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Electron Micrograph of a Parasitic Flea

May 14, 2011January 30, 2015 Brian

Electron Micrograph of a Parasitic Flea

How to Properly Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

This photograph depicts post-doctoral fellow, Neal Van Hoeven, Ph.D. as he was demonstrating how one is to properly wear personal protective equipment (PPE), in appropriate laboratory settings. PPE includes Dr. Hoeven’s gloves, surgical gown, and his N95 respirator.

Personal protective equipment, or PPE, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, is “specialized clothing or equipment, worn by an employee for protection against infectious materials.”

OSHA issues regulations for workplace health and safety. These regulations require use of PPE in healthcare settings to protect healthcare personnel from exposure to bloodborne pathogens and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, under OSHA’s General Duty Clause PPE is required for any potential infectious disease exposure. Employers must provide their employees with appropriate PPE and ensure that PPE is disposed or, if reusable, that it is properly cleaned or laundered, repaired and stored after use.

How to Properly Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

This photograph depicts post-doctoral fellow, Jessica Belser, Ph.D. as she was demonstrating how one is to properly wear personal protective equipment (PPE), in appropriate laboratory settings. PPE includes Dr. Belser’s Tyvek® suit, double gloves, and her powered air purifying respirator.

Microbiologist Demonstrating how to properly “candle” an Embyonated Chicken Egg

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

This 2008 photograph depicted CDC microbiologist, Amanda Balish, as she was demonstrating how one properly “candles” an embyonated chicken egg, which employs a very bright light that is either placed behind the egg, such as was done throughout history by using a candle, hence the name, or employing more modern methods, using a powerful lamp placed against the broad end of the egg, as was the case here. In this way, the contents of the egg are revealed through the translucent shell. By using this procedure, Amanda was able to access the viability of each egg used in the isolation of influenza viruses.

If the egg is unfertilized the observer will see only a round yolk sac, and no developing embryo, or any network of blood vessels. Unfertilized eggs are known as “yolkers”. Eggs known as “quitters”, had been fertilized, but the embryo had stopped growing. In the case of quitters, one will note a thin blood ring encircling the yolk, as seen in PHIL 10148. “Winners” are eggs that had been fertilized, and lead to the growth of a healthy embryo, which is seen in PHIL 10149. In this case, one will observe numbers of networked blood vessels surrounding the yolk, and depending upon the length of gestation, one might see a dark shadow representing the developing embryonic eye.

Doctor at CDC Performing a DNA-DNA Hybridization Analysis

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

Arnold Steigerwalt, a research chemist with the Centers for Disease Control’s Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch (MSPB) in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), was shown here as he was performing a DNA-DNA hybridization analysis in one of the CDC’s laboratories.

The Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch is responsible for monitoring an eclectic group of bacterial infections and disease syndromes of public health importance. The branch is organized into programs on meningitis, which focuses on Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae, vaccine-preventable diseases of childhood, which deals with Bordetella pertussis and Corynebacterium diphtheriae, zoonotic pathogens, which works with Bacillus anthracis, Brucella spp., Leptospires, and “non-tuberculosis” mycobacterial infections, and unexplained deaths and other emerging infections.

Doctor at CDC Reading a Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT)

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

Sandra Bragg, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control’s Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch (MSPB) in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), was shown seated in front of a microscope, as she was reading a Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) by using dark field microscopy.

Doctor at CDC Running a Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) Analytical Test

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

Renee Galloway, a microbiologist in the Centers for Disease Control’s Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch (MSPB), in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), was shown here running a Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) analytical test, which is used in the typing of bacterial organisms.

A CDC Doctor Examining Reconstructed 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

This 2005 photograph of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Dr. Terrence Tumpey, one of the organization’s staff microbiologists and a member of the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), showed him examining reconstructed 1918 Pandemic Influenza Virus inside a specimen vial containing an orange-colored supernatant culture medium.

Dr. Tumpey, here seen in a Biosafety Level 3-enhanced laboratory setting, was working beneath a flow hood, which pulls air from outside the hood into the hood’s confines, and is then filtered of any pathogens before being re-circulated inside the self contained laboratory atmosphere.

Dr. Tumpey recreated the 1918 influenza virus in order to identify the characteristics that made this organism such a deadly pathogen. Research efforts such as this, enables researchers to develop new vaccines and treatments for future pandemic influenza viruses.

The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic was caused by an influenza A (H1N1) virus, killing more than 500,000 people in the United States, and up to 50 million worldwide. The possible source was a newly emerged virus from a swine or an avian host of a mutated H1N1 virus. Many people died within the first few days after infection, and others died of complications later. Nearly half of those who died were young, healthy adults. Influenza A (H1N1) viruses still circulate today after being introduced again into the human population in the 1970s.

Doctor Examining a Culture Flask Containing Madin-Darby Canine Kidney Epithelial Cells

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

This 2008 photograph depicted post-doctoral fellow, Neal Van Hoeven, Ph.D. as he was examining a culture flask containing Madin-Darby Canine Kidney epithelial cells (MDCK), and looking for any signs of growth in a stock of influenza virus. Combining animal cell cultures and recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology, has become a common laboratory practice in the creation of viral vaccines, as well as other biomanufactured products, including hormones, enzymes, and anticancer agents.

A Doctor Conducting an Experiment at a Biological Safety Cabinet

May 5, 2011January 9, 2021 Brian

Dr. Taronna Maines, a microbiologist in the Influenza Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while she was conducting an experiment inside a biological safety cabinet (BSC) within the Biosafety Level 3-enhanced laboratory. The airflow within the BSC helps prevent any airborne virus from escaping the confines of the cabinet, and as part of her personal protective equipment, she was wearing a powered air purifying respirator (PAPR), which was filtering the air that she was breathing.

Dr. Maines was inoculating 10-day old emryonated chicken eggs with a specimen containing an H5N1 avian influenza virus. This experiment was part of a study to investigate the pathogenicity and transmissibility of newly emerging H5N1 viruses. Identification of genetic markers affecting the ability of H5N1 viruses to transmit efficiently will help in the early identification of emerging H5N1 viruses with pandemic potential. Information gained from this study is important for pandemic preparedness.