1 Mar 2019

The Development and Analysis of a Student Organized Wellness Program for College Undergraduates

Abberamee Visvanathan '19

Student health and wellness has a direct influence on student academic success and retention; however, a lack of financial support at smaller, private institutions often limits the expansiveness of these programs. The Hamline Wellness Initiative is an ongoing study to evaluate and analyze the overall health of undergraduate students, from which the Hamline Undergraduate Wellness Program was designed and launched, consisting of lectures and assignments. Emphasis was placed on educating undergraduate students on campus resources and facilities and promoting self-monitoring of health.

Viruses to Treat Acute Bacterial Infections in Cystic Fibrosis

Taylor Janssen '19

The purpose of this seminar presentation is to introduce the audience to phage therapy as an alternative treatment for bacterial infections. A paper by Cafora et al. (2019) will be discussed. The researchers used a zebrafish model to mimic cystic fibrosis (CF) in humans. Mortality in CF patients is commonly due to acute bacterial infections, like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The study showed that the administration of a cocktail of phages decreases lethality in cftr-loss-of-function zebrafish embryos infected with P. aeruginosa PAO1. The combination of phages and antibiotics was found to have a synergistic effect to further decrease lethality. This paper is significant because it provides a possible alternative to antibiotics for acute respiratory infections in a time where antibiotic resistance is increasing and there is a lack of new antibiotics being produced.