Tara Smith | |
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| Alma mater | University of Toledo Yale University |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Iowa Kent State University |
| Website | taracsmith.com/ |
Tara C. Smith is an American epidemiologist and science communicator. She is a professor at the Kent State University College of Public Health who studies zoonotic infections. Smith was the first to identify strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus associated with livestock in the United States.
Smith has a Bachelor of Science in biology from Yale University. [1] [2] She earned her PhD in microbiology at the University of Toledo, where she investigated Streptococcus pyogenes . [1] [2] [3] She completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Michigan. [2]
In 2004 Smith joined the University of Iowa College of Public Health. [4] She has received over $3 million in research funding, primarily from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, United States Department of Agriculture and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. [4] [5]
Smith identified that 45% of pig farmers and 49% of hogs farmers carried Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). [6] [7] [8] She went on to identify that almost 40% of people with MRSA contain the strain associated with livestock. [9] [10] The work was described as one of the most comprehensive investigations into the spread of MRSA by the journal Nature. [11] She is distinguishing the Staphylococcus aureus strains around Iowa City, by characterizing the DNA around several places in the genome. [11] She compared strains related to ST398, a sequence type that is associated with livestock but not expected to cause infection, from around the world. [12] She found that meat that is sold with the claim it contains no antibiotics contains the highest levels of the garden-type of S. aureus. [13] Her research has been covered by The New York Times. [6] Smith has also studied and written about vaccine hesitancy. [14]
She joined the Kent State University College of Public Health in 2013 as an associate professor. [4] [14] In 2015 Smith was appointed an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. [15] In 2017 she became a full professor at Kent State. [14] Her light-hearted Christmas contribution [16] to the British Medical Journal on the likelihood of a Zombie apocalypse was covered extensively in the mainstream media. [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [ excessive citations ] Following the Zika virus outbreak, Smith wrote several articles to provide advice for members of the public. [26] [27] She went on to use zombies to demonstrate how diseases were spread. [28] [29] [30] Smith has written books on Ebola virus, Streptococcus pyogenes and S. agalactiae. [31] [32] [33] [34]
In late February 2020 the Wall Street Journal called her "a prominent infectious-disease specialist" when reporting on her tweet [35] criticizing the White House's attempt to control messaging about the novel coronavirus outbreak. [36]
Smith takes part in several initiatives to improve the public understanding of science. [37] She writes a regular column for Self . [2] She started the science blog Aetiology in 2005. [38] Her research has appeared in the popular science books Pig Tales: An Omnivore's Quest for Sustainable Meat and Superbug: the Fatal Menace of MRSA. [39] [40] She has featured on podcasts, including Science for the People, Talk Nerdy and the Meet the Microbiologist podcast of the American Society for Microbiology. [41] [42] [43] [44] She has been interviewed by Gizmodo , New Statesman and the Los Angeles Times . [45] [46] [47]
Smith lives with her partner and three children in rural Ohio. [2]
Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive spherically shaped bacterium, a member of the Bacillota, and is a usual member of the microbiota of the body, frequently found in the upper respiratory tract and on the skin. It is often positive for catalase and nitrate reduction and is a facultative anaerobe that can grow without the need for oxygen. Although S. aureus usually acts as a commensal of the human microbiota, it can also become an opportunistic pathogen, being a common cause of skin infections including abscesses, respiratory infections such as sinusitis, and food poisoning. Pathogenic strains often promote infections by producing virulence factors such as potent protein toxins, and the expression of a cell-surface protein that binds and inactivates antibodies. S. aureus is one of the leading pathogens for deaths associated with antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains, such as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), is a worldwide problem in clinical medicine. Despite much research and development, no vaccine for S. aureus has been approved.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a group of gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It caused more than 100,000 deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance in 2019.
Methicillin (USAN), also known as meticillin (INN), is a narrow-spectrum β-lactam antibiotic of the penicillin class.
Pristinamycin (INN), also spelled pristinamycine, is an antibiotic used primarily in the treatment of staphylococcal infections, and to a lesser extent streptococcal infections. It is a streptogramin group antibiotic, similar to virginiamycin, derived from the bacterium Streptomyces pristinaespiralis. It is marketed in Europe by Sanofi-Aventis under the trade name Pyostacine.
Dicloxacillin is a narrow-spectrum β-lactam antibiotic of the penicillin class. It is used to treat infections caused by susceptible (non-resistant) Gram-positive bacteria. It is active against beta-lactamase-producing organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus, which would otherwise be resistant to most penicillins. Dicloxacillin is available under a variety of trade names including Diclocil (BMS).
An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased recently, and could increase in the near future. The minority that are capable of developing efficient transmission between humans can become major public and global concerns as potential causes of epidemics or pandemics. Their many impacts can be economic and societal, as well as clinical. EIDs have been increasing steadily since at least 1940.
Oxacillin is a narrow-spectrum beta-lactam antibiotic of the penicillin class developed by Beecham.
Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a cytotoxin—one of the β-pore-forming toxins. The presence of PVL is associated with increased virulence of certain strains (isolates) of Staphylococcus aureus. It is present in the majority of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) isolates studied and is the cause of necrotic lesions involving the skin or mucosa, including necrotic hemorrhagic pneumonia. PVL creates pores in the membranes of infected cells. PVL is produced from the genetic material of a bacteriophage that infects Staphylococcus aureus, making it more virulent.
Cefoxitin is a second-generation cephamycin antibiotic developed by Merck & Co., Inc. from Cephamycin C in the year following its discovery, 1972. It was synthesized in order to create an antibiotic with a broader spectrum. It is often grouped with the second-generation cephalosporins. Cefoxitin requires a prescription and as of 2010 is sold under the brand name Mefoxin by Bioniche Pharma, LLC. The generic version of cefoxitin is known as cefoxitin sodium.
Ceftobiprole (Zevtera/Mabelio) is a fifth-generation cephalosporin for the treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia and community-acquired pneumonia. It is marketed by Basilea Pharmaceutica in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Austria under the trade name Zevtera, in France and Italy under the trade name Mabelio. Like other cephalosporins, ceftobiprole exerts its antibacterial activity by binding to important penicillin-binding proteins and inhibiting their transpeptidase activity which is essential for the synthesis of bacterial cell walls. Ceftobiprole has high affinity for penicillin-binding protein 2a of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains and retains its activity against strains that express divergent mecA gene homologues. Ceftobiprole also binds to penicillin-binding protein 2b in Streptococcus pneumoniae (penicillin-intermediate), to penicillin-binding protein 2x in Streptococcus pneumoniae (penicillin-resistant), and to penicillin-binding protein 5 in Enterococcus faecalis.
Dalbavancin, sold under the brand names Dalvance in the US and Xydalba in the EU among others, is a second-generation lipoglycopeptide antibiotic medication. It belongs to the same class as vancomycin, the most widely used and one of the treatments available to people infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Telavancin is a bactericidal lipoglycopeptide for use in MRSA or other Gram-positive infections. Telavancin is a semi-synthetic derivative of vancomycin.
mecA is a gene found in bacterial cells which allows them to be resistant to antibiotics such as methicillin, penicillin and other penicillin-like antibiotics.
Delafloxacin sold under the brand name Baxdela among others, is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic used to treat acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.
The arginine catabolic mobile element (ACME) is a mobile genetic element of Staphylococcus bacterial species. This genetic element provides for several immune modulating functions, including resistance to polyamines which serve as a non-specific immune response both on intact skin and following the inflammatory response in wound healing. Diverse ACME are present in several species of Staphylococcus, including Staphylococcus epidermidis.
CC398 or MRSA CC398 is a new variant of MRSA that has emerged in animals and is found in intensively reared production animals, where it can be transmitted to humans as LA-MRSA. A 2009 study shows, however, that dissemination of CC398 from exposed humans to other, non-exposed humans is infrequent. Though dangerous to humans, CC398 is often asymptomatic in food-producing animals. In a single study conducted in Denmark, MRSA was shown to originate in livestock and spread to humans, though the MRSA strain may have originated in humans and was transmitted to livestock.
Necrotizing pneumonia (NP), also known as cavitary pneumonia or cavitatory necrosis, is a rare but severe complication of lung parenchymal infection. In necrotizing pneumonia, there is a substantial liquefaction following death of the lung tissue, which may lead to gangrene formation in the lung. In most cases patients with NP have fever, cough and bad breath, and those with more indolent infections have weight loss. Often patients clinically present with acute respiratory failure. The most common pathogens responsible for NP are Streptococcus pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae. Diagnosis is usually done by chest imaging, e.g. chest X-ray, CT scan. Among these CT scan is the most sensitive test which shows loss of lung architecture and multiple small thin walled cavities. Often cultures from bronchoalveolar lavage and blood may be done for identification of the causative organism(s). It is primarily managed by supportive care along with appropriate antibiotics. However, if patient develops severe complications like sepsis or fails to medical therapy, surgical resection is a reasonable option for saving life.
Kerry L. LaPlante is an American pharmacist, academic and researcher. She is a Professor of Pharmacy and the Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Rhode Island, an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Brown University, an Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy Specialist, and the Director of the Rhode Island Infectious Diseases Fellowship and Research Programs at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
An occupational infectious disease is an infectious disease that is contracted at the workplace. Biological hazards (biohazards) include infectious microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and toxins produced by those organisms such as anthrax.
MRSA ST398 is a specific strain of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive, spherical bacterium that can cause a range of infections in humans and animals. And Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that is resistant to many antibiotics. The abbreviation "ST" in MRSA ST398 refers to the sequence type of the bacterium. MRSA ST398 is a clonal complex 398 (CC398). This means that the strain had emerged in a human clinic, without any obvious or understandable causes. MRSA ST398, a specific strain of MRSA, is commonly found in livestock, and can cause infections in humans who come into contact with infected animals.
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