Expert Spotlight: Five Questions with Dr. Tara Smith

Dr. Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health, is one of our frequent research collaborators. Her research generally focuses on zoonotic infections (infections which are transferred between animals and people). Dr. Smith was the first to identify livestock-associated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the United States. She has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers and has been profiled in many major media outlets.

Aside from being an accomplished researcher, Dr. Smith is a gifted communicator who can break down complicated science and make it understandable to lay audiences. Be sure to check her out on Twitter and read her science blog! She also has written three books on infectious disease topics and regularly writes about infectious disease for Slate.com and other national sites.

1. We're big zombie dorks and you're known for incorporating zombies into your research and lectures! Why?! What do zombies and infectious diseases have in common?

In most of the modern zombie stories, zombies are caused by a microbe, so zombie-ism is an infectious disease. In 28 Days Later, the “Rage” virus came from laboratory chimpanzees. In World War Z, the Solanum virus appeared first in China and then spread globally. In The Walking Dead, we don’t know the origin of the virus, but it seems to infect everyone. In The Last of Us and Girl with All the Gifts, zombies are caused by a fungus. So I try to take advantage of this pop-culture phenomenon and use zombies as an entertaining way to talk about disease transmission and control.

2. What kind of research projects are you working on right now?

We have a number of things underway; most focus on antibiotic resistance and epidemiology broadly, and trying to understand the evolution and epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus. We just published some student projects examining S. aureus on local beaches and from local geese populations, and are still analyzing data and working on manuscripts from larger projects of S. aureus in farmers. We’re also putting together a new science communication and education project focusing on vaccines.

3. On a scale of one to 10, one being apocalypse and 10 being utopia, how optimistic are you about society combating antibiotic resistance and superbugs? What do you think can be done - by consumers, policymakers, researchers, food companies, etc?

Oh boy. This changes daily, I think. Usually I’m at about a 5, +/- 3 points. It concerns me and obviously doing what I do, I think about it constantly. I have 3 kids and I don’t want to see them have to face a world without useful antibiotics. I’m optimistic that we can reign in inappropriate use of our current antibiotics, both in people and animals, and love that the World Health Organization has finally made that a key interest of theirs because in our inter-connected world, using antibiotics judiciously on a global scale is the only way we’re going to preserve them.

I’m happy to see consumers take an interest in antibiotic resistance, demanding meat that’s raised without unnecessary antibiotics and slowing down requests for antibiotics at their physician’s office, and to see large companies committing to buying more animals raised responsibly. I’m optimistic about new (and old!) technologies, like CRISPR and phage therapy that may help to provide new treatment options for bacterial infections. But I’m very concerned that funding for science continues to be a low priority for many of our lawmakers, and that our current government has little respect for scientific research. We can’t be complacent about antibiotic resistance.

4. We’re big fans of your Twitter account (@aetiology) for its updates on important science news. Do you think researchers like yourself have a responsibility to communicate their findings outside of the normal realm (i.e. research journals) so that the general public can understand emerging science and any implications?