Lydia Bourouiba

Last updated
Lydia Bourouiba
Alma mater McGill University
Scientific career
Institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology
York University
Thesis Numerical and theoretical study of homogeneous rotating turbulence  (2008)
Website Bourouiba Group
External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg The dynamics of disease transmission, Lydia Bourouiba, MIT School of Engineering, Dec 7, 2018
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg “How diseases and epidemics move through a breath of air”, Lydia Bourouiba, TedMed Talk, 2018
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg "Turbulent Gas Clouds and Respiratory Pathogen Emissions", JAMA, March 26, 2020

Lydia Bourouiba is an Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Professor, [1] an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering departments, and in the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also a Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Faculty, and Affiliate Faculty of Harvard Medical School. [2] She directs the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory at MIT. [3]

Contents

Bourouiba's research considers the fluid dynamics of disease transmission. Her work has overturned previous conventional thinking about sneezes and disease transmission. [4] Bourouiba studies respiratory pathogen emissions, work that has significant implications for the COVID-19 pandemic and for limiting transmission of the coronavirus disease and future pandemics. [5] She was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2021. [6]

Early life and education

In 2008, Bourouiba completed her graduate research at McGill University, Canada, where she developed a theoretical description of turbulence fluid flow, after majoring in mathematics and physics in her undergraduate studies. [1] [7] After completing her doctorate, she joined the Department of Mathematics at MIT. [7] There she started to concentrate on coughs and sneezes; "violent expiratory events". [7] She believed that rooting her epidemiological studies in physics and fluid mechanics would allow her to understand the spread of emerging infectious diseases, including SARS and Ebola virus disease. [7] She also worked in Toronto at the Centre for Disease Modelling where she modelled the spread of influenza. [8]

Research and career

Bourouiba uses mathematical modelling to understand the spread of disease. [9] After her early work in the modelling and theoretical aspects of expiratory events, when she joined Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010, she became interested in the size distribution of exhaled droplets. [7] [8] Bourouiba established a new laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, that combines fluid dynamics with epidemiological modelling. [10] It includes at biosafety level 2 laboratory, which permits the study of the sneezes of healthy patients as well as those with influenza. [7]

In 2016, Bourouiba used two high-speed video cameras to show the movement of fluid droplets that spread from a sneeze. [11] [12] The cameras were set up to collect thousands of frames per second, which facilitated the study of the sneezes in slow motion. [7] High-speed video footage of more than 100 sneezes allowed Bourouiba to analyse the 150 millisecond long moments during which a sneeze is expelled into the air. [13] Her videos showed that sneezes, exhalations, and coughs consist of mucosalivary droplets that are primarily made of a multi-phase gas cloud. This gas cloud grows as it moves away from the mouth, drawing in air from the surrounding environment. [7] She showed that the fluid sheet of droplets balloons then evolves into long filaments and eventually disperses as a spray of smaller droplets. [7] [4]

This complex fluid cascade was not as simple as models that had previously been used to model coughs and sneezes, and showed that the spread of droplets could be strongly impacted by environmental temperature and humidity. [7] The conditions within the turbulent gas cloud can extend the lifetime of the enclosed droplets. These turbulent gas clouds were shown to protect the droplets as they move through the air, and the internal climate of the cloud was shown to extend the lifetime of the enclosed droplets. Bourouiba demonstrated that exhalation can reach speeds of 10 – 30 ms−1, which means that droplets bearing pathogens can travel up to eight metres. [13] Eventually, the pathogen bearing droplets within these turbulent clouds evaporate, leaving behind a spray of residue and droplet nuclei. [12] The residues can survive in the air for hours, eventually following the air flow that is imposed by climate control systems. [12] Bourouiba believes that this analysis can better inform public health interventions, as well as identify people who may act as super-spreaders. [10]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bourouiba has applied her models of sneezes to SARS-CoV-2, to help to understand and slow the spread of the disease. [14] [15] Early reports from China indicated that particles of the virus were found in the hospital rooms of patients who were infected with the disease. [16] She has argued that the guidance given by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) may underestimate the distances required for safe social distancing as they do not take into account the dynamics of the turbulent puff cloud. [14] [17] [18] Alongside improving estimations of 'safe' distances, Bourouiba has looked to understand the efficacy of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. [19] [20]

Bourouiba founded the first international Fluids and Health Conference in 2019. The conference will become a Gordon Research Conference as of 2022. [21]

Her research on sneezes formed the basis of educational materials produced by Science Friday . [22]

Awards

In 2021, Bourouiba was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in the Division of Fluid Dynamics for her “fundamental work in quantitatively elucidating the mechanisms of droplet impact and fragmentation and for pioneering a new field at the intersection of fluid dynamics and transmission of respiratory and foodborne pathogens with clear and tangible contributions to public health.” [6] [23]

The Bourouiba Group received the Tse Cheuk Ng Tai Prize for Innovative Research in Health Sciences in 2014. [24] Bourouiba has also received the Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award for high-risk/high-reward basic science research in 2018, [25] and the Ole Madsen Mentoring Award in 2019. [26]

Selected publications

Personal life

Bourouiba spent part of her childhood in Algeria, during the Algerian Civil War, and also lived in France. [4] Alongside her research, Bourouiba takes part in mountain climbing and long bicycle rides. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common cold</span> Common viral infection of the upper respiratory tract

The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after exposure to the virus. These may include coughing, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, headache, and fever. People usually recover in seven to ten days, but some symptoms may last up to three weeks. Occasionally, those with other health problems may develop pneumonia.

In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previously infected. The term strictly refers to the transmission of microorganisms directly from one individual to another by one or more of the following means:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Flügge</span> German bacteriologist and hygienist

Carl Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Flügge was a German bacteriologist and hygienist. His finding that pathogens were present in expiratory droplets, the eponymous Flügge droplets, laid ground for the concept of droplet transmission as a route for the spread of respiratory infectious diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airborne transmission</span> Disease transmission by airborne particles

Airborne transmission or aerosol transmission is transmission of an infectious disease through small particles suspended in the air. Infectious diseases capable of airborne transmission include many of considerable importance both in human and veterinary medicine. The relevant infectious agent may be viruses, bacteria, or fungi, and they may be spread through breathing, talking, coughing, sneezing, raising of dust, spraying of liquids, flushing toilets, or any activities which generate aerosol particles or droplets.

Influenza prevention involves taking steps that one can use to decrease their chances of contracting flu viruses, such as the Pandemic H1N1/09 virus, responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic.

A fomite or fomes is any inanimate object that, when contaminated with or exposed to infectious agents, can transfer disease to a new host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wells curve</span> Science of medicine

The Wells curve is a diagram, developed by W. F. Wells in 1934, which describes what is expected to happen to small droplets once they have been exhaled into air. Coughing, sneezing, and other violent exhalations produce high numbers of respiratory droplets derived from saliva and/or respiratory mucus, with sizes ranging from about 1 µm to 2 mm. Wells' insight was that such droplets would have two distinct fates, depending on their sizes. The interplay of gravity and evaporation means that droplets larger than a humidity-determined threshold size would fall to the ground due to gravity, while droplets smaller than this size would quickly evaporate, leaving a dry residue that drifts in the air. Since droplets from an infected person may contain infectious bacteria or viruses, these processes influence transmission of respiratory diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimitris Drikakis</span> Greek-British applied scientist, engineer and university professor

Dimitris Drikakis, PhD, FRAeS, CEng, is a Greek-British applied scientist, engineer and university professor. His research is multidisciplinary. It covers fluid dynamics, computational fluid dynamics, acoustics, heat transfer, computational science from molecular to macro scale, materials, machine learning, and emerging technologies. He has applied his research to diverse fields such as Aerospace & Defence, Biomedical, and Energy and Environment Sectors. He received The William Penney Fellowship Award by the Atomic Weapons Establishment to recognise his contributions to compressible fluid dynamics. He was also the winner of NEF's Innovator of the Year Award by the UK's Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange for a new generation carbon capture nanotechnology that uses carbon nanotubes for filtering out carbon dioxide and other gases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sneeze guard</span> Acrylic or glass screen designed to protect people or food from exposure to respiratory droplets

A sneeze guard, sneezeguard, or cough shield is an acrylic or glass screen designed to protect food or people from the exposure to respiratory droplets, which are dispensed when coughing, sneezing, or speaking. Sneeze guards have been in use in restaurants for decades. With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, sneeze guards have been installed in public places like offices, schools and retail stores to reduce the risk of infection through respiratory droplets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Respiratory droplet</span> Type of particle formed by breathing

A respiratory droplet is a small aqueous droplet produced by exhalation, consisting of saliva or mucus and other matter derived from respiratory tract surfaces. Respiratory droplets are produced naturally as a result of breathing, speaking, sneezing, coughing, or vomiting, so they are always present in our breath, but speaking and coughing increase their number.

A toilet plume is the dispersal of microscopic particles as a result of flushing a toilet. Normal use of a toilet by healthy individuals is considered unlikely to be a major health risk. However this dynamic changes if an individual is fighting an illness and currently shedding out a virulent pathogen in their urine, feces or vomitus. There is indirect evidence that specific pathogens such as norovirus or SARS coronavirus could potentially be spread by toilet aerosols, but as of 2015, no direct experimental studies had clearly demonstrated or refuted actual disease transmission from toilet aerosols. It has been hypothesized that dispersal of pathogens may be reduced by closing the toilet lid before flushing, and by using toilets with lower flush energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coughs and sneezes spread diseases</span> Slogan promoting public hygiene

"Coughs and sneezes spread diseases" was a slogan first used in the United States during the 1918–20 influenza pandemic – later used in the Second World War by Ministries of Health in Commonwealth countries – to encourage good public hygiene to halt the spread of the common cold, influenza and other respiratory illnesses.

An aerosol-generating procedure (AGP) is a medical or health-care procedure that a public health agency such as the World Health Organization or the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has designated as creating an increased risk of transmission of an aerosol borne contagious disease, such as COVID-19. The presumption is that the risk of transmission of the contagious disease from a patient having an AGP performed on them is higher than for a patient who is not having an AGP performed upon them. This then informs decisions on infection control, such as what personal protective equipment (PPE) is required by a healthcare worker performing the medical procedure, or what PPE healthcare workers are allowed to use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linsey Marr</span> American scientist

Linsey Chen Marr is an American scientist who is the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. Her research considers the interaction of nanomaterials and viruses with the atmosphere. During the COVID-19 pandemic Marr studied how SARS-CoV-2 and other airborne pathogens could be transported in air. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and named a MacArthur Fellow.

Human-to-human transmission (HHT) is an epidemiologic vector, especially in case the disease is borne by individuals known as superspreaders. In these cases, the basic reproduction number of the virus, which is the average number of additional people that a single case will infect without any preventative measures, can be as high as 203.9. Interhuman transmission is a synonym for HHT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Source control (respiratory disease)</span> Strategy for reducing disease transmission

Source control is a strategy for reducing disease transmission by blocking respiratory secretions produced through speaking, coughing, sneezing or singing. Surgical masks are commonly used for this purpose, with cloth face masks recommended for use by the public only in epidemic situations when there are shortages of surgical masks. In addition, respiratory etiquette such as covering the mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing can be considered source control. In diseases transmitted by droplets or aerosols, understanding air flow, particle and aerosol transport may lead to rational infrastructural source control measures that minimize exposure of susceptible persons.

William Firth Wells was an American scientist and sanitary engineer. In his early career, he pioneered techniques for the aquaculture of oysters and clams. He is best known for his work on airborne infections. Wells identified that tuberculosis could be transmitted through air via the nuclei of evaporated respiratory droplets, and developed the Wells curve to describe what happens to respiratory droplets after they have been expelled into the air.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmission of COVID-19</span> Mechanisms that spread coronavirus disease 2019

The transmission of COVID-19 is the passing of coronavirus disease 2019 from person to person. COVID-19 is mainly transmitted when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets/aerosols and small airborne particles containing the virus. Infected people exhale those particles as they breathe, talk, cough, sneeze, or sing. Transmission is more likely the closer people are. However, infection can occur over longer distances, particularly indoors.

The Wells-Riley model is a simple model of the airborne transmission of infectious diseases, developed by William F. Wells and Richard L. Riley for tuberculosis and measles.

Nicole M. Bouvier is an American physician who is Professor of Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research considers the environmental and viral factors that impact respiratory transmission of influenza viruses.

References

  1. 1 2 "MECHE PEOPLE: Lydia Bourouiba | MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering". meche.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  2. ↑ "Lydia Bourouiba". The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory - Bourouiba Group - People page. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  3. ↑ "Lydia Bourouiba". The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory - Bourouiba Group. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  4. 1 2 3 Lok, Corie (2 June 2016). "Where sneezes go" (PDF). Nature. 534 (7605): 24–26. Bibcode:2016Natur.534...24L. doi:10.1038/534024a. PMID   27251258. S2CID   36283889 . Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  5. ↑ Ananthaswamy, Anil (4 September 2021). "To understand airborne transmission of disease, follow the flow". Knowable Magazine. doi: 10.1146/knowable-090421-2 . S2CID   239682024 . Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  6. 1 2 Campbell, Leah (October 18, 2021). "Six from MIT named American Physical Society Fellows for 2021". MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Lok, Corie (2016-06-02). "The snot-spattered experiments that show how far sneezes really spread". Nature News. 534 (7605): 24–26. Bibcode:2016Natur.534...24L. doi: 10.1038/534024a . PMID   27251258.
  8. 1 2 "Lydia Bourouiba". Institute for Medical Engineering & Science. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  9. ↑ mituser (2016-06-20). "Professor Bourouiba's Research on the Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Featured by Nature". MIT CEE. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  10. 1 2 "Sneezing produces complex fluid cascade, not a simple spray". MIT News. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  11. ↑ "Clip Nature The snot-spattered experiments that show how far sneezes really spread | MIT News". news.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  12. 1 2 3 Bourouiba, Lydia; Dehandschoewercker, Eline; Bush, John W. M. (2014). "Violent expiratory events: on coughing and sneezing". Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 745: 537–563. Bibcode:2014JFM...745..537B. doi:10.1017/jfm.2014.88. hdl: 1721.1/101386 . ISSN   0022-1120. S2CID   2102358.
  13. 1 2 Bourouiba, Lydia (2016-08-25). "A Sneeze". New England Journal of Medicine. 375 (8): e15. doi: 10.1056/NEJMicm1501197 . ISSN   0028-4793. PMID   27557321.
  14. 1 2 Bourouiba, Lydia (2020-03-26). "Turbulent Gas Clouds and Respiratory Pathogen Emissions: Potential Implications for Reducing Transmission of COVID-19". JAMA. 323 (18): 1837–1838. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.4756 . PMID   32215590.
  15. ↑ PRODUCTIONS, JUST HUMAN. "EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder and Ronald Klain - BONUS / A False Dichotomy: Airborne versus Droplet / Roxanne Khamsi and Lydia Bourouiba". Google Podcasts. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  16. ↑ Ong, Sean Wei Xiang; Tan, Yian Kim; Chia, Po Ying; Lee, Tau Hong; Ng, Oon Tek; Wong, Michelle Su Yen; Marimuthu, Kalisvar (2020-03-04). "Air, Surface Environmental, and Personal Protective Equipment Contamination by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) From a Symptomatic Patient". JAMA. 323 (16): 1610–1612. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.3227. PMC   7057172 . PMID   32129805.
  17. ↑ "They Say Coronavirus Isn't Airborne—but It's Definitely Borne by Air". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  18. ↑ Thampi, Namitha (2020-04-01). "Distance Coronavirus Can Travel In Air Could Be 27 Feet". BioTecNika. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  19. ↑ "MIT Bourouiba COVID-19 | Bourouiba Group". lbourouiba.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  20. ↑ Yong, Ed (2020-04-01). "Everyone Thinks They're Right About Masks". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  21. ↑ "Award Abstract # 1940251 Fluids and Health 2019 Conference". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  22. ↑ Zych, Ariel. "Snotty Plots: How Do You Graph A Sneeze?". Science Friday. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
  23. ↑ "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  24. ↑ "Bourouiba Group receives the Tse Cheuk Ng Tai Prize". CEE Awards. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  25. ↑ "Professor Lydia Bourouiba Receives the Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award". CEE Awards. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 6 July 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  26. ↑ "Ole Madsen Mentoring Award (New for 2016-2017)". CEE Awards. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.