, making 熊猫在线视频鈥檚 casual approach to moose scat all the more surprising.
Leu-Burke began to wonder how the moose poop she saw on the sidewalk might be useful in the classroom. 鈥淔ecal analysis is very much what laboratory professionals do. It鈥檚 right in line with our student learning outcomes, especially in the clinical microbiology courses that I teach. So that鈥檚 where it started. I started collecting piles of moose scat and working with students, and we developed a protocol because nobody was doing this.鈥� Soon, they began including fecal samples from bears and geese in their work, in addition to moose.
Leu-Burke鈥檚 approach to teaching and research is rooted in the One Health model, which emphasizes the interconnected relationship between human health and the health of other living beings in the context of a shared environment. This model is important when considering things like zoonotic diseases (that is, diseases that originate in animals and are then transmitted to humans) and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.
Leu-Burke points out that 熊猫在线视频鈥檚 unique cultural and lifestyle factors often result in a high degree of overlap between human activity and the natural world. 鈥淚 know at least half a dozen people who go out and get their moose and field dress it, right? So we have not only just a shared environment, but an environment that is actually almost like an agricultural environment where you are harvesting animals, you have a potential for colonization when you鈥檙e doing field dressing.鈥�
For medical laboratory scientists, having an awareness of the role of the shared environment in human health can enhance their ability to effectively analyze patient samples and contribute to patient diagnoses. 鈥淭hat severe antimicrobial-resistant bug that your patient has, might have come from the fact that they at one time lived in 熊猫在线视频, and they hiked a lot, and their dog went with them, and their dog ate some moose scat and was colonized with some of its bacteria, and then because you lived with your dog, you became colonized with that bacteria, and now you have it.鈥�
Leu-Burke and her students were using a test called an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect Cryptosporidium in their scat samples. EIAs use a specially designed molecule 鈥� called a monoclonal antibody 鈥� to recognize pathogens. Monoclonal antibodies are highly specific and only bind to particular pathogens, making them ideal for targeted tests and treatments.
But something was bothering Leu-Burke about the tests. She noticed that the monoclonal antibodies in the EIA kits were the same ones that had been used in the 1980s. That raised a concern: could newer strains of Cryptosporidium have emerged over the decades 鈥� strains that the old antibodies no longer recognized? If so, the tests might be missing infections simply because they weren鈥檛 designed to detect these newer variants.
She decided to start incorporating a different test called a modified acid-fast stain, which also detects Cryptosporidium but isn't restricted to a specific strain. The results were surprising. 鈥淲hat we found out is that the EIA kit misses almost 70% of [Cryptosporidium],鈥� said Leu-Burke.
The potential implications of their research were significant. It meant that any laboratories using EIAs to detect Cryptosporidium could be generating a lot of false negative results. It also implied that Cryptosporidium might be a lot more common than it was generally thought to be 鈥� something that could disproportionately impact vulnerable populations.
鈥�Cryptosporidium is easily spread from water and soil, and we have a lot of housing-insecure individuals camping along the same areas that we鈥檙e collecting these [fecal] samples from,鈥� said Leu-Burke. 鈥淎nd so our concern is, that we鈥檒l have an individual who comes into the emergency room, and has some kind of chronic diarrhea and abdominal pain, and it鈥檚 being attributed to other things 鈥� including diet, maybe drug abuse, maybe alcoholism 鈥� and what is really is, is they are colonized with Cryptosporidium.鈥�
Leu-Burke hopes that their project will start a conversation about the potential limitations of EIAs in laboratory settings and also prompt health care professionals to be more aware of how shared environments affect public health. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e in a hospital, if you鈥檙e not understanding the environment of the microbiology of the environment outside your back door, you鈥檙e not going to know what鈥檚 coming in your front door when it comes to patients.鈥�
The role of research in career readiness for medical laboratory professionals
Many undergraduates don鈥檛 get the opportunity to have their names on a scientific abstract, but Leu-Burke wanted all of her students to graduate with research experience. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want it to be research for only the students who had extra time. I wanted my students to recognize that laboratory medicine in itself is a research job.鈥�
Additionally, Leu-Burke felt it was important that MLS students be able to see the real-world impact of their work, rather than simply conducting packaged experiments with predetermined results. 鈥淭hey recognize that it鈥檚 not just an assignment. When they start labeling and growing these samples, and they鈥檙e doing identifications, they know that these samples mean something, and their results are not just, 鈥業 get the right answer.鈥� It has to be accurate because it鈥檚 going to eventually go to our large data set that we have. And in fact, sometimes they鈥檒l say, 鈥榃ell, is this right?鈥� and I鈥檓 like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know.鈥� They truly are unknowns.鈥�
Leu-Burke wants her students to carry the critical thinking skills that they learn in her lab forward into their careers. 鈥淲hat I think is really great for my students is that this is giving them the curiosity so that when they leave the university, they鈥檙e going to have that, 鈥榃ell, wait a minute, just because we鈥檝e been doing this, are we sure we鈥檙e catching everything? Are we sure this is the best method we can do?鈥欌��
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