Research Blog

On April 30, 2025

In Biology, Environment/Sustainability

The Duke Campus Farm typically sees more visitors than usual on Fridays, when it holds Community Work Days and welcomes students, faculty, and community members to help run tasks and learn more about its sustainable agriculture practices.

However, this particular Friday, April 11, was a bit special. Instead of us volunteers driving wheelbarrows back and forth, mulching or weeding, several members of the Vilgalys Lab at Duke instructed participants on how to grow our own mushrooms.

Shiitake Logs

The process begins with inoculation: placing the mushroom spawn into substrate, which provides it a suitable environment to live in. It turns out there’s two common ways to do this, so we split ourselves into two groups. I headed over to the right side first, where Dr. Rytas Vilgalys awaited us with a bag of shittake spawn. A Duke biology professor, Vilgalys is an expert on mycology, the study of fungi. He was joined by undergraduate senior Mira Polishook, who is both part of the Vilgalys lab and the farm’s programming crew.

They introduced us to our substrate, sweetgum logs, which sat neatly stacked in a pile to the side. Like these, suitable logs will be from hardwood trees and recently cut. (Many softwoods, like pines, have anti-fungal properties, and old logs are often already colonized by other fungi.)

The first task was to create holes in the logs for the spawn. After a quick demonstration, Vilgalys handed off the drill, encouraging those of us who hadn’t used power tools before to do so.

A friend and I quickly formed a system–I drilled holes as uniformly as I could while they rotated the log after every row. Though the day was dreary and wet around us, it soon became lively with movement and chatter underneath the pavilion as everyone began carrying out their roles.

After a few turns, I relinquished the drill to someone else and instead picked up the inoculation thumb tool. With narrow metal cylinders, these made it easy to pick up an appropriate amount of our sawdust spawn and release it into the holes we drilled. (These aren’t always necessary with other methods; plug spawn comes in pellet form and can be simply placed into the holes by hand.)

Mycelium is present inside of the sawdust spawn in the cup. Author photos.

A few tables over, others did the finishing touches via paintbrush. Fungi require a moist environment to grow, meaning mycelium in open holes are at risk of drying out. Dripping hot wax over the holes seals moisture inside and prevent insects from getting inside, until the wax eventually breaks off as the fungi grows outward.

Oyster Bags

*The mycelium is visible as the white substance surrounding the grain.*

On the other side of the pavilion, Duke mycologist Khalid Hameed was leading workshop participants through creating oyster mushroom bags, using a different type of substrate and spawn.

“Substrate is any lignin or cellulose. This is wheat straw. You can use rice straw, you can use peanut straw…any lignin, cellulose material,” Hameed said. From the bags that he had prepared for us, we took fistfuls of damp wheat straw and created the first layer in our own clear bags. Over this went a sprinkle of grain spawn. Repeatedly, we built up layers of straw and spawn until our bags were full.

“The first stage of this, we call pinhair. It [the fungus] makes little tiny pinhairs,” Hameed said. For a couple of weeks, there’s essentially no maintenance required. As long as there’s some humidity in the air, the bag can sit in a dark cellar or room. “If the moisture is not enough, those pinhairs then will dry.”

*An oyster mushroom bag after 2 weeks. Courtesy of Angela Zhao.*

This method is relatively quick, and we soon arrived at Hameed’s final instruction. Using a small razor edge, we pricked the bags evenly all over, creating small tears in the shape of crosses. The edible parts of fungi–the outward visible parts–are called “fruit,” and it’s out of these holes that the oysters will eventually fruit.

Good Mushrooms Come to Those That Wait

By the end of the workshop, the evidence of our work surrounded us: the tables lay covered in sawdust, wax drops, and stray wheatgrass.

Now, we wait for the (literal) fruit of our labor. I’ll be checking on my oyster bag, which will appear more and more white as the fungus colonizes the straw. These will only need around three weeks to begin fruiting, at which point they need to be moved into a room with light. However, the logs we inoculated likely won’t fruit for at least a year. When that time approaches, the fungi will need disturbing or “shocking”, which can involve soaking the logs in water, knocking them down, or as they do in Japan, hitting them with hammers. It’s theorized that this shocking promotes rapid growth by stimulating natural conditions like the falling of a tree or change of weather.

Otherwise, nothing more that needs to be done. Once inoculated, logs can continue to fruit year after year. The logs above, which were inoculated last year at Duke Campus Farm, have since fruited, though not to their fullest extent. For the work of one afternoon, the payoff is significant–an easy, sustainable way to farm food.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Blowing the Whistle: Bioethics’ Role in Medicine

In Biomedical Engineering, Computers/Technology, Engineering, Global Health, Science Communication & Education

On April 25, 2025

In Lecture, Medicine

Before introducing the theme of his April 22 talk on abuses in medical research, University of Minnesota philosophy professor Dr. Carl Elliott discussed a literary device in detail. “Man-in-a-hole,” coined by the acclaimed American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, describes a story structure in which the main character, upon facing adversity, plunges into crisis yet overcomes this challenge at the finale. For instance, the famous works “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz” are good examples of this literary device.

Dr. Carl Elliott, professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities

How does this connect to bioethics?

Before answering this question, Elliott dove into his testimony investigating the case of Dan Markingson at the University of Minnesota. Almost twenty years ago, the university’s Department of Psychiatry recruited Markingson, a young man suffering from psychosis, to take part in one of its drug studies. As Markingson could not independently provide consent, his physician enrolled him in the study against the strong dissent of his mother, Mary Weiss. Despite countless emails, phone calls, and appeals to university staff and researchers, the study continued, culminating in Markingson’s suicide.

Denial: Why UMN Needs A Mental Health Ombudsman — Dan Markingson with his mother, Mary Weiss

Afterward, upon hearing about this case, Elliott decided to thoroughly investigate and look into potential abuses and conflicts of interest. It was a long, strenuous process that took upwards of six to seven years, and in 2015, vindication was finally delivered via a shell-shocking report on conflicts of interest, clinical trial mismanagement, and other injustices.

Was justice served? Unfortunately, quite the contrary. “It was a failure,” Elliott remarked, adding that the report did not amount to anything substantive. “There was no reform, no added accountability, and no payments to Weiss [Markingson’s mother].”

Tracing back on his introduction using the literary analogy, Elliott demonstrated to his audience that whistleblowers’ experiences are supposed to mimic “man-in-the-hole” stories. After doing the “right thing”, the clinical injustices should be stopped, and the perpetrators should be punished accordingly. However, this is rarely the case: not only are whistleblowers outnumbered in their institutions by colleagues unsympathetic to their cause, but they are also targeted by their superiors for speaking out.

The truth is “doctors and nurses know that patients are being harmed and exploited,” Elliott said, yet “[hospitals] stonewall the press, rarely apologize, wand ostracize, even sue, the whistleblowers.” Hence, it’s fascinating that certain brave individuals are willing to broadcast the truth even in such circumstances: what is a whistleblower’s motivation in speaking out?

After speaking with numerous whistleblowers, Elliott was amazed by the number of “non-answers” he received. Most interviewees said something along the lines of “I did it because that is the type of man I am,” supporting Elliott’s argument that there is an honor and shame component in their actions. For many whistleblowers, they lived every day pondering “How do [I] maintain [my] self-respect when [I] lost it completely in the entire medical community?”, as described by Elliott. The overwhelming nature of the ongoing evil made most interviewees feel as if they had no choice but to speak out.

If whistleblowers are so certain that they are doing the right thing, how come nearly half of all whistleblowers in one study considered committing suicide after their act of bravery? In Elliott’s words, whistleblowers are “radioactive,” frowned upon by larger society and hated by former colleagues. They almost certainly will lose their jobs and never be able to practice in the medical profession again. In one sense, “[the whistleblower] is the only one gullible enough to riot against the rigged system.”

Not only is the whistleblower punished, but the perpetrators are also most often shielded from responsibility, being awarded the highest honors in their fields or institutions right after their exposure by investigative panels. Elliott sequentially described the fate of six malicious researchers, none ever charged with wrongdoing and instead honored by their peers. For Elliott’s personal story, one of the culprits of the Markingson case, the UMN chair of psychiatry at the time, was praised by the university up until his death. On the other hand, Elliott was exiled from the medical school, the number one punishment for doctors and nurses.

Given the many obstacles confronting whistleblowers, are there any factors helping them rise to the occasion of telling the truth? According to Elliott, one of the strongest factors supporting whistleblowers in their mission is solidarity in rallying for justice. For many of the cases brought up in the talk, three to four medical professionals together sounded the alarm, sharing the burden of societal opposition and supporting each other during the whistleblowing process. “Standing alone is a recipe for self-demolition,” Elliott said.

Elliott promised a dispiriting talk at the introduction of his lecture — and he delivered. Yet, to an audience member like me, there were many glimpses of hope shining throughout the lecture. Not only was I amazed by the bravery of whistleblowers like Elliott, but I was also inspired by the persevering notion of justice amongst members of our medical community, individuals whom our society respects the most. Against all odds, countless individuals risked their professional lives for goals greater than themselves, an honorable sacrifice.

This lecture’s theme of bioethics reminds us how robust science and clinical medicine depend upon ethical conduct and a strong foundation in moral code. At Duke, a shining hub of biomedical research, we must continue to rally for bioethics implementation and be cognizant of the humanities’ importance in all that we do. We must support the work of ethicists like Dr. Elliott, empowering the movement toward health equity and justice.

Duke Team Claims First Place at Global Health Tech Competition

By Monona Zhou

On April 23, 2025

It all starts with a simple question: How can I help? For some Duke students, the answer meant taking initiative – transforming empathy into action, ideas, and impact in order to tackle the most pressing global health issues head-on.

On April 10, 2025, two Duke teams were among 22 semi-finalist teams, representing 18 universities across eight countries, who met at the 15th Annual Global Health Technologies Design Competition on the Rice University campus. There, the students exchanged their strong passions about global health and learned from one another’s efforts to address the needs of low-resource communities. The projects spanned a wide spectrum of challenges, from portable glaucoma detection devices for applications in rural Peru, to low-cost sensor-based gloves for translating sign language into voice in real time, and many more!

*The Awards at the Rice360 Global Health Technologies Design Competition*

The competition was hosted by the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, a multi-disciplinary institute that aims to elevate global health technology education and research. Following their mission, this event helped to raise awareness about students who are leading global health innovation. Moreover, participating students received the opportunity to engage with judges, mentors, and interested attendees with expertise in global health for vital feedback and recommendations for future project plans.

The two Duke teams that qualified as semi-finalists were HemoSave and VenAlign. HemoSave was awarded first place for their project targeting the leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide, an excessive loss of blood after childbirth called postpartum hemorrhage. To combat this critical issue, the HemoSave team designed a cost-effective blood loss tracking device that uses colorimetric and gravimetric analysis. By doing so, the device allows clinicians to accurately measure blood loss during C-sections to improve high-stakes decision-making in low-resource settings. All components of the design were locally sourced from Kampala, Uganda, to maximize affordability and accessibility within such low-resource settings.

*Representatives from the Duke University HemoSave Team, Haasini Nandyala and James Bradley*

Second place was awarded to QBiT A.R.M. from Queen’s University for their work on developing low-cost, 3-D printable arm prosthetics. Their open-source design allows “clinics in lower- and middle-income countries to produce prosthetics on-site, restoring mobility and independence for those in need” (Rice360).

BiliRoo from Calvin University won third place for their device that combines filtered sunlight phototherapy technology and skin-to-skin contact between parent and child to treat neonatal jaundice in low-resource settings. For more information and to learn about the rest of the other incredible projects, please refer to the Rice360 website (link).

In addition to the student competition, Rice360 honored two current leaders in Global Health this year for their continued perseverance and successes within innovation for Global Health. The two recipients for the Rice360 Innovation and Leadership in Global Health Award were Dr. June Madete and Dr. Patty J. García, both successful leaders of global health in their own right.

After noticing a disheartening lack of biomedical engineering in Kenya, Madete realized the necessity of applying her scientific experience to advancing biomedical adoption within sub-Saharan Africa. She is now a senior lecturer and researcher at Kenyatta University, where she leads education efforts in engineering to connect with students, lecturers, scientists, and industry all across Africa.

*Dr. García presenting as a Keynote Speaker*

García has also dedicated her career to advancing global health, but through a more public policy perspective. As the former Minister of Health in Peru and former Chief of the Peruvian National Institute of Health, García worked to translate critical biomedical research into real-world applications across Peru and Latin America. Her work to improve research on and the quality of health services surrounding reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections has worked to improve the safety and well-being of critical communities and vulnerable populations.

As the keynote speakers, Madete and García shared their distinct journeys across opposite sides of the globe, each grounded in a common goal to advance the well-being of underserved communities through global health innovation and education. Altogether, the students, speakers, and supporters at this year’s Rice360 competition demonstrated that meaningful change is already in motion, driven by hope for a healthier, more equitable world.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is photograd.png — *By Monona Zhou, Class of 2028*

How Changes in Lemur Brains Made Some Mean Girls Nice

By Robin Smith

On April 21, 2025

In Animals, Lemurs, Neuroscience

If there was a contest for biggest female bullies of the animal world, lemurs would be near the top of the list. In these distant primate cousins, it’s the ladies who call the shots, relying on physical aggression to get their way and keep males in line.

*Male and female blue-eyed black lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center. In these distant primate cousins, females get their way most of the time. Photo: David Haring.*

Not all lemur societies are built about female rule, however. In one branch of the lemur family tree, some species have evolved, within the last million years, to have a more harmonious relationship between the sexes.

Now, new findings suggest that this amiable shift in lemurs was at least partly driven by changes in the action of the “love hormone” oxytocin inside their brains. The research could shed light on how hormones influence behavior in humans and other animals.

In a study published in the journal Biology Letters, Duke University researchers studied seven closely related lemur species in the genus Eulemur, noting which ones had domineering females and which were more egalitarian.

Take blue-eyed black lemurs, for example. Females get first dibs on food and prime resting spots; smacking, biting and chasing the males to get their way.

Their behavior isn’t the fierce protectiveness of a mother defending her babies, said senior author Christine Drea, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke. Aggression in these females can be entirely unprovoked, simply to remind others who’s in charge.

“Males let females have priority access to whatever they want,” Drea said.

Others species, like the collared lemurs, are more peaceful and egalitarian, with males and females sharing equal status. “It’s more of an even playing field,” said first author Allie Schrock, who earned her Ph.D. in the Drea lab.

*Collared lemurs huddle at the Duke Lemur Center. Photo: David Haring*

The lemurs in the study died of natural causes some time ago, but their tissues live on, thanks to a bank of tissues from these endangered primates kept frozen at the Duke Lemur Center. Using an imaging technique called autoradiography, the researchers mapped brain binding sites for oxytocin, a hormone involved in social behaviors like trust and bonding.

The results revealed a striking pattern.

The researchers found that the more recently evolved egalitarian species had more oxytocin receptors than the others, essentially giving them more targets for oxytocin to act on.

The key difference was in the amygdala, a region of the brain typically associated with emotions such as fear, anxiety and anger.

The pattern held up for both sexes, suggesting that egalitarian species achieved gender parity by becoming less aggressive towards others overall, rather than males ramping up their aggression to match their female counterparts, Drea said.

*In these cross-sectional images of two lemur brains, arrows show oxytocin binding in the amygdala in domineering and egalitarian species. Courtesy: Allie Schrock, Duke University*

The potential implications go beyond lemurs, the researchers said. Problems with oxytocin signaling in the brain have been linked to aggression, personality disorders and autism in humans, rodents and other animals.

Next, the researchers plan to examine links between hormone receptors and additional aspects of social behavior in lemurs, such as whether they are solitary or social.

“There’s a lot more that we can learn from lemurs about how the brain regulates behavior,” Schrock said.

CITATION: “Neuropeptide Receptor Distributions in Male and Female Eulemur Vary Between Female-Dominant and Egalitarian Species,” Allie E. Schrock, Mia R. Grossman, Nicholas M. Grebe, Annika Sharma, Sara M. Freeman, Michelle C. Palumbo, Karen L. Bales, Heather B. Patisaul and Christine M. Drea. Biology Letters, March 19, 2025. DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2024.0647

By Robin Smith, Duke Marketing and Communications

Roots and Resilience: Students Document Climate Change in Durham

On April 21, 2025

In Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, History, Humanities, Policy, Students

On Thursday, April 17, students from Duke’s course Climate, Culture and Identity held a screening for their documentary shorts focusing on how climate change has been impacting Durham and nearby communities. Led by Duke professors Saskia Cornes and Lauren Henschel, the class produced intellectually stimulating and inspirational documentary shorts.

Students in Climate, Culture and Identity. *Photo Credit: Shaun King, Duke*

“These are people who have never made films before,” said Cornes, an assistant professor of the practice of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and program director of the Duke Campus Farm. “They’ve spent a lot of time thinking with really complicated texts, with works of poetry, a lot of really heavy critical theory, films, and documentaries,” pointing to the rows of both butterfly-bellied and proud students waiting to share their work with us.

Henschel, Instructor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, director of Doc+ at Duke Center for Documentary Studies and a Duke alumna, added that “These films are more than assignments. They are meaningful contributions to an ongoing conversation. They expand what it means to do climate work by bringing academic ideas into dialogue with real lives, real communities and real urgency.” She also said, “Just 14 weeks ago, the students didn’t even know they’d be making a film in this course” for which they used nothing but their own phones and the help of their professors.

From left to right: Lauren Henschel and Saskia Cornes. *Photo Credit: Shaun King*, *Duke*

The four films featured in the screening were “The Roots of Environmental Justice: Legacy & Origins in Warren County,” made by students Laura Cai, Durga Sreenivasan and Audie Waller; “Where Justice Grows: Food, Care, and Collective Sustainability,” made by students Alayna Binder, Annie Carey and Bella Vieser; “Sowing Seeds of Conversation: Navigating the History of the Duke Campus Farm,” made by students Hunter Habersaat, Ilakkiya Senthilkumar and Jennifer Yoon, and “From the Holler to the Sea, I’ve Got You and You’ve Got Me,” made by students Reesey du Pont, Lilah Gorfain and Beatrice Ghosn. Two films stood out to me.

Audience watching student film, “The Roots of Environmental Justice: Legacy & Origins in Warren County.” *Photo Credit: Shaun King, Duke*

“Sowing Seeds of Conversation: Navigating the History of the Duke Campus Farm”

Shot at the Duke Campus Farm, this documentary short seeks to stitch together the joy of caring for the land at the Duke Campus Farm, and the muddied past of the area where the farm sits, in order to paint a complete picture of what the Duke Campus Farm means to its community. The students who created the film brought multiple perspectives forward, including conservationists, student volunteers, and Duke professors, intertwining these interviews with shots capturing the beauty of the farm.

The Duke Campus Farm is a place for many volunteers and workers to find peace and joy from nourishing. However, it is unclear if the farm sits upon land that once was plantation land where enslaved peoples were forced to work. As a result, the farm offers Duke students a chance to tend to soil marked by generations of violence, while also recognizing their place within a broader institution that has historically harmed marginalized communities. “That is what we want to highlight in our film, that you are doing something by being an active member of your community, and it matters,” said Yoon, who is studying biology at Duke. “You might just think this film is just a class project, but it’s really not because it’s making people’s voices heard and telling the story of the farm and how that affects people in Durham and whoever goes to volunteer.”

From left to right: Jennifer Yoon, Hunter Habersaat, and Ilakkiya Senthilkumar. *Photo Credit: Shaun King, Duke*

It is clear that these students were not afraid to tackle difficult topics, emphasizing the need to research the land’s unclear history so that Duke can acknowledge and implement it into the story of the Duke Campus Farm.

“From the Holler to the Sea, I’ve Got You and You’ve Got Me“

This documentary short focuses on Triangle Mutual Aid, a Research Triangle-based community-led initiative that supported Western North Carolina after the horrific destruction of Hurricane Helene.

Triangle Mutual Aid was quick to offer support, organizing the collection and delivery of supplies just days after the hurricane hit. However, none of this would have been possible without the caring people of Durham, who were promptly donating what they could to Triangle Mutual Aid’s drop-off locations.

The short emphasizes the difference between Mutual Aid and charity work. For one, Mutual Aid does not rely on a hierarchical power; anyone who wants to volunteer is appreciated, respected, and welcome to the community. Additionally, Triangle Mutual Aid prioritizes the relationships between those involved and the community, contributing to a better world, all while relying on the needs and desires of a community and the extent of help the volunteers can provide.

“I think a lot of times when you see pieces in the news after the devastation of hurricane Helene, or environmental disasters, you might see the words and maybe you start to absorb the words of folks, but to see them [the volunteers] on screen has a different effect for you as a viewer,” said Duke student Reesey du Pont, who is studying International Comparative Studies and Public Policy.

From left to right: Beatrice Ghosn, Lilah Gorfain, Reesey du Pont, and Lauren Henschel. *Photo Credit: Shaun King, Duke*

As someone from Asheville who saw the devastation of Helene affect my own community, family, and friends, getting to see the faces of those in the Durham community who were so responsive in the wake of the destruction made me feel grateful to be a part of this giving community.

Getting the opportunity to watch all four amazing documentary shorts was truly a pleasure. The students wove together the STEM world of environmental science and conservation and the humanities world of culture and documentary studies seamlessly, showing their true dedication to telling the stories of those involved in the Durham community. It is also clear how much the students look up to their professors, Saskia Cornes and Lauren Henschel, thanking them many times for all their help and guidance throughout the semester.

I hope that we all can learn from these documentary shorts and approach our lives as Durham residents differently, integrating ourselves into the generous community more while acknowledging the history of where we stand.

Sarah Pusser Class of 2028

Posters Galore and More: Undergraduate Research in the Spotlight

On April 14, 2025

In Animals, Global Health, Medicine

Biomedical engineering. Climate science. Political science. Global Health.

While these departments are housed in buildings far from each other on campus, their current research was all spotlighted at the Duke Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 10. Over the course of two hours, 120 budding researchers presented their work in Penn Pavilion, eagerly chatting with peers, faculty, and community members alike.

Presenters, friends, and community members gathered in Penn Pavilion to hear opening remarks from the Undergraduate Research Support Office’s director.

The level of professionalism was obvious upon a glance at the poster titles. The symposium was strongly represented by the biomedical and health sciences; hence, membrane receptors and transport proteins bearing combinations of letters and numbers populated the majority of posters. However, many projects shared findings unrelated to enzymes or transgenic models: posters investigating “The Undocumented Republican Latino Vote” and “Palimpsest and Identity in Hong Kong” attracted as much attention.

I began my journey by talking to Eduardo Fadul Chavez, a junior who is researching chemistry. He gave me an invigorating talk on Nedd4 E3 ligase ligands (a field I admittedly have no background knowledge in). What was greatly appealing about his presentation was his focus on the relevance and impact of his team’s work, especially in innovating treatments for Parkinson’s and other cancers. “Yes, we hope to apply our findings from a pharmacological perspective,” Chavez said. “Nedd4 plays an important role in Parkinson’s disease, so figuring out how to inhibit its activity can greatly inform therapeutic development.”

Chavez’s poster on his work on Nedd4 ligase ligands, which play a role in Parkinson’s disease.

After this inspiring talk aiming to improve health and cure ailments from a biological perspective, I wandered around in search of a project looking into the sociocultural perspective. Walking across the room, I encountered Austin Brown and his colleagues presenting their work with the Help Desk.

“The Help Desk is a student-led initiative seeking to tackle social determinants of health,” Brown told me. The organization began as a Bass Connections project and has since attracted hundreds of student volunteers. Currently, about 50 volunteers work across three sites: the Duke Hospital Emergency Department, the Duke Endocrinology Clinic, and the Lincoln Community Health Center. “If patients screen positive on the background survey provided, our community resource navigators will provide support by connecting them with local organizations and follow up after the appointment to ensure they are doing well.”

The Help Desk has reached more than 3,200 patients since its inception, Brown said. Maintaining communication with patients after the initial meeting or appointment can be tricky, however. “Our biggest barrier is retention and keeping the channels of contact open,” Brown said.

By this point, I was already amazed by the depth and impact of my peers’ research. I was only more impressed when I came across the poster of Millie Evonlah, who presented on the impact of paternal cannabis consumption on adolescent offspring glutamatergic and cholinergic systems. Given the rise in recreational marijuana usage and legalization, there is a great need to study the impact of men’s usage, particularly intermittent usage, on their children’s brain regions regulating immune and cognitive function.

Evonlah in front of her poster on paternal cannabis exposure effects on adolescent offspring

“We hypothesized that there would be different expression results and responses between male and female offspring,” Evonlah said, “and our findings support this claim.” While there was decreased glutamatergic expression in the CA3 hippocampal region in both male and female offspring, males and females experienced increased acetylcholine expression in different brain regions. Additionally, only the “weekenders,” or animal subjects who partook in intermittent cannabis exposure, imparted significant biological alterations in their offspring’s brains.

All these presentations were inspiring to listen to, and selecting the few to cover in detail was a difficult task. However, I would be amiss not to mention a few other invigorating presentations I listened to. For instance, Michael Wang, who studied GRK-2 mediated regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the ischemic heart, and I had a lengthy conversation about daily research activities and cell culturing principles. I also had a spirited discussion with Madeline Morrison and her co-presenters, who talked about their experiences conducting fieldwork in Roatán, Honduras, and their perspectives on the importance of global health research.

After two hours of interacting with student researchers, it was clear to me that Duke’s research efforts indeed transform, improve, and save lives. The undergraduate student body’s collective desire to pursue scientific discovery, clinical innovation, and sociocultural advancement is a motivating force that cannot be understated.

In this season, let us all spring into research!

Could Restoring Forests Reduce Disease Risk? A Case Study of Hantavirus in Madagascar

On April 8, 2025

In Animals, Anthropology, Biology, Environment/Sustainability, Field Research, Global Health, Guest Post

Forests and farmland meet in the SAVA region of northern Madagascar. New research suggests that wildlife-human interactions in such areas could spread disease. Credit: James Herrera, Duke Lemur Center

COVID-19 continues to plague us, Mpox is an emerging global threat, and the avian flu is decimating industrial poultry as well as endangered wildlife. What do all these epidemics have in common? They originated in wild animals and spread to domestic animals and people.

This pattern of spread is a trademark of many diseases, termed zoonoses or zoonotic diseases. Our new research shows that in rural settings of Madagascar where forested landscapes were converted to agriculture and settlements, the potential transmission of a deadly virus, Hantavirus, is likely facilitated by invasive rodents, especially the black rat. Also responsible for cyclically occurring plague events in Madagascar, the black rats could be transmitting multiple diseases to people in rural communities, based on our studies.

The work was published April 7 in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

*People can get Hantavirus from the droppings or urine of rodents like rats and mice*. *Credit: Wikimedia Commons*

Hantavirus is mainly spread from rodents to people via exposure to their urine and feces in the environment, and being bitten. It can cause severe and deadly disease of the lungs and kidneys, resulting in fever, fatigue, aches and pains, followed later by coughing, shortness of breath, and fluid in the lungs, causing death in almost 40% of people who experience later-stage symptoms. In rural settings like in Madagascar, there are no tests available to diagnose Hantavirus, and the generalized symptoms are often confused for influenza or other diseases. With no specific treatment, either, Hantavirus is an important, though neglected, zoonotic pathogen.

This research, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation, as well as Duke University, connects scientists from around the world with diverse specialties, including field biology, infectious disease epidemiology, social sciences, veterinary health, and more. Over the last eight years, our international and interdisciplinary team studied zoonotic pathogens in wildlife, domestic animals, and people. We compare how pathogens vary among different animals and in different landscapes.

*Herrera and Malagasy student Tamby Ranaivoson check local mammals for pathogens.*

There are more than 29 species of small mammals and another 12 species of bats in these wildlife communities, including native rodents and animals that look like hedgehogs and shrews but are a unique group from Madagascar, the tenrecs. There are also ubiquitous introduced mammals, including black rats, the house mouse, and the shrew, which have spread around the world wherever almost everywhere people go. We studied natural, pristine rainforests and compared to different features of the agroecosystem including regenerating forests, agroforests, and rice fields. We captured rodents and shrews in people’s households, as well, to compare how small mammals and zoonotic pathogens change over this gradient of human land use.

Our results show that black rats were the only species in our system that were infected with Hantavirus, with 10% of sampled individuals infected. Rat abundance and infection were higher in agricultural settings, including rice fields and agroforests, where rats were larger. While some rats in people’s homes were infected, no infected individuals were found in the more mature forests. Hantavirus infection was lower in the homes than in the agricultural fields, but exposure to infected rats is likely higher in homes because of the close contact in enclosed settings. The results highlight how infectious disease risk varies across the landscape because of complex impacts of human land use on natural ecosystems.

The Hantavirus results closely mirror those our team have shown for other disease-causing emerging pathogens, including Astroviruses and Leptospira. Rats and the house mouse were the most commonly infected species, and in the case of Astrovirus, only a single individual of a native species was infected. While Astrovirus infection was more common in the regenerating scrubby environments, Leptospira infection was most common in seasonally flooded rice fields. These varying landscapes of disease risk have important implications for the emergence of zoonotic diseases as well as applications to policy for public health.

Preserving natural forest and facilitating the regeneration of transformed forests may decrease disease risk because infected individuals were rarely captured in natural forests. This may be because there are natural predators to keep rodent populations in check, though further research is needed. Calls to eradicate black rat populations have seldom been successful, but through nature-based solutions like restoration to encourage natural predators, it may be possible to decrease abundance of nuisance rodents. Awareness-raising campaigns to teach about the signs and symptoms of common rodent-borne diseases for rural communities will also be rolled out, and encouraging local health care workers to check for these symptoms in the community members they serve.

We share our results with the Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, and will be organizing more think-tank meetings with relevant actors to co-design intervention strategies that can address these potentially emerging threats to human well-being.

By James Herrera, Ph.D., Duke Lemur Center SAVA Conservation Initiative

College basketball can be hard to predict. That didn’t stop these student data whizzes from trying

By Robin Smith

On April 8, 2025

In Computers/Technology, Data, Statistics

Blue Devils fans are still making sense of Duke’s stunning late-game loss to Houston in what was a wild Final Four game.

But for some fans of men’s college hoops, predicting this season’s nail-biters, closest contests — and even the biggest blowouts — was a worthwhile competition in itself.

The Blue Devils during the 2025 ACC men’s basketball regular season matchup against UNC on March 8. Credit: Duke Athletics

In the first-ever Triangle Sports Analytics competition, 15 teams of undergraduates and master’s students from Duke, UNC and NC State competed to make predictions about the 2024/25 ACC basketball season, and in a way most armchair fans don’t — using data science.

For these contestants, it wasn’t just a question of which teams would survive and advance.

The idea was to predict not only who would win, but by how much. That number is called the point spread. Anyone who wanted to compete had to submit, back in January, their point spread predictions for each of the remaining regular season games involving any one of the three Triangle teams. Everything from the razor-thin margins to the landslides. The winners were the ones whose predictions most closely mirrored the results.

They also had to come up with a confidence interval for their spreads, based on probability and the data at their disposal. In a nutshell, it’s a way to show how reliable their estimates were by saying, “we’re pretty sure the real margin of victory is somewhere between X and Y.” Teams that predicted the point spreads more accurately were given an edge.

“Predicting results weeks or months in advance is a really difficult task,” said Duke statistical science professor Alexander Fisher, who co-led the competition together with professors Mario Giacomazzo of UNC and Elijah Meyer of NCSU.

You don’t need to be an expert coder to enter. “We have some tutorials and resources to get you started, even if you have little to no experience programming,” Fisher said.

“The two skills that are really emphasized in a competition like this are data wrangling ability and model building,” he added. And while data skills are important, it’s just as critical to “love the game and be creative.”

One student who used his passion for the game and penchant for data crunching to test his mettle was Chris Johnson ’25, a senior majoring in economics.

“I’ve been watching college basketball since I was a kid,” Johnson said. “March Madness is my favorite time of year.”

To make his predictions, Johnson used Barttorvik.com, a website that contains a wealth of college basketball data. He built a model in Python that took into account statistics on each team’s offensive prowess and defensive strength, along with the pace at which they tend to play. Using these, he was able to estimate the final points for each team and calculate the point spread from there.

What started out as a fun side project will soon become a day job for this Duke student. Chris Johnson was the first place winner in the first-ever Triangle Sports Analytics competition, and will be starting a job as a data analyst with DraftKings this summer.

Of course, data and statistics can only capture so much of what makes basketball exciting — the unquantifiable human element also plays a role. Factors such as injuries and roster shifts can also have a significant impact on the outcome of a game, but they’re hard to anticipate in advance, Johnson said.

This year, the top three teams in the Triangle Sports Analytics competition were all from Duke. “I think we had a pretty sweeping victory this year,” Fisher said.

There’s no prize money; “this was just a ‘do it for the glory’ competition,” Fisher said.

“Bragging rights are really important,” said Dillan Sant, co-president of the Duke Sports Analytics Club, in a workshop he and co-president Anmol Sapru hosted to help students prepare for the competition.

Johnson finished first in this year’s contest, which didn’t include the NCAA tournament. So what was his reaction to Duke’s loss in the Final Four?

“The ending was definitely surprising,” said Johnson, who will be going on to a career in sports analytics after graduation, working as a data analyst for DraftKings.

“Any statistical model would tell you that Duke had more than a 90% chance of winning going into the final two minutes,” Johnson said.

“Pretty sad being a Duke fan, but it’s also part of the craziness and unpredictability that makes college basketball fun in the first place,” he added.

So Much More Than Growing Plants: Gardening as a Practice of Reclamation, Identity and Legacy

On April 7, 2025

In Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, History

“The Garden is a healer… that’s just a fact.”

“When people come into my garden they see me.”

“The people in charge are not the ones that look like us.”

These were just a few of the powerful truths shared during the African American Legacy in Gardening and Horticulture Symposium on Saturday, March 29. In a space filled with stories, resistance and regeneration, I witnessed how gardening is much more than cultivation– it’s reclamation, identity and legacy.

Organized by the North Carolina Botanical Gardens, Durham County Library, Sarah P. Duke Gardens, and other community partners, the symposium brought together community members, horticulturalists, scholars, leaders and activists to exchange knowledge and experience. The day featured three rich sessions, each exploring different aspects of African American connections to land history and healing.

The Wisdom of Trees: Urban Forestry and Black Land Ownership in the Subaltern South

The first session explored the deeply rooted issues of Black land ownership, forestry, and land expression in the South. Moderated by Darrell Stover of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University, the panel featured a series of powerful and passionate leaders and practitioners: Alton Perry, Director of the Roanoke Cooperative’s Sustaining Forestry and Land retention Project; Tyrone Williams, a third-generation landowner and nationally recognized tree farmer; and Michael Gibson, an internationally recognized topiary and property artist.

Gibson kicked off the discussion by reflecting on his personal relationship with nature. Beginning with simple yard work at just seven years old, he described how “what [he] thought was just a chore turned into a passion.” His words echoed a common theme among the panelists– many found healing and direction through their connection to forestry and the land.

Perry soon turned the conversation in a structural direction, detailing what it was like to be among the mere 4% of men in forestry who are African American. He explained how it was this disparity that motivated his work to support other Black landowners in managing their forest land and to “give them the empowerment to know their land matters.”

Williams shared similar sentiments as he described his journey towards making a name for himself within the field. He spoke of the significance of being part of the African American Tree Farm System and the importance of awareness within the community. “Everyone deserves to have beautiful stands of trees on their property,” he said, underscoring the need for both visibility and access in environmental spaces.

(From L to R: Darrell Stover, Michael Gibson, Tyrone Williams, and Alton Perry)

Black Roots in Gardening and Horticulture

The second session shifted from land to legacy, highlighting the power of storytelling, passion, and tradition in gardening and horticulture. In this conversation, gardens went beyond physical spaces and served as personal and cultural archives.

This session was moderated by Grammy Award-winning vocalist and founding member of the Earthseed Land Cooperative, Justin Robinson. The session brought together a group of incredibly talented and dynamic voices including: Wambui Ippolito, founding principal of Wambui designs; Derek Haynes, affectionately known as the “Chocolate Botanist,” a botanist with a vibrant social media presence; and Teri Speight, the author of the “Urban Garden” and “Black Flora.”

The conversation was heavily centered on African American influences in gardening and horticulture. Speight began the conversation, detailing her initial inspiration for gardening. She explained how the hydrangea served as a manifestation of a love for nature and work in the gardens, instilled by her parents. She further explained how the “bloom is endless,” amplifying the ways in which gardening spans across generations.

Following this, the conversation shifted into the inspirations held in gardening. Ippolito said what inspires her is “anything unspoiled by human hands.” She went on to explain how we often forget the ways that we are innately wired to perceive and appreciate natural landscapes—something she believes we must consciously reconnect with.

Haynes shared a key lesson that gardening has taught him: patience. He acknowledged how failure sometimes is inevitable, but clarified that patience allows him to recognize that his efforts “weren’t in vain.” Instead, he views each setback as a chance to “learn and process” making growth–both personal and botanical–possible.

(From L to R Justin Robinson, Wambui Ippolito, Derek Haynes, and Teri Speight)

Reclaiming Our Narratives: Amplifying Black Voices in Environmental Literature and Media

The final session shifted to focus on the deeply rooted relationship between African Americans and the natural world– despite long-standing narratives suggesting otherwise. This session was moderated by Dr. Zelda Lockhart, a writer, musician, and teacher. The session brought together a powerful group of thinkers and creators such as Dr. Jarvis McInnis, an Associate Professor of English at Duke University, and Dr. Chérie Rivers, an Associate Professor of Geography and Environment at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

The conversation was centered on reclamation—of memory, space, and identity. Professor Rivers offered powerful insight that drew from Ross Gay’s “Inciting Joy” to reflect on the role of stories as seeds carried by our ancestors through every path of life. She described how we each hold stories someone saved for us, meant to nourish and grow our narratives again and again. She emphasized how these narratives are rooted in love and reflected through storytelling and conversation. For Rivers, education expands the repertoire of what we are capable of loving, and it is through education that she sees the most potential for transmitting and sharing these vital stories. “If we believe we are in a garden to sustain life then we will enact truth,” Rivers said.

McInnis challenged the notion that Black communities are disconnected from nature, emphasizing how stories and landscapes serve as bridges between past and present. He described this by pointing to literary traditions that capture Black ecological thought, reminding us that “it’s about beauty.” For McInnis, reclaiming the therapeutic nature of the land is deeply personal. He spoke of the desire to touch soil, to feel deeply connected, and to follow one’s intuition—acts that affirm both presence and belonging in the natural world.

(From L to R: Dr. Zelda Lockhart, Dr. Chérie Rivers, and Dr. Jarvis McInnis)

In tracing the land, legacy and storytelling, these conversations highlight how gardening goes beyond its physical act– it is a cultural practice, a form of resistance, and a path towards healing. For many African Americans, reclaiming connections to the Earth is not simply about growing plants, but nurturing memory, identity and community. Through these narratives, we are able to see that a garden is not only a site of cultivation, but also of restoration, power, and possibility.

*Post by Gabrielle Douglas, Class of 2027*

How Churches and Communities Are Teaming Up for Climate Resilience

By Noor Nazir

On April 5, 2025

In Climate/Global Change, Religion

As record-breaking heat waves spread across the nation, a new movement is rising.

Houses of worship have long served as anchors during times of crisis. Now, they’re becoming hubs for climate resilience.

At a March 27 gathering in Duke’s Goodson Chapel, faith leaders, organizers, and energy advocates—Pastor Neil Bernard (New Wine Christian Fellowship), Angella Dunston (Warren County Environmental Action Team), and Reverend Leo Woodberry (Kingdom Living Temple and New Alpha Community Development)—came together to discuss powerful initiatives, from solar-powered sanctuaries in Louisiana to grassroots environmental justice campaigns in North Carolina.

The message was clear: no one can do this alone. But together, we can do everything.

Bernard, pastor of a congregation in Louisiana’s St. John the Baptist Parish—one of the most disaster-prone areas in the U.S., opened the evening with urgency and vision. He recalled when Hurricane Ida hit the Bayou State in 2021, and reflected on the death toll from extreme heat. But then he spoke of hope: Community Lighthouses—solar-powered hubs anchored in houses of worship, built to offer electricity and refuge in times of need.

“Right now, we have 19. But the goal is one in every vulnerable community,” Bernard said, his voice rising. “When everyone has power—we have power.” His words weren’t just about electricity. They were about collective strength. Heads nodded. The room hummed in agreement.

These lighthouses didn’t materialize from one church alone—they were born from partnerships across city agencies, utilities, organizers, and faith groups. That’s the model. He said, “The power of teamwork is what makes the dream work.”

Duke’s Ashley Ward (L to R) hosts a panel with Pastor Neil Bernard (New Wine Christian Fellowship), Angella Dunston (Warren County Environmental Action Team), and Reverend Leo Woodberry (Kingdom Living Temple and New Alpha Community Development). Photo by Ashley Stephenson

Woodberry reminded the audience, his voice echoing through the chapel, “Jesus said, I give you power.” He added, “The most common way people give up their power is by believing they don’t have any.” These lighthouses are more than climate infrastructure—they are spiritual anchors grounded in the belief that resilience is holy work.

He argued that religious institutions are America’s greatest untapped asset. “They own land, buildings, communication tools—and they reach more people than any NGO,” he said. “If we fail to activate them, we leave the door open for exploitation.”

These institutions already know how to organize. They’ve been here before.

Dunston, an energy cooperative leader and longtime community advocate, brought the room back to the 1980s in Warren County, North Carolina. When state officials decided to dump toxic soil in her majority-Black neighborhood, the fight started not in courtrooms—but in her church.

“It was the women of our church who stood up,” she said, her voice ringing clear. “We don’t get the acknowledgment, but we do it anyway.”

Faith-based organizations have long played a vital role in responding to crises in our region, experts say. The conversation was part of Duke’s Cooling Communities project advancing community-driven solutions to extreme heat. Photo by Ashley Stephenson

The landfill closed permanently in 2003, but the damage—rising illness, distrust—remains. Still, Dunston has never stopped advocating. Today, she fights utility bills as high as $800 a month in the same communities. Her faith grounds her work, but she also knows that faith alone isn’t enough.

“If policy isn’t working for us, how do we organize our churches and communities?” she asked. “We must fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.”

Dunston stressed the need for partnerships—with government, scientists, and especially universities. Duke University students, for example, have supported advocacy efforts in Warren County. But she noted that faith communities won’t accept help from institutions they don’t trust. “Build relationships before the next crisis,” she urged. “We need data, yes—but we need trust more. Move at the speed of trust.”

The panel left me with an urge to offer this as a call to action: If you’re part of a faith institution, ask yourself—is your house of worship ready to become a community lighthouse? According to them, the climate crisis isn’t coming—it’s here. And the time to act, together, is now.

How the Humanities Helped This Duke Grad Become the Doctor She Hoped to Be

On March 28, 2025

In Humanities, Medicine

“I see you, you see me, I trust you to know me.”

This phrase was one of many that underscored the powerful testimony Dr. Jennifer Hong, Massachusetts General Hospital physician and Duke alumna, shared on March 23 in a talk on West Campus. Invited by Duke’s Humanities in Medicine club, Hong spoke eloquently about the importance of humanities in medicine, leaning on her undergraduate experience as an English/Neuroscience pre-med and her medical training. Her moving stories about patients and her perspective on the American medical system captivated the entire audience.

Dr. Jennifer Hong (‘14), MGM primary care physician and Duke alumna

Hong opened her discussion by underscoring the power of language—and the potential of wielding narrative writing as a “weapon of resistance.” She shared how, as an undergrad, her most memorable, impactful academic lessons were ones in the English realm, where she explored how historical narratives of female physicians revealed the pervasive patriarchy underlying medicine. Hong reflected that the skills required to be an adept doctor are much akin to those needed to write a good essay: one must be able to relate to people and experiences that are very different from one’s own.

To back up her claim, Hong shared a story from her early days of residency. One day, she and her team were overwhelmed by two Code Blues—the highest level of medical alerts—and a rapid response, which she was handling alone. As a slew of medical professionals rushed into the patient’s room, Hong noted that the patient and her partner had no idea what was happening, as they spoke no English. Connecting with the patient’s son over the phone, Hong tried to explain to the best of her ability the situation and her perspective—the patient’s metastatic cancer prognosis would be best approached with comfort care, not more ventilators.

“You’re hurting them. Stop hurting them,” was the son’s short reply.

This was a landmark moment in Hong’s training, one she described as “shell shocking” and “demonstrating to people who want control that they have no control”. In a rapidly evolving environment where so many elements demand physicians’ attention, Hong notes that it’s incredibly easy to act in a way not aligned with one’s personal values. This foreshadowed one of her responses to a later question regarding what exercises or habits prospective medical students should adopt before stepping into graduate education: she suggested that students should periodically check in on their values and how they plan on upholding them.

The captivating lecture continued to include many remarks on the current state of medicine in America. As an aspiring pre-med student, I find it enlightening and disturbing to hear about the unignorable forces at work every day in physician offices and the hospital setting. Hong carefully described how, despite medicine being “the last frontier” where societal wrongs could be remedied and addressed, capitalist institutions, like private equity investors, are forging ahead with standardizing care and prioritizing profit in medical spaces. Yet, she reminded the audience that hope is present and what drives her work are the physician-patient relationships she treasures. She emphasized the presence of humanities education in medical work, highlighting the skills of translating between “medical speak and patient speak”, seeing human dignity in every patient, and telling patients’ case histories as narratives.

I cannot conclude this blog without mentioning the powerful story Hong shared before she finished her remarks. Since her years as a resident, Hong has frequently met with a patient suffering from numerous chronic illnesses. Despite his many struggles, he maintained a lively sense of humor, evoking joy from every small moment. He was regularly hospitalized, sometimes up to months in duration, and he leaned on Hong to tell his story—his illnesses, his past medication history, and his resilience—to his different care teams. This was what drove the “I see you, you see me, I trust you to know me” quote: in his weakest moments, the patient wanted Hong to tell his story instead of telling his own experiences.

The patient passed away last year. Shortly before his passing, he still messaged Hong, sharing pictures of his youth. This patient was surely not the healthiest of Hong’s patients, but he was among the most memorable and impactful. Even as an audience member, I cannot help but root and feel fondness for this patient.

In my humble opinion, what made this lecture so motivational was not Hong’s advice and encouragement to a room full of pre-meds but her skilled recounting of firsthand experiences. Her testimony is proof that the humanities are still critically valuable, especially in medicine, providing food for thought for Duke students.

Food, Health, and Environmental Justice Intertwine in Atlanta

On March 26, 2025

In Environment/Sustainability, Lecture, Medicine

Some researchers get hooked into a niche and spend their entire career specializing in it. Others, like Dr. Eri Saikawa, go wherever the research takes them. On February 28, the Emory University professor spoke about her broad experiences in environmental science for Duke’s Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program (ITEHP). Her research journey has hardly been restricted to any one subject–she’s modeled air pollution, investigated plastic burning, and tested alternatives to synthetic fertilizers that release excessive nitrogen. Yet, what I found most interesting was the work that occurred, and subsequent story that unfolded, just a half hour away from Emory in the Westside of Atlanta.

Within the U.S., areas of high food insecurity are predominantly located in the Southeast. By allowing residents to “adopt” vacant properties to create urban farms and gardens, the City of Atlanta has made efforts to increase access to local, fresh food through their AgLanta “Grows-A-Lot” program.

*Food Deserts in the US as defined by the USDA. US Department of Agriculture*

“We thought, that’s a great idea,” Saikawa said. But there was a potential issue. “Are you testing [the soil in] these places before you let people grow?”

As it turns out, the answer was no.

In a very ordinary looking lot, Saikawa found soil containing 430.9 parts per million (ppm) of lead, easily exceeding the EPA screening level of 400 ppm at the time (which has since been lowered to 200 ppm). Immediately concerned, she sought more testing.

In 2018, she and her team at Emory partnered with local organization Historic Westside Gardens to collect samples in both residential areas and community gardens. Most of these were located in Westside Atlanta, which is predominantly Black and low-income. Out of the 19 test sites, three contained lead beyond EPA screening levels and the majority exceeded the state gardening screening level of 75 ppm.

“What was very disheartening for us was that…one of [the three] was a children’s garden,” Saikawa said. While state and federal guidelines are subject to change throughout time, there is no safe level of lead for children.

How much was this impacting the neurological development of local kids? She couldn’t find the answers. “I realized that this is something that I, as a modeler…was not trained to do,” Saikawa said. “I thought that I would be simulating, and then telling the results as it happens in the model. I was not trained to talk to people about the real issue.”

Thus began a sort of pivot into more community-engaged work. Residents began bringing their own samples to be tested, many of which were rock pieces that contained roughly 3000 ppm of lead. They weren’t just rock, but slag–a waste product of smelting.

It was now evident how soil concentrations could’ve reached such levels. “After this…we actually went around the neighborhoods and we saw these everywhere…This was apparently dumped in the 50s or 60s, and they’ve been dealing with it without knowing that that’s what they have,” Saikawa said.

Sam Peters, one of Saikawa’s doctoral students at the time, reported it to the EPA. Now, a portion of Westside Atlanta is a Superfund site on the National Priorities List. Through further testing and investigation from the EPA, the site grew from an initial 60 properties to 2087, most of which exceed the 400 ppm threshold.

*Vine City and English Avenue are the main neighborhoods affected by the Superfund site. Westside Future Fund*

However, it’s not accurate to paint Westside as an environmental success story. Saikawa points out that the EPA cuts down trees on the site during the remediation process, increasing heat exposure to an already vulnerable population.

More importantly, many fear that gentrification will follow remediation, which often pushes out renters as the area opens up to development for the wealthier. As much as 40% of affected residents live below the poverty line. When community members have to weigh health with economic impact, the latter sometimes wins out. “One of the residents told me that the pushback to testing the soil in the Westside is because this happened 25 years ago as well…When that happened, people were displaced,” Saikawa said. For this reason, some have chosen not to have their soil tested.

Hesitance to testing also steps from mistrust build up over the years. Saikawa said, “A lot of research has been done on these underserved communities without providing the results back, and they were definitely being taken advantage of. And so when I say I’m from Emory, some people are like, why would I work with you?” This issue presented a challenge when they collected soil samples initially, and it presented a challenge as the Saikawa Lab and community organizations sought to increase blood testing for lead in children.

Beyond lead and contaminants in general, neighborhoods in Westside Atlanta face a far higher cumulative health risk. While these wicked problems evade easy solutions, it’s clear that addressing such issues will require deliberate engagement and collaboration on those most affected. “[Community partners] have taught me a lot…So if anybody is interested in working in the community, like community-based participatory work, it’s really hard now. But I do encourage you to do that,” Saikawa said.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

The Imperfect Ways of a Perfectionist

On March 18, 2025

In Behavior/Psychology, Faculty, Field Research, Neuroscience

Perfectionism, although a way to control our surroundings, can often control us. As a student in the stressful and competitive environment of college, I’ve seen the pursuit of perfection overwhelm me and those around me. These incidents caught the attention of Duke psychiatry and behavioral science professors Nancy Zucker and Rachel Alison Adcock. The two decided to do an in-depth study of perfectionism, and how perfectionists can better handle their stress and be more productive.

Photo credits: *Halyna Dorozhynska* via Canva

When first trying to measure perfectionism, Zucker and Adcock found that “…the core essence of perfectionism was the sphere of failure,” meaning that out of everyone they studied, the majority of participants tended to be pushed to perfectionism because of a fear of failing. Given this, Zucker and Adcock were able to show a correlation between one’s concern over mistakes and their anxiety, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms.

Rachel Alison Adcock, M.D., Ph.D., and Nancy Zucker, Ph.D. *Credit: Duke*

Even with these correlations being present, “If given the choice between being a perfectionist and not being a perfectionist, 62.5% [of perfectionists] would choose to stay.” This means that in order to better support perfectionists in their everyday lives, Zucker and Adcock had to find ways to support perfectionists without trying to change them–in other words, you can’t just tell perfectionists to not be perfectionists anymore. So together, they created four different solutions to help minimize the harm of perfectionism:

Solution 1: Increase resource

Zucker and Adcock note that this is usually advice given for better mental health; “Go do something fun. Hang out with your friends. Go do yoga…” While these tips can be helpful, Zucker and Adcock were more interested in the opposite side of the issue–how instead perfectionists can work on optimizing their demands

Solution 2: Defining demands

Again, Zucker and Adcock mention some limitations to this argument. It is not expected that perfectionists will reduce their standards–for example, “Duke. A slightly less than exceptional education, Duke Health. Slightly less than exceptional care.” Therefore this solution of defining demands relies on both the perfectionist and those in the position to assign work to the perfectionist. An example of this is a professor reevaluating the importance of the work they are assigning–does the work really need to be completed by this date? By ensuring the work assigned and completed “respect[s] our own resources, prioritize[s] stamina and [is] orient[ed] to growth and progress,” the standards of work become more realistic and achievable.

Solution 3: Change the reward value (and distress) of making mistakes via self-regulation

Through testing how individuals responded to high confidence versus low confidence errors (or in other words, individuals who confidently answer a question that is incorrect are more likely to remember the correct solution after being told than those who answer a question with low confidence and are incorrect), Zucker and Adcock found that “high perfectionism individuals are less sensitive to error than low perfectionism individuals” and “high perfectionism individuals are only sensitive to error after negative or positive framing.” This means that changing how perfectionists are made aware of their mistakes (showing them how mistakes are learning opportunities) can “increase perfectionists’ sensitivity to surprising feedback in updating beliefs,” and thus help those individuals learn from their mistakes better–so as to show how mistakes are crucial for learning.

Solution 4: Change reward value and distress of mistakes via social contingencies and milieu

Similar to solution three, solution four’s goal is to change the perception of mistakes, however, this solution proposes a change through group support instead of self-regulation. This could look like peer support groups for perfectionist individuals. Zucker and Adcock emphasize the importance of the message, “We are more than a single moment in time,” which can be beneficial for a perfectionist individual to hear from their trusted peers.

The importance of mistakes was a theme that continued to pop up throughout Zucker and Adcock’s presentation. And while that can seem cliche, it’s something that we as students, professors, and people, should listen to more (thanks to Zucker and Adcock, we’ve also seen how making mistakes is scientifically proven to teach us the correct answer).

As the researchers wrapped up their talk, they left us with one more quote that stuck with me. “We are in the pursuit of the unknown. Hope is medicine. Imperatives are not hope.”

In a place like college, where just one failure can feel like the end of the world, Zucker and Adcock’s research encourages us to grow comfortable with the unknown so that our mistakes too can be something to be proud of.

Sarah Pusser Class of 2028

Reimagining the Language Classroom

On March 3, 2025

In Lecture

“Language is being a effectiveest tool for political controls.” If that opening sentence made you cringe, you’re not alone. Many people instinctively react to “incorrect” grammar, but have you ever questioned why certain ways of speaking are deemed wrong? Who determines the rules, and who gets silenced in the process?

These are some of the questions that LJ Randolph is striving to answer. A professor in World Language Education at UW Madison, Randolph argues that his own “language journey influences the way [he] approaches work.”

In a recent talk in Rubenstein Library, he outlined his efforts to challenge traditional education methods, advocating for an approach that affirms all linguistic identities rather than policing them. “We exist in this world where we are bombarded by language ideologies.” This recognition has led him to approach language as not merely a technical skill to be corrected but as a political and social tool that shapes power structures. For Randolph, language is “an act of abolition, liberation, and joy.”

*Randolph in Duke’s Rubenstein Library.*

Randolph describes abolition not as simple reform but as a fundamental restructuring of harmful systems– including those embedded in language. He argues that dominant linguistic norms dictate whose language is considered valid and whose is not. For example, key features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), such as unique verb tenses – “I been did that”– are often dismissed as incorrect, despite their grammatical consistency within the dialect. Meanwhile, common errors in Standard American English, such as “Please speak to Jim or myself if you have any questions”, are rarely criticized in the same way. Randolph attributes this discrepancy to the way in which language is inherently political.

Randolph’s commitment to dismantling language policing is most evident in his classroom. He structures his teaching around the framework developed by Gholdy Muhammed, an associate professor of language and literacy at Georgia State University. Muhammed’s model, known as the “Five Pursuits,” focuses on Identity, Skill, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy as the key elements needed to foster an inclusive and empowering learning environment.

*Gholdy Muhammed’s book on the 5 Pursuits.*

Identity: Within his own classroom, Randolph uses identity to encourage students to reflect on their own linguistic identities. Through the use of “Can Do” statements, students explore how they understand themselves within different linguistic contexts. Additionally, students engage with texts by selecting passages that evoke strong reactions– such as joy, discomfort, and even curiosity.

Skill: In his classroom, language proficiency is also approached with flexibility. Randolph has his students select challenge levels based on their personal learning goals. Some of the activities that he has his students complete include summarizing passages into a single word, titling the sections of a text, and explaining the connection between key elements in passages.

Intellect: Additionally, Randolph works in discussions on what he refers to as translanguaging, which describes the practice of fluidly moving between languages and dialects. With this, students analyze examples and describe how and why translanguaging can appear within the real-world context.

Criticality: He also emphasizes the importance of developing intercultural communication skills within his students. To develop these skills he has his students create graphic organizers which seek to highlight the intersections between language, identity, and power structures.

Joy: Finally and arguably most importantly, Randolph aims to foster a sense of linguistic celebration among his students by encouraging them to create artistic pieces that highlight the joys of their communities. In these projects, students are able to incorporate their full linguistic repertoires allowing the idea that all forms of language have value to remain at the forefront.

Through centering abolition, liberation, and joy in language education, Randolph challenges the conventional approaches to teaching and learning languages. His work reveals that languages do more than serve as a means of communication– they shape identity, community, and access to power. He shows how rather than policing, students being empowered allows them to recognize the validity of all linguistic identities. Randolph’s methods align with what the classroom that author and activist Bell Hooks describes: “The classroom with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility.”

Protecting Your Work 101

By Noor Nazir

On March 3, 2025

In Entrepreneurship

A Disney star waves their wand, tracing three glowing circles in the air—Mickey Mouse’s head. With that Disney smile, they say, “You’re watching Disney Channel.”

Iconic, right? Instantly recognizable? Absolutely.

Protected? Without a doubt.

Disney holds patents on a variety of innovations—including fireworks that explode into specific shapes. Intellectual property (IP) protections like patents, trademarks and copyrights allow companies to safeguard their creative and technological ideas.

If you think you’ve just come up with the next big breakthrough, the first step isn’t just to celebrate and start working on it—it’s to patent it.

When Jodi Psoter, head of Duke’s Marine Lab Library and an expert in science research strategies, gave a talk on patents, she broke it down for people like me—someone who knew next to nothing about them.

Jodi Psoter, Head, Marine Lab Library and Librarian for Marine Science

Here’s what I learned:

What Are Patents?

A patent is a legal tool that grants inventors exclusive rights to their inventions for a set period. An important disclaimer, in Psoter’s words, “I wish I had a good meme for the fact that I am not a lawyer – and this is not legal advice.” As a science expert, however, she comprehensively laid out the essentials: what a patent is, how it differs from research articles, when to apply for one, and the steps to do so.

Protecting your work 101 broken down:

Patents protect inventions, such as a new chemical compound or a technological innovation.
Trademarks cover branding elements like logos and names (yes, Duke has one!).
Copyrights safeguard creative works, such as literature, music, and even game designs.

Patents vs Trade Secrets

In addition to patents, another key form of intellectual property protection is trade secrets. Unlike patents, which require public disclosure in exchange for exclusive rights, trade secrets protect valuable, confidential information that gives a company a competitive edge. Jodi Psoter highlighted Coca-Cola’s secret formula as a classic example—closely guarded and never patented to ensure indefinite protection. For something to qualify as a trade secret, three elements must apply:

1. It must have value by the fact that it is not known. If the information were public, it would lose its competitive advantage.

2. Others must want the information. If competitors could benefit from knowing it, it has economic significance.

3. Efforts must be taken to maintain its secrecy. Companies must actively safeguard trade secrets through confidentiality agreements, restricted access, and legal measures.

Unlike patents, which expire after a set period, trade secrets can last indefinitely—as long as they remain secret. If disclosed, whether intentionally or through a breach, they lose protection. This makes them a crucial but high-risk form of intellectual property for businesses aiming to maintain an advantage in their industry.

Similar to patenting, trade secrets are also a crucial step to possibly protect your future work!

Types of Patents

I’m no researcher, quite the opposite in fact. In the simplest terms, for you and me, here are the types of patents:

1. Utility Patents: They cover new processes, machines, or compositions of matter (this is what Disney has for their fireworks!).

2. Design Patents: They protect the visual appearance of a product (Nike, for example, has patented sneaker designs rather than the sneakers themselves).

3. Plant Patents: they apply to new plant varieties produced through asexual reproduction.

Patents must be novel and non-obvious. Psoter explained, “It has to be a new idea. It has to be non-obvious—‘not something where everyone just says, oh well, of course that can happen.’”

When Should You Protect Your Work?

As early as possible!

Psoter emphasized the importance of timing when it comes to patents: “If you show it to the public, that becomes public information, and then you won’t qualify for a patent in the U.S.” In other words, once an invention is fully disclosed—whether in a research paper, presentation, or casual conversation—it may no longer be patentable.

However, researchers often face a dilemma: How much can you publish while still securing a patent? The answer isn’t straightforward, and legal guidance is key. Psoter noted that lawyers can advise on striking the right balance—ensuring that enough information is shared for academic progress without compromising the ability to protect an invention.

If something can’t be patented, there may be alternative protections, such as trade secrets or copyrights. But for patentable innovations, securing rights early is critical to preventing others from capitalizing on your work.

Is Your Idea Already Patented? Find Out Early

Psoter recounted a personal experience: while making long drives to pick up her stepson, she brainstormed an app for finding clean bathrooms along the way—only to discover it already existed. This process, often called a prior art search, involves looking at existing patents to see if someone else has already claimed a similar innovation. The idea is to make sure your concept hasn’t already been patented or publicly disclosed, which would make it ineligible for protection.

“You have to check if your idea has already been patented,” she said, recommending Google Patents and databases like Derwent. She compared patent language to drug names: “Koosh ball? That’s ‘floppy filaments.’ If you look at a drug patent, it’ll be 21 letters long, but in the end, it turns out to be Tylenol.”

But looking for patents may not be that easy.

When searching for patents, using classification codes can be far more effective than relying on keywords alone. Every patent is assigned a specific classification number that categorizes it based on its function and design, helping researchers find related patents and track prior innovations. Jodi Psoter highlighted this through the example of the Beerbrella, a patented umbrella attachment for a beer bottle, classified under A45B11/00—which covers “umbrellas characterized by their shape or attachment.” Additional codes, like A47G23/00 for “other table equipment” and A45B17/00 for “tiltable umbrellas,” further refine the search. Using these classification numbers in Google Patents or Derwent allows researchers to uncover prior patents, identify competitors, and ensure their idea is truly novel before filing a patent application.

Final Thoughts: Why Protecting Your Work Matters

Whether it’s Disney securing its fireworks, Nike patenting sneaker designs, or researchers at Duke innovating in their fields, intellectual property protection is what turns ideas into assets.

Understanding patents, trade secrets, and copyrights isn’t just for corporations—it’s for anyone looking to protect their work, claim credit, and ensure that their innovations make an impact.

As Psoter emphasized, the key is acting early. If you have an idea that could change the world, don’t let it slip into the public domain before securing your rights.

So, next time inspiration strikes, celebrate the idea—but protect it first.

Think you may have an invention?

The Office for Translation and Commercialization helps Duke inventors with IP, startups, and more.

You can also check out Google Patents to explore existing patents.

Or visit the patent resources from Duke Libraries for additional guidance.

Nature On the Brain: Green Space, Cities and Depression

On March 1, 2025

In Behavior/Psychology, Engineering, Environment/Sustainability, Lecture, Neuroscience

Though I’ve yet to explore all of Duke’s nooks and crannies, I feel confident that my favorite corner of campus will always be the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Nature, and green space generally, is good for us as humans. Most of us understand this on an intuitive level, but what’s the underlying reason? How might it be built into our brains?

Psychology professor Marc G. Berman looks for the answers. At the University of Chicago, Berman directs the Environmental Neuroscience Lab, in which he investigates interactions between our brains and our physical surroundings. In a recent virtual Grand Rounds lecture in Duke’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Berman spoke about the broad scope of his research and its implications for a better society.

Attention Restoration Theory

Researchers have proposed various theories for why we love nature. For example, the biophilia hypothesis states that humans have an innate attraction to nature on a genetic and evolutionary basis. However, Berman is focused primarily on the Attention Restoration Theory, a concept he’s contributed to significantly. Under this theory, attention is split into two types: directed and involuntary.

The first type is finite––think about the amount of energy it takes you to deliberately concentrate on something. “The first five minutes of lecture, everybody’s very focused on me,” Berman said, using the example of his own classes. Forty-five minutes later, and people inevitably begin to nod off.

*Mingo Falls, North Carolina. Author photo*

On the other hand, involuntary attention is not really under our control and isn’t as susceptible to becoming drained. Within stimuli that capture our involuntary attention, some are softer or harsher than others, like a stream compared to flashing lights (the stream being a softer attention capture, which we call soft fascination).

The cornerstone of Attention Restoration Theory is that nature provides an ideal environment for the restoration of directed attention; full of “softly fascinating” features, it stimulates involuntary attention without placing demands on directed attention.

A Walk in the Park

Roughly 20 years ago while Berman was a researcher at the University of Michigan, he and his colleagues wanted to test out the Attention Restoration Theory. So, after asking study participants to perform a backwards digit span task (a test for memory that would require directed attention), they told them to take a walk. Participants were directed to either a route through downtown Ann Arbor, or through the Nichols Arboretum. Then another digit span test. A week later, they repeated the whole procedure, this time walking in the other environment. Interestingly, walking through the arboretum proved more beneficial for memory. “We see about a 20% improvement in this task after people go on this brief 50-minute walk in nature versus walking in the urban environment. So that’s pretty impressive,” Berman said.

Many of us wouldn’t be surprised by this–certainly, I know a walk in the Gardens on a pleasant day recharges my ability to focus. Time in green space and warm weather often lifts our moods, but they discovered that this cognitive benefit occurs regardless of how you feel afterwards. Walkers turned cranky from the winter cold demonstrated improvements on par with those who gladly embraced sunny weather in June.

Berman saw even more of a positive effect for the park-goers when repeating the study with participants diagnosed with depression, contrary to a concern that walks alone might induce rumination on negative thoughts.

Cities: Better Than You Think They Are

In the Environmental Neuroscience Lab, Berman and doctoral students look at everything from brief interactions with nature to the long-term effects of living in large cities. Given everything thus far, it would seem logical that the latter would be far worse for our brains than other environments. Yet, Berman found just the opposite.

As it turns out, cities are beneficial for our social connectivity. Since people tend to encounter each other more often in urban areas, an individual will likely develop more social connections on average. Prior neuroscience studies have connected a greater number of social relationships to protection against depression.

*Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, both in terms of population and metropolitan area*.

Based on this, the risk of depression might be aptly represented by an inverse model of the number of people in one’s social network. In other words, the more people you maintain contact with, the lower your risk. To test it, Berman and collaborators enlisted four different data sets regarding depression–including in-person interviews, phone interviews with personal demographics, and over 15 million tweets (converted via machine learning algorithms into a PH-Q depression inventory score). The results confirmed it. “What we see across all of these different data sets is that as cities get larger, you get less depression per capita,” he said.

“Many of us have this impression that in bigger cities like New York, like Chicago, like Los Angeles, people are not as friendly…but these results suggest the opposite,” Berman said. “It must be on average that those social interactions are positive in cities and that more is better.”

Designing Environments for Our Brains

Regarding the main conversation surrounding mental health, Berman said, “We often think about [depression] in terms of this individual scale…your genetic makeup, brain activity patterns, individual psychological patterns. Maybe things about your family. We don’t really think about your neighborhood and your city.”

Knowing what we do about nature and large social networks can ultimately help us improve mental health outcomes on a broad scale. These two factors might seem to work against each other, but they don’t have to. Ultimately, we need more green space everywhere, including in large cities. The benefits are undeniable–urban areas with more greenery consistently see less aggression and crime, even when adjusting for race, ethnicity and income.

In addition, cities tend to have a lot of harsh stimuli, but that doesn’t mean some features of urban environments can’t be potentially restorative. “We believe that certain environmental features can be designed to improve human performance and well-being, like incorporating more natural features or natural patterns in the environment, trying to figure out ways to increase social interactions,” Berman said. By mimicking aspects of nature like curved lines, we might be able to create “soft fascination” closer to home and reduce the different demands pulling on our attention.

Crystal Han, Class of 2028

“Flipping the Bird”: What do Audubon’s Paintings and England’s Crown Jewels Have in Common?

By Sophie Cox

On February 27, 2025

In Animals, Art, Computers/Technology, Environment/Sustainability, Responsible Conduct, Science Communication & Education

On the first Friday of each month, Duke Libraries will hold a “Flipping the Bird” event where members of the public can watch exhibit curators flip the pages of two of Audubon’s original “Birds of America” books.

At 12:15 PM on the first Friday of each month, you can watch Duke Libraries curators crank open a half-ton case made by the same company that designed the storage system for England’s Crown Jewels. Inside, protected by elaborate security features and carefully controlled temperature and light conditions, is a different collection of valuable, colorful items: Audubon’s “Birds of America” paintings.

“People love these birds for lots of different reasons,” said Duke Libraries Head of Exhibitions Meg Brown. The Audubon exhibit preserves and displays the birds while also raising awareness of Audubon’s complicated legacy as both a very talented artist and a deeply flawed man.

John James Audubon is one of ornithology’s most well known and most controversial figures. He painted 489 bird species with precision and accuracy, part of an ambitious and unfinished quest to paint every bird in America.

He also owned enslaved people, stole human skulls from indigenous burial sites, and held staunchly racist and anti-abolitionist beliefs.

Even in his own lifetime, Audubon’s “Birds of America” paintings were very valuable. They were sold in “subscriptions” in which patrons would receive paintings periodically as loose sheets and then have them bound themselves. The frequency ranged from weeks to years depending on the speed of Audubon’s work. Today, more than a century and a half after Audubon’s death, his paintings remain subjects of fascination, value, and beauty. One reason the paintings are so valuable is that each set is unique. Audubon used between 20 and 40 colorists who applied color to each print by hand, meaning different copies of the same painting may have slightly different colors.

Approximately 120 complete “Birds of America” sets survive today. “Typically a ‘set’ is all four volumes,” said Aaron Welborn, Duke Libraries Director of Communications. Duke owns “one complete set of four volumes,” two of which are on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room in Perkins. At the inaugural “Flipping the Bird” event earlier this month, Duke Libraries Head of Exhibitions Meg Brown spoke to visitors about what it takes to preserve and flip these fragile birds.

Head of Exhibitions Meg Brown and Exhibition Intern Grace Zayobi flip the pages of one of the two Audubon books on display in Duke Libraries.

The books are stored in glass and metal cases that weigh more than 1000 pounds according to Brown. The company that made these cases also made the glass under which England’s Crown Jewels are stored. The standard for the glass strength was that it had to be able to withstand 18 minutes of someone actively trying to break through.

The paintings are protected by another unusual security feature as well: “These won’t fit through any of our doors,” Brown said. The cases were brought in during library renovation, and their assembly was completed inside the library.

Duke acquired the collection from Margaret L. Barber, an art and antique collector who loaned items from her private collection for an exhibition in the Women’s College Library in 1931. Duke later purchased the “Birds of America” paintings from her. Originally all four were on display, but for preservation reasons only two are displayed at one time today.

Strips of Mylar—a soft, inert plastic—keep the open pages in place. Curators avoid putting the strips directly on the paintings, instead positioning them closer to the edges of the paper.

Preserving paintings from two centuries ago requires special care. Curators keep sheets of paper between the pages to prevent pigment from transferring to adjacent pages over time. And since watercolor is very sensitive to light exposure, the library uses strategically placed lamps to illuminate the pages without exposing them to bright light. (Specifically, they aim to keep ambient light under 6 foot candles.) UV light is particularly damaging. The exhibit is in an interior room that does not use UV lighting, but there is “one time of day, one time of year” when light streaming through the windows of Saladelia Cafe in Perkins Library can reach the Mary Duke Biddle Room, Brown explains, so the shades on the window facing the cafe are kept below the level that sunlight could reach.

Exhibit curators also monitor temperature and humidity using sensors in the glass cases. The two volumes not on display are kept in the library’s closed stacks, where the temperature is colder to help preserve the paintings. Every couple years the books on display are rotated out with those in the closed stacks.

From left: Yoon Kim, Senior Library Exhibition Technician; Meg Brown, Head of Exhibitions; and Grace Zayobi, Exhibition Intern.

Flipping such old and delicate pages is its own challenge. The display cases have a motorized system to lift the glass, allowing curators to flip the pages before sealing them inside again. The pages of the books on display are flipped once a month. The flipping used to happen when the exhibit was closed, but now any library visitor can witness the process themselves on the first Friday of each month, from 12:15-12:45 PM.

Yoon Kim and Grace Zayobi flipping the book from a page displaying raptors to a page showing the “Bachman’s Finch,” now known as the Bachman’s sparrow.

Though the Audubon exhibit is permanent, other exhibits in the space are temporary. A recent exhibit there has highlighted female scientific illustrators, including Maria Martin Bachman, who painted some of the floral backgrounds for Audubon’s birds. While that exhibit has been up, the library has been focused on “displaying pictures that [Martin] had a part in” rather than just flipping to the next page in order.

Bachman’s husband, Reverend John Bachman, was also a naturalist. He lived in South Carolina and collaborated with Audubon on a later collection of mammal paintings. Like Audubon, Bachman is also a controversial figure with multiple birds named after him. There is a theme here. Also like Audubon, the Bachmans owned enslaved people, some of whom were involved in the production of Audubon’s paintings. A man enslaved by the Bachman family, Thomas Skining, was very skilled at stuffing birds. “He became so good at it that he sort of became the main person who did it,” Brown said.

One of Audubon’s paintings depicts the Carolina parakeet, which he called the Carolina parrot. The species is now extinct.
Image courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing.

Several species in Audubon’s “Birds of America” have since gone extinct: the Carolina parakeet. The Labrador duck. The passenger pigeon. The great auk. In all likelihood the ivory-billed woodpecker and Bachman’s warbler are also extinct. The Eskimo curlew is either critically endangered or extinct as well, and the “pinnated grouse” is an extinct subspecies of the greater prairie-chicken. Many others face threats to their existence, including the Bachman’s sparrow, currently on display in one of the books in the library. (Audubon called it Bachman’s Finch, but the species is not a finch and has since been renamed.)

Light, temperature, and humidity conditions are carefully controlled to help preserve the paintings.

“These are here forever,” Brown said. Audubon’s paintings remain widely loved and influential, and they will remain on display for people to admire, ponder, and learn from. At the same time, the Audubon exhibit seeks to raise awareness of Audubon’s complicated legacy and about the individuals involved in his work who he never fully credited in his lifetime. Context is important, Brown said, and “We never want to shy away from the truth and the history about the important stories that aren’t being told.”

You can view the “Birds of America” books in the Mary Duke Biddle Room, across from the main entrance to Perkins. The species on display this month are the Bachman’s sparrow on the right and mourning, blackburnian, and black-throated green warblers on the left. And at 12:15 on March 7 or the first Friday of any other month, you, too, can watch exhibit curators flip the birds.

Post by Sophie Cox, Class of 2025

Making the Case for Data Privacy: Here’s What We’re Up Against

On February 24, 2025

In Artificial Intelligence, Behavior/Psychology, Business/Economics, Computers/Technology, Data, Law

After bringing Data Privacy Day to campus seventeen years ago, Duke faculty Jolynn Dellinger and David Hoffman co-moderated this year’s event at the Law School on January 28. Seated between them were attorneys Joshua Stein and Carol Villegas, partners at law firm Boies Schiller Flexne LPP and Labaton Keller Sucharow, respectively. Both are in the midst of multiple lawsuits against corporate giants; Boies Schiller joined a lawsuit against Meta last year, while Labaton is currently involved in data privacy-related suits against Meta, Flo Health and Amazon, and Google.

Panelists at Data Privacy Day 2025 at the Duke School of Law

Villegas began by emphasizing the importance of legal action on these issues in light of inadequate legislation. She pointed to the confusion of senators at Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of over 50 million Facebook users was misused for political purposes. “They don’t understand it…You can’t expect a legislature like that to make any kind of laws [on data privacy], not to mention technology is just moving way too fast,” Villegas said.

Facebook and most social media platforms generate revenue through advertisements. While many people are aware that these sites track their activity to better target users with ads, they may not know that these companies can collect data from outside of social apps. So, what does that look like?

Almost all apps are built using Software Development Kits (SDKs), which not only make it easier for developers to create apps but also track analytics. Tracking pixels function similarly for building websites. These kits and pixels are often provided for free by companies like Google and Meta–and it’s not too difficult to guess why this might be an issue. “An SDK is almost like an information highway,” Villegas said. “They’re getting all of the data that you’re putting into an app. So every time you press a button in an app, you know you answer a survey in an app, buy something in an app, all of that information is making its way to Meta and Google to be used in their algorithm.”

So, there’s more at stake than just your data being tracked on Instagram; tracking pixels are often used by hospitals, raising the concern of sensitive health data being shared with third parties. The popular women’s health app Flo helps users track their fertility and menstrual cycle–information it promised to keep private. Yet in Frasco v. Flo Health, Labaton alleged it broke confidentiality and violated the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA), illegally transmitting data via Software Development Kits to companies like Google and Meta. Flo Health ended up settling out of court with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) without admitting wrongdoing, though Google failed to escape the case, which remains ongoing.

It’s not only lawyers who are instrumental to this process. In cases like the ones that Stein and Villegas work on, academics and researchers can play key roles as expert witnesses. From psychiatrists to computer scientists, these experts explain the technical aspects and provide scientific basis to the judge and jury. Getting a great expert is costly and a significant challenge in itself–ideally, they’d be well-regarded in their field, have very specialized knowledge, and have some understanding of court proceedings. “There are really important ways your experts will get attacked for their credibility, for their analysis, for their conclusions, and their qualifications even,” said Stein, referring to Daubert challenges, which can result in expert testimony being excluded from trial.

The task of finding experts becomes even more daunting when going up against companies as colossal and profitable as Meta. “One issue that’s come up in AI cases, is finding an expert in AI that isn’t being paid by one of these large technology companies or have… grants or funding from one of these companies. And I got turned down by a lot of experts because of that issue,” Stein said.

Ultimately, some users don’t care that much if their data is being shared, making it more difficult to address privacy and hold corporations accountable. The aforementioned cases filed by Labaton are class action lawsuits, meaning that a smaller group represents a much larger group of individuals–for example, all users of a certain app within a given timeframe. Yes, it may seem pointless to push for data privacy when even the best outcomes in these cases only entitle individuals to small sums of money, often no more than $30. However, these cases have an arguably more important consequence: when successful, they force companies to change their behavior, even if only in small changes to their services.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Making Sure Drugs Work Where They’re Needed in the Brain

On February 21, 2025

In Engineering, Medicine, Neuroscience

Treating Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions has been challenging due to a lack of tools capable of navigating the complexity of neural circuits. New precision tools like DART.2 help make those therapeutic aspirations a reality, one tethered drug at a time.

The brain is one of our most complex organs, full of neurons that are constantly communicating with one another at places called synapses. Synapses both release molecules called ligands and express cell surface receptors that the ligands bind to, prompting the cells to undergo various processes within. The kinds of ligands and receptors that are important to disease are often released by and found on a variety of cell types. It is crucial, therefore that when we use a drug that targets a certain receptor, we also make sure that they only interact with receptors on the desired cell type.

To achieve this, in 2018 a team led by Duke professor Mike Tadross introduced “Drugs Acutely Restricted to Tethering” or “DART,” a drug delivery system that allows researchers to administer drugs to specific neuronal cell types. In June of this year, the Tadross lab unveiled DART.2. Pairing the cell-type specificity provided by DART.2 with the cellular receptor-specificity already provided by a given drug is essential to treating diseases like Parkinson’s without severe off-target effects, something researchers have been unable to do until tools like DART entered the scene.

Think of it like cutting the water supply to an apartment that has had a pipe burst. You don’t want to cut the water to the entire building, just the flooding apartment, because the other tenants still need water. This newest version of DART increases the ability of researchers to flip the right switches.

With increased cell type specificity optimized for drugs targeting two different receptor types, enabling broader dosing techniques and opening the door for discoveries of unknown roles of well-known receptors, researchers have made DART.2 into an “even more subtle, refined, yet transformative drug delivery system, a marked improvement from more rudimentary options that operate more like sledgehammers,” said Brenda Shields, one of the lead scientists on the DART.2 project.

The HaloTag protein (HTP) helps recruit drugs tethered to the HaloTag ligand (RXDART) to the desired cell types. Courtesy of Erin Fykes.

This is, in part, owing to the use of natural, or endogenous, receptor machinery in its design. Organisms are infected with a virus that prompts only certain cell types to express HaloTag, a protein that sits on the surface of the cells of choice. A HaloTag ligand, or small molecule that binds specifically to the HaloTag surface protein, is tethered to a drug of choice. This allows the tethered drug to be selectively recruited to the cells that have the HaloTag protein, bringing the drug into closer proximity to its intended cellular receptor, discouraging it from binding to unintended receptors, and reducing the amount of drug needed for efficacy.

DART.2 is not changing receptors that are already present, nor is it affecting the signaling cascades activated by engagement with the receptors. Cell-specificity of drug delivery was improved in DART.2 by decreasing the time and drug concentration needed to achieve intended effects – it is 100 times more precise than the previous system, with desired effects achieved in just 15 minutes.

Using the previous version of DART, researchers tried delivering a tethered version of the drug gabazine to GABA receptors (neural receptors associated with inhibitory neurotransmission) on a select group of neurons – gabazine blocks GABA from binding to GABA receptors and subsequently increases neural activity. Unfortunately, DART did not achieve high enough cell-specificity and gabazine bound to enough off-target receptors to trigger epileptic responses in mouse models. DART.2, however, is capable of delivering gabazine without these effects. The original version of DART was only optimized to work with drugs targeting excitatory (AMPA receptors) neurotransmission. The ability of the current version to work with inhibitory (GABA) and excitatory (AMPA) neurotransmission makes this system useful for “bi-directional” modifications, greatly increasing its utility.

Interestingly, while testing the effects of the drug gabazine on GABA receptors in ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons, they found that GABA receptors on these cells actually suppress locomotion, opposite to findings in other studies that more broadly focused on GABA receptors in multiple cell types. This highlights the need for tools like DART.2 that allow us to understand diverse receptor/ligand dynamics on a cell-by-cell basis to gain more nuanced approaches to understanding and treating disease.

To visualize dispersion and binding of tethered drugs to HaloTag proteins versus off-target receptors, Tadross’s team developed a way of seeing where the tethered drugs accumulated by introducing a small percentage of HaloTag ligands bound to a fluorescent reporter rather than a drug into the pool of tethered drugs. This visualization further confirmed a significant increase in cell-type specificity and a decrease in off-target effects of DART.2.

With previous levels of cell specificity, local delivery of the tethered drugs via cannula insertion at the brain region of interest was necessary to ensure drugs made it to the right targets. With increased specificity and a new visualization method for seeing where DART.2 drugs bind, researchers were able to assess whether brain wide dosing would be possible, decreasing deleterious effects of pumping high concentrations of drug into a certain area. Excitingly, they found that broad administration of tethered drugs across large areas of the brain did not significantly increase binding at receptors on cells not expressing the HaloTag protein. Drug delivery in the brain is notoriously difficult, so having the flexibility to administer a drug from an easier delivery point without reducing binding at target sites translates to a greater chance of therapeutic success.

For those unfamiliar with the process of drug and therapeutic development, the improvements presented in DART.2 represent a realistic look into the measure of scientific progress. Originally used to treat Parkinson’s mouse models, our conception of DART.2’s therapeutic relevance to other conditions is continually expanding. Shields shared that adaptions for conditions such as anxiety and depression may not be far off, just to name a few. DART.2 also makes it possible to use drugs like opioids in new ways. While helpful for pain management, the addictive potential of opioids sometimes renders them more harmful than helpful. Utilizing DART.2, opioids could be administered more specifically to cells that benefit from the drug, potentially reducing interactions with cell types involved in addiction development. Additionally, researchers are beginning to couple DART.2 with other tools on the market that can enhance its therapeutic promise and applicability (and vice versa). Each improvement of DART brings us closer to the reality of treating conditions we once deemed hopeless.

The Key to Transforming Minds

On February 19, 2025

In Faculty, History, Humanities, Religion, Uncategorized

Global wars. Ever-advancing artificial intelligence. Uncertain economic and job market prospects. Climate change. Amidst a world filled with change posing deep questions, could humanities provide counsel to our pressing issues and lead us towards more fulfilling, enriching daily experiences?

Last week, I had the privilege to speak with Divinity School and history professor Polly Ha, director of the Transformative Ideas program and co-lecturer of “The Good Life,” an acclaimed course exploring the intersection of religion, philosophy, and other ethical issues. “The Good Life” encouraged Duke students, hailing from all disciplines and backgrounds, to slow down and incorporate more reflection and intention into their everyday lives.

Duke professor Polly Ha, faculty in the Divinity School and director of the Transformative Ideas Program

Why is “slowing down” a key principle of “the Good Life”? As Ha pointed out, “it’s more stressful to try to slow down, to rest and reflect, than to take an exam for some students.” This powerful statement prompted me to reflect on my own experiences at Duke. Is it true that, amidst the hurries of daily academics and extracurriculars, merely pausing and thinking has become a difficult task? Perhaps so. If this is true for first-year students like me, how much more severe is this syndrome for upperclassmen undergraduate and graduate students?

Ha approaches this topic fully empathizing with the busy lifestyle so many of us lead. “As the daughter of immigrant parents, the pace of my life has always been highly accelerated. The challenge of trying to slow down is something I can definitely relate to,” she commented. Ha identified this as a key reason why she required her Fall 2024 cohort to write down their reflections in physical journals so they could more clearly see their own growth throughout the semester.

Encouraging Civility — A “Good Life” class is in session. Ha prepares to call on a student while Professor Abdullah Antepli of the Sanford School of Public Policy looks on.

The course professors also prepared students to engage in active civic discourse, a key pillar of the Transformative Ideas program. “Many students expressed that during our course, they felt understood and affirmed by their peers, sometimes for the first time,” Ha remarked. While she acknowledges that the class is not comprehensive in covering all thought-provoking, debatable issues of our day, Ha believes that her class prepares students to tackle all types of topics beyond the scope of the class. This is evident in the course’s continual evolvement to respond to our rapidly changing world: this year, she introduced lectures on transhumanism alongside ancient traditions.

This appealing curriculum is far from the only major project Ha is undertaking. As an active author, scholar, lecturer, and administrator, she currently devotes much time to writing her newest book, “The Future of Freedom,” and researching history and its lessons on freedom and liberty. She is also involved in a multitude of interdisciplinary projects at Duke and beyond linking history and theology to fields as diverse as bioethics and public policy.

Ha was gracious enough to provide me with a sneak peak of “The Future of Freedom.” In her words, this book is tailored not just to fellow academics but a broader audience, a read suitable for novices like me. Reading the first chapter, I was already transported into a world where grappling with heated topics is appreciated and celebrated. I especially enjoyed Ha’s continued use of rhetorical questions as she elucidated the modern threats against every liberty we cherish. Quotes like “Can we take freedom of conscience, thought, speech, consent, and action for granted?” challenged my perspective on my relationship to the ongoing battles surrounding surveillance capitalism and privacy protection—and whether I, an involved engineering student with aspirations in healthcare, have a role to play in this predicament. Given the captivating read, I am confident that Ha’s inquiry into 1600s England will enlighten many readers and portray the significance of history in our daily endeavors.

As we chatted about history’s place within a larger interdisciplinary web of research active on Duke’s campus, Ha provided two incredible insights that could not be neglected in this blog. Firstly, she described history as “a spine that connects to many ideas,” contrary to the popular notion that it is solely a window into the past. If history is by nature interdisciplinary, why are renowned historical works still solely focused on primary sources, dates, and battlefield events? According to Ha, Duke’s interdisciplinary research scene is especially strong. “For me, as someone coming from some specialized cultures that did not have the same interdisciplinary superhighways, this has been something I deeply value,” she remarked.

From teaching “The Good Life” to researching freedom’s past, present, and future, Ha has contributed much to our scholarly community. By bringing the humanities into conversation with twenty-first century challenges, and offering the immersive opportunities provided by Transformative Ideas, her work promises to sow the seeds in students that will sprout into exemplary lives.

You Don’t Have to Be a Hacker to Make an Impact in This 24-Hour Coding Sprint

On February 15, 2025

In Artificial Intelligence, Computers/Technology, Students

Twenty four hours full of brainstorming, debugging, and caffeine.

Coders of all skill levels came together from February 8-9 to participate in the Code for Good hackathon, an annual event hosted by student organization HackDuke. Fueled by pizza and energy drinks, teams of up to four vie for the chance to win prizes ranging from LEGO sets to Apple Watches. Most projects fell into one or more of the four tracks: Health, Finance, Sustainability, and Interactive Media.

This year’s event fittingly took place at the Fuqua School of Business, where giant flags line the walls.

Over the laughter of a Saturday night poker competition — one of the scheduled social activities for participants — I spoke to Rishi Rao, the lead organizer for HackDuke’s Technology team. “Historically, HackDuke has mainly been a Duke/UNC event, but this year we have people from all over the country,” said Rao, who attributes this year’s wide reach to advertising on social media.

There’s a focus on making the event as open as possible to new coders, including students that don’t study computer science. “A lot of people here are beginners who haven’t been to a hackathon before so we try to encourage [finishing a product] by having a beginner track and having mentors… Speakers do workshops to help people gain the skills necessary,” Rao said. Hackers are also supplied with “beginner tech kits,” consisting of short tutorials and starter projects created by the HackDuke team.

It certainly seems plausible for first-timers to do well. Duke freshmen Alexis Fox, Phillip Lin, Eric Wang, and Siven Panda entered the competition together in the Health track, and took 2nd place in the category. Upon hearing that rescheduling appointments required tedious manual work in hospitals, the team decided to create an interface to automate the process–hence the name Linked Automated Rescheduling Interface (LARI), inspired by the surname of ambulance inventor Dominique–Jean Larrey.

*The team created a diagram to display their process and division of tasks*

In twenty four hours, most groups only have time to develop a proof of concept. Team LARI noted that they had to manage their expectations for the final product, but also that practicing better time management could’ve allowed them to add more desired features. “We have to make a compromise between learning and perfectionism,” said Lin.

“I wanted to learn something here, so I wrote my [code] in a language I’ve never used before,” said Panda, adding that he would switch back into a familiar language if he didn’t finish parts by a self-imposed deadline.

In settings like hackathons, the short time frame and low experience of many competitors has made AI particularly relevant. Given the advancements in AI in just the last year, it’s no surprise that it’s taken on an outsized role; two of this year’s workshops focused on using it as a tool for coding. “It helps the more experienced teams come to a more complete product and it helps these beginners teams complete a product,” Rao said.

*A quick recount of an unproductive day results in suggested reading material*. *It’s taken note that my entry is less positive than those previously typed by others.*

Many also chose to integrate generative AI into their product. First-time participants Carlos and Elijah, a freshman and sophomore from MIT respectively, decided to create “filosof.ai”: a digital journal that analyzes entries for philosophy. They explained their product was aimed towards people just starting to think about philosophy, helping them further develop their interest by identifying the branches closest to their existing thoughts.

Like the aforementioned groups, Duke seniors Julia Hornstein, Owen Jennings, and Chinomnso Okechukwu were also first time hackathon participants.

“I thought, why not, I don’t want to graduate without doing it”, said Hornstein, a computer science major.

They entered on the sustainability track, wanting to create something that would be realistically used. Okechukwu recalled being unable to find clothes for Duke events on short notice, while Hornstein also noted the amount of theme-specific clothing she would no longer have use for after senior year. Soon, their idea came to them: Campus Closet would provide a platform for students within universities to buy and sell clothes by theme. Instead of being bought from Amazon three days beforehand, worn twice, and then tossed away, clothing would remain within the community, reducing waste and fast fashion demand.

Though some enter the competition nervous, most come out feeling accomplished and more confident in their abilities. “This was such a good experience for me and I’m so inspired by the fact that we could do this in twenty four hours,” said Hornstein. “Meeting my team, and the team dynamic…I had so much fun with both of them, honestly.” The group plans to continue working on Campus Closet, and said they looked forward to hanging out both inside and outside of the project.

For the organizers, an ideal hackathon means not only generating high participation but seeing a high number of submissions when the 24 hours come to a close. After receiving the most applications and product submissions in the history of the event, it seems fair to call Code for Good 2025 a success.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Determining Who’s White: How Vague Racial Categories Mask Health Vulnerabilities

On February 3, 2025

In Global Health, Medicine

Good healthcare decisions depend on good data – whether you’re making federal health policy or treating a single patient.

But the data is often incomplete – particularly when it comes to defining a group that still makes up the majority of the U.S. population — a ‘non-Hispanic White’ person. That’s the primary reference category used in health data.

“Nobody questions who’s white, but they should,” said Jen’nan Read, a Duke sociologist and lead author of new research recently published in the journal Demography. “The white category contains diverse ethnic subgroups, but because we lump them all together, we miss important health vulnerabilities for millions of Americans.”

Read and co-author Fatima Fairfax, a Duke doctoral student in sociology, analyzed data from the 2000 to 2018 waves of the National Health Interview Survey to compare the health of white adults born in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and the Former Soviet Union.

Duke sociology professor Jen’nan Read and PhD student Fatima Fairfax

Separating groups collapsed into the white category, they found that foreign-born Whites have a smaller health advantage over U.S.-born whites than is commonly assumed, and immigrants from the Former Soviet Union are particularly disadvantaged. Those immigrants report worse health, including higher rates of high blood pressure, compared to U.S.-born whites as well as people from Europe and the Middle East.

These findings illustrate how global events, such as the wars in the Ukraine and Syria, have contributed to changes in the composition of white immigrants over time.

Understanding these changes – and the distinct experiences of white immigrant subgroups – is vital to understanding long-term patterns in health disparities within the broad white category, the authors argue.

“If we truly care about reducing health disparities in this country, we need to know where the disparities are. And they get hidden when people are lumped into broad categories,” Read said. “Ukrainian immigrants, for example, we see in the news what they’re leaving. Death, destruction, their kids may have gone years now without education. This has lifelong impacts on their wellbeing. The physical consequences from stress are enormous–we know stress increases all sorts of physical health problems. High blood pressure, cholesterol, the list goes on.”

And the science is clear. The more accurate the information healthcare providers have on their patients, the better the outcomes.

“We’re missing health patterns here,” Read said. “Our country is extremely diverse, and not talking about diversity doesn’t change that fact. Health inequality costs us a lot–it costs the healthcare system and society as a whole.”

“Health is arguably the most important indicator of how a society is doing, and paying more attention to diversity within broad categories will allow us to do better.”

This Entrepreneur Is Changing the Way We Repair the Human Body

On January 28, 2025

In Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Business/Economics, Data, Engineering, Genetics/Genomics, Global Health

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Or should I say, January 23 at the Rubenstein Arts Center…? That is where biomedical engineer Nina Tandon showed us the almost magical, yet extremely precise, science of EpiBone–where personalized bones and cartilage are grown from stem cells.

But first, it would be completely inappropriate of me to discuss Tandon’s revolutionary work without first sharing her stories from her childhood and adolescent years; that was one of the many aspects I admired about her talk–how much love Tandon shared for those who helped spark her passion for science.

First, there was her grandmother, Dadi Ma, who at a young age wanted to study math, but unfortunately, due to the time she grew up in, was pushed away from any STEM-related field. Tandon helped complete her Dadi Ma’s dreams to pursue a STEM education. And there were the late nights in the research library with her mother; Tandon told us how she would often use her class as a group to “test how people’s memories worked, and test our (Tandon’s) classmate’s depth perception.” Then, Tandon met Dr. Maria Musarella, who helped identify her brother’s retinitis pigmentosa. And while no cure for it at the time, Dr. Musareli told Tandon how there was a team at MIT working on it–to which Tandon thought, “Maybe I’ll join that team one day.”

Little did young Nina Tandon know just what she would do one day.

After going to school for electrical engineering, Tandon found herself working at a Bell Labs spin-off, where she learned one of the most important lessons of her life: One’s choice of job should always be “content secondary, people primary.” However, because of the new suburban area she found herself in post-9/11, Tandon felt isolated. But within this time of solace, she was able to connect the similarities between genes and data: “The axon conduction in a nerve–that’s a lot like those same equations that govern the transatlantic cable… cell membranes are 20 times higher capacitance than the best capacitors that we could build with our human hands.”

Through these observations, Tandon was able to conclude that “our bodies are the most exquisite technology we have ever been familiarized with.”

Photo credit: London College of Osteopathy

So she decided to apply to the team at MIT that Dr. Musarella had told her about years before, in which she was accepted and then joined. It was a full circle moment; Tandon was seeing herself living the dreams of the girl who would conduct experiments on her elementary school class. It should have been perfect, right?

“And I had made a mistake… I made a mistake.” She had not chosen people first and content secondary. However, as Tandon noted many times throughout her talk, it is her failures that showed her what it was she needed to do in order to succeed.

I found this aspect of the talk truly inspiring. Usually, when an extremely accomplished person talks to an eager room, they spend most of their time highlighting what they have done correctly. But here Tandon was, taking her time telling us all of the ways in which she had failed. And how those were the moments that led to her largest lessons learned. Although I can’t speak for everyone in that room, as a college student myself, there was a comfort in seeing such a successful, powerful, and kind woman telling us that we will fail… And showing us that that is the beauty in success.

So, to make an extremely long story short, Tandon then proceeded to join Robert Langer’s lab at MIT for five years, studying “how electrical signals could coax stem cells into becoming tissue,” work in a management consulting job at McKinsey & Company to learn more about entrepreneurship, and then attend Columbia for her EMBA and PhD (at the same time!). Phew, that’s a lot.

In 2014, Tandon co-founded EpiBone, in which she and her team began working in a candy factory-converted lab in Harlem. By starting with CT scans, EpiBone can make a “perfect puzzle piece-shaped biome material scaffold and a perfect puzzle piece bioreactor.” In other words, “an environment that simulated the natural conditions for tissue development.” Within two to four weeks, Tandon and her team can grow any cartilage, bone, and joints needed throughout the body.

Since starting her company, EpiBone has been able to grow jaw bones for six patients, which “fit perfectly and were integrated within four to six months.” This is just the beginning. EpiBone’s technology could change how we view medicine and treatment–giving patients a promise of more active lives instead of just a prescription of pain medicines.

However, as much of a miracle as this is, Tandon had to move her business’s location because of the restraining process of clinical trials within the United States, where the limited funding cannot match the necessary costs of clinical trials. Now in Abu Dhabi, Tandon has found a home for her and her family to live happily while also being in a place where she feels like EpiBone is finally starting to see a future where it can be implemented into medicine and used in patients.

Ending her talk, Tandon noted how she has learned to count her blessings, even in times when she felt like her work was not being appreciated for what it was. “It’s a shortcut for me because I’ve studied biology to be grateful… Oh my god, my heart just beat five times–that’s like a million miracles.”

Tandon has shown us that true success is not viewed from the top of the mountain, looking down at all that you have climbed, but instead, learning to appreciate and find joy in the trek to the top. I thank her, on behalf of all of the people at Duke and all who she will help in the future, for her revolutionary work in science and her honest words of inspiration.

By Sarah Pusser Class of 2028

How the body’s own defense system plays a role in Alzheimer’s disease

On January 16, 2025

In Guest Post, Immunology, Medicine, Neuroscience, Uncategorized

Carol Colton, a distinguished professor in neurology and pathology and a member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, is renowned for her groundbreaking research on the immune response’s role in the onset and progression of brain diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD). She is a firm believer in using animals such as mice for scientific research, saying that progress in understanding and treating diseases like Alizheimer’s would not be possible without them. With a shorter life cycle than humans, mice can be studied throughout their whole life and across multiple generations. They are also biologically similar to humans and susceptible to many of the same health problems, such as Alzheimer’s. Her work has reshaped our understanding of the brain’s immune system, challenging the long-held notion that the brain is “immune privileged.”

Carol Colton, PhD, professor of neurology and pathology at Duke

Central to Colton’s research is the role of “microglia,” the brain’s resident macrophages. Once thought to be passive observers in brain immunity, microglia are now recognized as active defenders, crucial in maintaining brain health. Colton’s early studies revealed that these cells not only eliminate harmful substances but also adapt to chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s. In this disease, microglia’s prolonged immune activity disrupts the brain’s metabolic balance, necessitating adaptations in neurons, astrocytes, and microglia themselves. She likens this adaptation to the brain coexisting with a parasite – functional but at a metabolic cost.

Her research underscores how microglia can initially protect against Alzheimer’s by combating amyloid plaques and phospho-tau proteins but eventually contribute to the disease’s progression as metabolic disruptions intensify.

Colton’s approach integrates physiology and pathology, exploring how changes in normal physiological processes influence disease pathology. Her lab employs a variety of advanced techniques, from cellular microscopy to gene and protein analysis, to map the intricate relationships between brain metabolism and disease. This multidisciplinary approach enables a deeper understanding of how the brain’s unique environment shapes disease progression.

A cornerstone of Colton’s recent work is her discovery of “Radical S-Adenosyl domain 1 (RSAD1),” a mitochondrial protein found at the bottom of the ocean critical to understanding Alzheimer’s. RSAD1 is overexpressed in Alzheimer’s neurons, altering methionine metabolism and mitochondrial function. These disruptions contribute to the disease’s characteristic metabolic imbalance. By developing RSAD1-negative and RSAD1-overexpressing mouse models, her lab provides crucial tools to study the protein’s impact on neuronal and mitochondrial metabolism in the presence of amyloid plaques and phospho-tau.

RSAD1 also appears to be linked to methionine depletion in the brain, which may further exacerbate Alzheimer’s pathology. These findings pave the way for novel therapeutic targets aimed at restoring metabolic equilibrium in the brain.

Colton’s scientific journey is deeply influenced by her family’s academic legacy, particularly her mother, who earned a chemistry degree during an era when women faced significant barriers in science. Inspired by her mother’s determination, Colton is a passionate advocate for women scientists, often emphasizing the importance of diversity and mentorship in STEM fields.

Colton’s work highlights the slow, insidious nature of Alzheimer’s disease, driven by metabolic and immune system changes over decades. By asking fundamental questions, such as whether Alzheimer’s results from the loss of key metabolites or whether microglia contribute to this depletion, her research aims to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the disease and identify strategies for intervention.

In the fight against Alzheimer’s, Colton’s discoveries, particularly those surrounding RSAD1 and microglial activity, are setting the stage for innovative treatments. Her dedication to unraveling the complexities of brain metabolism and immune response solidifies her place as a leader in neurology and pathology, with an enduring impact on the field of Alzheimer’s research.

Meet a Duke Expert on Pain: the Sixth Sense

On January 13, 2025

In Guest Post, Medicine

Duke associate professor of anesthesiology Andrea Nackley is a kind, passionate scientist, although her most notable quality is determination.

As a first generation college student, a mother of two teenagers, and a triathlon athlete, she is nothing but dedicated. She challenges herself not only in a professional environment, but strives for personal and physical growth in her free time as well.

Andrea Nackley, PhD, Duke School of Medicine

I had the pleasure of interviewing Nackley in her office and labs, where we discussed her life as a scientist, mom, and leader. When asked how she manages her many responsibilities, she responded with a single word: “acceptance.” Nackley accepts her busy schedule and strives to prioritize daily to make the most of every moment.

As a young adult, she initially pursued the pre-med psychology path, with support from her hard-working family. She remembers a pivotal moment in her journey, in a biopsychology class where she studied brain circuits and the brain-behavior connection. She found this class absolutely riveting, and knew that this is where her passion lied.

She describes pain, her research’s current focus, as a sixth sense of sorts, not quite like touch but something different and intriguing. Her approach to studying chronic pain is collaborative and aims to make her findings applicable to medical pursuits regarding pain management. She has even worked closely with a clinical trial centered in Duke, an experience that directly exemplifies this bench-to-bedside approach.

A scene from the Translational Pain Research Laboratory, which Nackley leads

After earning her PhD at the University of Georgia, she moved to UNC Chapel Hill to complete a postdoctoral fellowship. In 2016 she moved to Duke, where she now leads an open-floor Translational Pain Research Laboratory and promotes an extraordinarily collaborative lab environment.

She has received grants for her work in vulvodynia, vestibulodynia, and peripheral ADRB3. When asked what her favorite aspect of working at Duke is, she endearingly responded with, “all the people here are just so… nice.”

Nackley is close-knit with the individuals in her lab, a group ranging from high school students to postdocs, but especially with her lab manager, Marguerita Klein.

Outside of work, she enjoys open-water swimming, training for an Olympic-length triathlon, baking, and cooking. She said baking allows her creative side to emerge, an often uncultivated aspect of any scientist’s left-dominant brain.

Meeting Nackley and touring the innovative lab she cultivates was a wonderful experience, and I’m sure the future output from her work and leadership will be invaluable.

Post by Abigail Keaton, NCSSM Class of 2026

From Propulsion to Provost: A Conversation With Alec Gallimore

On January 9, 2025

In Engineering, Guest Post, Space

Science fiction may seem an unlikely source for research inspiration. But for Duke University Provost Alec Gallimore, it has been just that: inspiration for a career’s worth of electric propulsion research.

Alec Gallimore in his plasmadynamics and electric propulsion laboratory at the University of Michigan, where he was a faculty member and dean for more than 30 years before coming to Duke. (Credit: University of Michigan)

Gallimore said it was stories from science fiction authors like Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov that piqued his interests for fusion and other advanced propulsion technologies at a young age. It is an interest that led him to pursue studies in aerospace engineering with a focus in plasma physics at Princeton University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

He channeled those interests into the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory (PEPL) he founded as a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. Focused on the development and testing of more efficient and powerful electric thrusters for spacecraft, the lab has long been at the forefront of electric propulsion research.

High thrust, high efficiency electric propulsion systems are poised to transform space exploration. They are viable replacements for the inefficient, yet flight-proven chemical thrusters typically used on spacecraft. This is because the electric thrusters can operate over longer periods of time, providing sustained thrust that allows spacecraft to travel the solar system in record time. Electric propulsion systems are slated for use on countless future spacecraft, from the Gateway lunar space station to Mars orbiters.

Gallimore said he is proudest of the X3 Nested Channel Hall Thruster developed at PEPL. Weighing just a tenth the size of an SUV at 230 kg, the X3 is one of the largest, most powerful electric thrusters the lab has developed. It consists of three nested chambers in which ionized gases are accelerated by electric fields, generating thrust highly efficiently. Most Hall-effect thrusters – the category of electric thruster to which the X3 belongs – contain only one chamber. The X3’s three separate chambers help it generate substantially more thrust. That means it can be used to propel heavier spacecraft destined for more distant locations in the solar system.

Low-power test run of the X3 Nested Channel Hall Thruster (Credit: PEPL)

Gallimore sees this as just the beginning for electric propulsion. Miniaturized electric thrusters will also, according to him, become mainstays on smaller satellites, providing them with the propulsion capabilities they have long lacked. More important will be future research on novel propellant types for electric thrusters, specifically water. “Water is the answer,” Gallimore said.

“Water is all over the place in the solar system, and so you are able to develop an infrastructure where you can tank up as you need to with water as your propellant,” he explained. “It opens everything up in the solar system so that, by the second half of the century, you can have an amazing infrastructure throughout the inner part of the solar system with water as a propellant.”

Leading research advancements such as these comprised much of Gallimore’s work at PEPL, experience that has informed his work at Duke, where he became provost in July 2023. “Genius is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration,” he said. Having a team of people fully committed to their research and a common mission was vital to him.

So was having a diversity of opinions. PEPL hosted researchers from varying disciplines such as applied physics and aerospace engineering, as well as diverse life experiences and identities. That promoted a culture of “mutual respect” in “intangible ways” that drove innovation and staved off “group think,” he said.

That philosophy of thoughtful discussion and collaboration is one Gallimore has taken to Duke, informing the Office of the Provost’s efforts to advance academic excellence and improve campus community.

Whether as an electric propulsion researcher developing the thrusters that will take humans to Mars or as Duke University Provost, working to invigorate the school community, Gallimore has pushed boldly forward. In a future perhaps defined by advanced human space exploration and a more just world, we will no doubt have some small thanks to pay to Gallimore.

Post by Adrian Tejada, NCSSM class of 2025.

What can we learn from watching a fish’s ear take shape? You might be surprised

On January 8, 2025

In Animals, Guest Post

Dr. Akankshi Munjal is a developmental biology researcher at Duke University, who studies the development and mutations of inner ear tissue in zebrafish, and how that may be caused by genome disorders.

Akankshi Munjal, assistant professor of cell biology

From a young age, Munjal has been fascinated by watching things being built and developed. Her grandfather was a civil engineer, and she was inspired by the many blueprints littering his home. Growing up, she wanted to be an architect.

Though she found inspiration elsewhere, and did not pursue architecture, in a way, her career mirrors this, “I guess I am not an architect, but I still watch embryos being built, so that kept with me – how you shape things.”

The inspiration of Munjal’s current career came to her in high school. Growing up, she lived in a large city in India, and did not have much exposure to science fields and research. “If you don’t see it around you, it’s not something you see as an option.”

However, she was able to find inspiration from a few of her instructors, “There were some teachers who were very inspiring in exposing that there is research out there, that you can be at the bench, ask questions, and address them using experiments.”

She was also involved with a project dealing with bacteria that could process heavy metals in the Yamuna river near Delhi, India, and this helped introduce the idea of research as a potential career path.

Though most of Munjal’s work has moved toward lab management, the research is what she really loves, “I could spend days in the microscope room, watching development happen.”

The interesting thing about zebrafish, is that their eggs are transparent, and develop outside of the parent organism. This provides an incredible way to observe the development of tissues under a microscope. Zebrafish also share 70% of the DNA of humans, which makes them a great model organism to observe human disorders and how they affect tissue. The ability to witness this development is Munjal’s favorite part of the job,“It’s why I love what I do, we are able to watch these things happen, in the lab.”

When asked what she wished she would’ve learned earlier on, she mentioned the classic comparison of teaching a man to fish, as opposed to giving him a fish. She applies this saying to the process of learning. In her earlier education, there was an emphasis on collecting and memorizing information and facts, rather than learning how to gather knowledge. An emphasis on academic intelligence, as opposed to emotional intelligence.

Looking back, this presentation and memorization of facts was less helpful, “Some of them are not facts, some of them are interpretations, so if there was more information on collecting knowledge, that would be more helpful.”

Munjal loves to watch things being developed. This not only applies to her research in developmental biology, and her former passion for architecture, but also to her love of collecting knowledge.

Guest post by Rhynn Alligood, NCSSM class of 2025

Advancing Immunotherapy for Glioblastoma

On January 8, 2025

In Cancer, Guest Post, Medicine, Neuroscience

Vidyalakshmi Chandramohan, associate professor in neurosurgery and pathology, and member of the Duke Cancer Institute. Credit: Duke Department of Neurosurgery

Duke professor Vidyalakshmi Chandramohan is a pioneering neuro-oncologist whose work is redefining the future of glioblastoma (GBM) treatment. As a researcher in the Department of Neurosurgery at Duke, she is driven by a profound commitment to improving patient outcomes and providing new hope for those battling one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer.

Her journey into science began with an interest in immunology and oncology, which led her to earn a Ph.D. and conduct postdoctoral research focused on the complex relationship between cancer and immune responses. Her fascination with GBM stemmed from the urgent need to develop innovative treatments for a disease with limited therapeutic options. Today, her groundbreaking research offers new avenues for fighting GBM and improving patient survival.

PET scan showing glioblastoma brain cancer. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Chandramohan’s work is centered on immunotherapy, particularly the development of D2C7-IT, a dual-specific immunotoxin currently in Phase I clinical trials for recurrent GBM patients. This precision medicine approach targets tumors with remarkable specificity, minimizing damage to healthy tissue. Her ongoing research aims to enhance the efficacy of D2C7-IT and expand its potential as a viable alternative to traditional treatments.

For Chandramohan, translating her research into tangible solutions is essential. “Developing a therapy is one thing, but making sure it works in the real world is another,” she says. She is exploring ways to combine D2C7-IT with other therapies to improve treatment outcomes and minimize side effects, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in GBM care.

A critical aspect of her research involves identifying biomarkers that predict patient responses to treatment, enabling personalized therapies. “Personalized medicine is the future,” she believes. “Tailoring treatment to each patient’s unique response will improve survival rates and outcomes.”

Collaboration is at the heart of Chandramohan’s work. She fosters an interdisciplinary environment where scientists, clinicians, and engineers work together toward a shared goal. “No one person can do it all,” she emphasizes. “It takes a community of experts to make breakthroughs happen.”

Despite the challenges of translating research into clinical practice, Chandramohan remains unwavering in her determination. “When our work leads to better treatment options, it reminds us why we do this every day,” she says. Her dedication to improving patient care fuels her optimism for the future of GBM treatment.

Looking ahead, Chandramohan is hopeful that the integration of immunotherapy, precision medicine, and innovative technologies will revolutionize the field of neuro-oncology. “We’re just scratching the surface,” she says, confident in the potential to improve outcomes for GBM patients.

Through her relentless pursuit of excellence, Chandramohan is not only advancing the science of glioblastoma treatment but also inspiring the next generation of researchers to push the boundaries of what is possible in the fight against cancer.

Blog post by Adarsh Magesh, NCSSM Class of 2025

Advancing Care and Research in Traumatic Brain Injury

On January 6, 2025

In Guest Post, Medicine, Neuroscience

Meet a trailblazer in the realm of neurocritical care and emergency medicine: Dr. Katharine Rose Colton, MD. Balancing roles as a clinician, researcher, and educator, Colton serves as an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Duke University. Her dedication to understanding and treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) exemplifies her commitment to improving the lives of patients facing severe neurological challenges.

TBI is a significant public health issue, often resulting from falls, motor vehicle accidents, or sports injuries. It can range from mild concussions to severe brain trauma, leaving patients in comas or with long-term disabilities. While treatments for TBI have evolved, many gaps remain in understanding how to optimize recovery and outcomes. Colton’s work bridges this divide, combining cutting-edge research with compassionate patient care.

Colton’s journey into medicine wasn’t linear. A Canadian native, she initially pursued an eclectic range of interests, including ethnobotany and anthropology, during her undergraduate studies. She pivoted to medicine, taking the MCAT on a whim and earning her M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine.

Her first exposure to TBI occurred during a research year at the University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center. A project initially focused on trauma surgery shifted to neurocritical care, igniting her passion for studying brain injuries. “I loved it,” she recalls. “It was a completely different way of looking at medicine.”

Colton’s clinical path led her to a residency in Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University and a fellowship in Neurocritical Care. While she enjoyed the fast-paced decision-making of emergency medicine, she found herself drawn to the intricate details of critical care. “I struggled with letting patients go and handing them off to others,” she says. “I wanted to stay involved and see the whole story unfold.”

Now focused primarily on neurocritical care, Colton dedicates a third of her time to research, primarily on clinical trials targeting severe TBI. She has worked on large-scale, multi-site studies investigating drug therapies and monitoring systems to optimize treatment for comatose patients.

Her approach to research is pragmatic: “I’m a clinician first. I want to know how the things we do today will benefit the patient tomorrow.” For instance, her current trials explore the potential of older, cost-effective drugs previously overlooked by pharmaceutical companies to improve outcomes in TBI patients. These trials adopt adaptive designs, allowing for real-time adjustments based on early results to maximize impact.

Colton is also a strong advocate for personalizing TBI treatment. “TBI is an incredibly heterogeneous condition,” she explains. “We can’t treat a 20-year-old in a car accident the same as a 70-year-old who fell. They have completely different recovery pathways.” Her work aims to identify biomarkers and refine classifications of TBI to develop more targeted interventions.

One of the most memorable cases from Colton’s career underscores her dedication to patient care. A young woman struck by a car in Chicago arrived at the ICU in a deep coma, with little hope of recovery. Months later, to Colton’s astonishment, the patient returned to work and resumed her life. “You just don’t know,” she reflects. “That case taught me the importance of patience and persistence in medicine.”

Colton’s role extends beyond the ICU, often involving interactions with patients’ families during some of their most vulnerable moments. “Families often show incredible grace, even in tragedy,” she says. “It’s humbling to see their resilience and willingness to contribute to research, even when it might not help their loved one directly.”

Despite the challenges of long, emotionally taxing weeks in the ICU, Colton finds fulfillment in both the technical and human aspects of her work. “There’s something beautiful about the physiology — adjusting treatments and seeing how the body responds,” she explains. Yet, she never loses sight of the bigger picture: the patient. “Numbers on a screen don’t matter if we’re not improving their lives.”

Outside of work, Colton enjoys paddleboarding, camping, and spending time with her two young children. Her background in ethnobotany and love for snowboarding reflect her multifaceted personality, blending curiosity, determination, and a deep appreciation for life.

Dr. Katharine Colton is shaping the future of TBI care through her dedication to research, her patients, and the families she serves. Her journey is a testament to the impact of resilience, curiosity, and compassion in medicine.

Charting New Territory in Genomics: Inside Dr. ZZ’s Lab

On January 6, 2025

In Cancer, Genetics/Genomics, Medicine, Uncategorized

“The beauty of research is freedom,” says assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology Zhao Zhang, when asked what drove him to research transposons and circular DNA at Duke.

Zhao Zhang, an assistant professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at the Duke University School of Medicine.

Though he is now a prominent researcher, Zhang reveals that he didn’t develop an interest in the research field until his senior year of college. It was when he was running his first PCR, a technique used to amplify small segments of DNA, nervously but excitedly waiting for the results, that he became “hooked” on research. He then pursued a master’s degree in China that further cemented his passion for biology.

He continued his education abroad and soon earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He then decided to forgo the traditional post-doctoral training period and instead established his research group at the Carnegie Institution for Science, where he stayed for nearly five years earning accolades like the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award and the Larry Sandler Award from the Genetics Society of America.

At Carnegie, Zhang conducted research on how Drosophila, or fruit flies, can lay eggs while suppressing transposons. Jumping genes, or transposons, comprise around half of our genome and get their name from jumping from one genomic location to another. They can cause genomic instability and oncogenesis, or the formation of cancer.

One day by “pure serendipity,” the focus of their research was completely transformed when they learned that these transposons can form circular DNA. While trying to figure out why this occurred, Zhang discovered that there wasn’t much that researchers knew about circular DNA. He says it was like stumbling onto a “golden mountain” of unexplored research topics and decided to switch his research focus from germline biology to cancer biology.

This switch coincided with Zhang’s move to Duke, where he asks people to call him ZZ. Currently, his lab studies both transposons and circular DNA. One major goal of Zhang’s lab is to understand transposon-mediated immunity and use this to create cancer vaccines.

Another major focus of the ZZ lab is circular DNA, which can reintegrate into the genome. According to Zhang, circular DNA may also amplify cancer genes since “30% of cancer patients have circular DNA but for really aggressive cancers like glioblastoma (a brain cancer), 60% of patients have circular DNA.” His lab aims to use their research on circular DNA to develop drugs for cancer therapy.

His lab is currently waiting on results that have the potential to be instrumental in bringing new therapies for the treatment of cancer, including more aggressive types and those with lower rates of survival.

However, there is a possibility that the results will be unfavorable and he and his team will have to go back and tweak the system and re-optimize conditions before testing again.

“With science, you always learn something,” ZZ says. “Maybe it’s not what you wanted, but it is always a foundation to build the next stage of learning.”

Guest post by Sindhu Paladugu, North Carolina School of Science and Math, Class of 2025

The Hearth of Aging Research and Discovery

On December 9, 2024

In Medicine

How do you motivate faculty, external colleagues, and curious undergraduates alike to brave the frigid cold to attend an 8:30am symposium?

Short answer: biscotti and coffee.

Of course, the breakfast delicacies are only a supplement to the strong, irresistible offerings of the annual Aging Center Research and Education Showcase, held Dec. 6 at the Trent Semans Center. As a first-semester undergraduate, I can attest to the captivating, inspiring nature of the speakers’ presentations; the research projects were interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and thought-provoking. What’s even more impressive is the intellectually stimulating questions prompted by the seasoned researchers in the audience. What an honor it was to listen to and learn from the legendary Dr. Harvey Cohen, Duke’s very own father of geriatrics, as he offered his advice to various presenters!

Excited attendees at the exposition of the Aging Center Research and Education Showcase!

If I were to continue heaping praise on the symposium and narrate every detail of the 4-hour-long event, you would be bored to death. Instead, allow me to focus on the most impressive research undertakings (in my humble perspective): the PRISM Comparative Effectiveness Trial co-led by Dr. Cathleen Colon-Emeric, division chief of geriatrics, and the AI-driven clinical guidance project led by Dr. Juliessa Pavon.

The PRISM trial presentation from Colon-Emeric was the second talk listed in the symposium agenda, the first after the welcoming remarks from Dr. Heather Whitson, director of the aging center. And its headline placement was justified from the get-go: data on the prevalence of fall-related injuries is astonishing and concerning. For instance, did you know that two deaths occur from falls every hour in America? How about the fact that fractures are a more potent cause of death than breast or prostate cancers?

Having established the basis for her research, Colon-Emeric soon transitioned to her focus on post-acute care and the avenue by which she is investigating injury prevention mechanisms. Given that 90% of fracture patients take fall risk-increasing medications, with many taking up to three such medications simultaneously, Colon-Emeric and her co-investigators sought to design a randomized cluster crossover trial measuring injurious fall rates under three conditions. By assigning 3,780 patients in the study to deprescribing dangerous medications, treating osteoporosis, and both deprescription and treatment groups, the researchers hope to discern which model performs the best in preventing fall injuries.

After a few more invigorating lectures, the audience welcomed Dr. Juliessa Pavon for her remarks on her research on leveraging AI to personalize medication deprescribing for older adults. While Pavon’s project similarly aims to confront the issue of polypharmacy in seniors, especially the use of multiple central nervous system (CNS) acting drugs, she focuses on the process of deprescribing and how to improve decision-making. Noting that the current deprescribing tools such as STOPP and START are limited by their “one size fits all” nature, Pavon proposed that AI, the driving force behind individualized treatment rules (ITRs), could be used as a better alternative.

Beyond the complexity of models and algorithms used for this machine learning product and the behemoth dataset (containing information from 278,000 individuals) involved, I found Pavon’s explanation for the benefits of ITRs to be the most engrossing. Contrary to popular belief, ITRs don’t improve treatment outcomes for all patients, as portrayed in the depiction below. However, the strength of ITRs arises from their ability to achieve better outcomes for many patients beyond the baseline level, which is more desirable on a population level than applying the average treatment regimen. This realization was key for me to understand the rest of Pavon’s presentation.

Graphic showing the effect of applying individualized treatment rules (ITRs) on a patient population

Of course, I must address the other fascinating talks and poster presentations before I conclude. Dr. Cara McDermott’s seminar on improving medication and safety for rural residents featured another exciting research project; the selected data on the costs and difficulties surrounding dementia care was enlightening and underscores the grave realities confronting the support networks of dementia patients. Additionally, Dr. Maria Marquine’s address on research education in the Aging Center featured much celebratory applause as the audience congratulated undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate scholars affiliated with the Aging Center’s various initiatives. Marquine’s passion and dedication to cultivating the next generation of aging and geriatric physician-leaders are evidenced by her involvement in all levels of the Aging Center’s education model, which warrants acclamation from the population at large. Lastly, I must mention the innovative research project spearheaded by Dr. Darina Petrovsky, assistant professor of nursing, examining the effect of music-based intervention for dementia patients. Her work, combined with her unique educational background of music studies and nursing, illustrates the multidisciplinary nature of medicine and how all skillsets could be applied to improving human health. Pre-med students: take this to heart!

While the weather outside was frightful, the fire of research and discovery inside the Trent Great Hall was surely delightful. As we celebrate another year of remarkable research progress at Duke Medicine and the Aging Center, let us congratulate our in-house experts on their work and together look forward to their exciting work in the coming year!

Farmers, Crops…and Computers?

On December 2, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Computers/Technology, Engineering, Environment/Sustainability

In Hanjie the rules are simple. In this game of logic and creativity, the players, often working on medium-sized grids of 225 squares, use numbers on the rows and columns as clues to determine which boxes to shade. At first, the prospect of seeing a beautiful picture seems almost unfathomable. However, through patience and collaboration from every corner of the page, these small seemingly random squares gradually come together to reveal a masterpiece—one square at a time.

In a sense the efforts of Duke’s Climate Commitment are no different. The issue of climate change has proven to be a multifaceted one. One in which many parties play a role. However, with initiatives such as Duke’s Forever Learning Institute, the probability of tackling these issues becomes much clearer.

*The logo of Duke’s Forever Learning Institute retrieved from their website.*

Recently Duke’s Forever Learning Institute, an interdisciplinary educational program for Duke alumni, hosted Professors Norbert Wilson and Maiken Mikkelson for a compelling session on the impact of climate change on food and agriculture. Wilson, an agricultural economist and the Director of the World Food Policy Center at Duke, specializes in addressing critical issues related to food access, nutrition, and food security. Mikkelsen, a distinguished expert in physics, electrical, and computer engineering, explores the potential of nanomaterials to revolutionize agricultural processes, paving the way for innovative solutions in the field. Together, they explained how advancements in nanomaterials can improve food security and sustainability.

Throughout the session, Wilson emphasized the concept of food security. He began by clarifying the difference between “food loss” and “food waste.” Food loss occurs at the agricultural level. It refers to food that is produced but never reaches consumers, often due to challenges such as poor harvesting seasons, labor shortages for harvesting, or other natural factors. He describes the ways in which loss occurs across the board but disproportionately affects less developed countries. Wilson also explained how food waste occurs at the consumer level. He details how it goes beyond the waste of a product but is also a waste of the resources used to create that product.

Picture of Professor Norbert Wilson. Photo retrieved from Duke Divinity School.

Wilson illustrated the significance of these issues by drawing out the larger issue of food insecurity. Food insecurity describes an inability to access food or concerns about accessing food. In the United States 13.5 percent of citizens struggle with accessing food. This can lead to a number of negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular issues and diabetes. Food insecurity can also lead to behavioral and performance issues, particularly in young children.

*Infographic about food insecurity retrieved from ECOMERGE.*

This is where Mikkelson comes in. She described a term known as Precision Agriculture. In this, researchers observe and measure agriculture fields and extra data to see what resources such as water, and fertilizer is needed at each part. In this, they hope to retrieve good information through wavelengths as a means of getting a spectral fingerprint that supplies information about the crops. Mikkelsen describes her interest in leveraging nanomaterials to create lightweight, cost-effective hyperspectral cameras capable of capturing detailed spectral fingerprints of crops. She hopes that these materials can be employed around the world, and low resource settings to increase crop yields. The greatest roadblock in this would be the price and issues with widespread application. However, once applied it would hold the ability to detect key characteristics such as nutrient deficiencies, water stress, or disease presence.

Duke Researchers working with Nanotechnology. Image retrieved from Duke Pratt School of Engineering.

Our world is wildly affected by climate change. Climate change and agricultural production hold a very dependent relationship and fixing one side holds the ability to correct the other. This is what makes the work and research of those such as Wilson and Mikelson all the more important. Their efforts show how we can utilize technology to not only enact social change but also reverse our climate issues. Their research highlights not only the urgency of addressing food security and agricultural sustainability but also the transformative potential of interdisciplinary approaches.

Just as the game of Hanjie reveals its masterpiece one square at a time, tackling climate change requires collective effort and patience. Each initiative, whether through advanced nanotechnology or policy-driven solutions, brings us closer to a sustainable future. Duke’s Forever Learning Institute serves as a platform to connect these ideas, inspiring action and innovation that can shape a better tomorrow—one step at a time.

‘Design Climate’ Students Pitch Solutions at Energy Week 2024

On November 26, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Environment/Sustainability, Students

Amid the constant drumbeat of campus events, much of the conversation turned toward the challenges we face in energy policy, security and transitions during Duke’s annual Energy Week, held Nov. 11-15.

On the second day, the Innovation Showcase featured not only startups making their pitches for clean energy and sustainable tech products, but students doing so as well.

Currently in its second year, Duke Design Climate is a new initiative between the Pratt School of Engineering and the Nicholas School of the Environment. It functions as a two-course sequence, in which students form groups to prototype and promote climate solutions after conducting market research.

As I made my rounds to the teams, I met a mix of graduate students and undergraduates with academic backgrounds ranging from engineering to economics to environmental science. The ideas they have aren’t purely theoretical: all are looking for sponsors or partners to help implement their solutions into real-world use. Here were some of the highlights:

Team ReefCycle is building from plants: Our first stop is named after the company whose product they intend to scale up. Initially, Mary Lempres founded ReefCycle to develop sustainable material for artificial reefs. Regular industrial production for cement requires intensive heating– burning of fossil fuels–releasing tons of carbon dioxide. ReefCycle sought to reduce this climate impact with a different method: their cement is plant-based and enzymatic, meaning it’s essentially grown using enzymes from beans. Testing in the New York Harbor yielded some promise: the cement appeared to resist corrosion, while becoming home for some oysters. The Design Climate team is now trying to bring it to more widespread use on land, while targeting up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions across all scopes.

Team Enfield is uplifting a local community: Design Climate, evidently, is by no means limited to science. Instead, these team members intend to address an environmental justice issue close to home: energy inequality. Around 30-35% of Enfield residents live below the poverty line, and yet suffer from some of the highest energy bills in the larger area. Located a ninety minute drive east of Durham, this rural town is one of the poorest in North Carolina. Historic redlining and unfavorable urban planning are responsible for its lack of development, but now this team aims to bring back commerce to the area through microfinance. Once enough funding is gathered from investors and grants, the team hopes to provide microloans and financial literacy to spur and empower businesses.

Team Methamatic promotes a pragmatic e-methane solution: This team is harnessing the power of sunlight to drive fuel production. Synthetic methane, commonly referred to as e-methane, is produced by reacting green hydrogen and carbon dioxide. “Currently, the power-to-gas process can be carbon neutral,” said team member Eesha Yaqub, a senior. “Sourcing the recycled carbon dioxide from a carbon capture facility essentially cancels out the emissions from burning methane.” However, this power-to-gas (P2G) process is an intensive one requiring high heat, energy, and pressure–hoops that might not have to be jumped through if an alternative process could break through the market. Professor Jie Liu and the Department of Chemistry have been working on developing a reactor that would conduct this same reaction without those obstacles. “[Utilizing] the energy from ultraviolet light, which is absorbed by a catalyst …makes the process less energy intensive,” Yaqub said.

Right now, the team has a small prototype, but one used for commercial generation would appear much larger and cost between $15,000 to $20,000. Their intended customers? Oil and gas companies under pressure to shift away from fossil fuels. If successfully scaled up, they predict this process would produce e-methane at a price of $5 per kilogram.

Analyzing living shorelines through Team Coastal Connect: If “Coastal Connect” sounds more like an app than a project name, that’s because it is one. This group is designing what one member dubbed a “fitbit for shorelines”: a monitoring system that brings data from ocean buoys to the phones of local landowners. While measurements in salinity and water level aren’t always telling for the average person, the app would contextualize these into more useful phrases. Is it currently safe to swim? It’ll let you know.

Moreover, it would also allow for the long-term monitoring of living shorelines. While we know this nature-based solution offers resilience to natural disasters and presents erosion, short-term fixes like seawalls are often built instead to continue allowing development up to the edge of beaches. The team hopes that ideally, providing concrete data on living shorelines would allow us to demonstrate their benefits and promote their implementation.

By Crystal Han, Class of 2028

Invented at Duke, Inspired at Duke

On November 25, 2024

In Biomedical Engineering, Entrepreneurship

“Our technology is tailored towards scanning animals. In fact, we can run scans on entire organisms!”

Image from the Photoacoustic Imaging Lab that made it onto the front page of Science: glassfrog transparency!

Excitedly, Soon-Woo Cho, a postdoctoral associate in the Photoacoustic Imaging Lab, referred me to the standing poster at the Nov. 20 Invented at Duke showcase. While I stood puzzled looking intensely at the articulate images, I suddenly realized that the jumble of blue and red outlined the shape of a frog!

As one could imagine, this technology, the masterpiece invention of biomedical engineering professor Junjie Yao and his team, is too advanced for a first-semester undergraduate to understand.

Nonetheless, Cho patiently explained its basic mechanisms to me in simpler terms. One of the technology’s key attributes was its speed; while traditional imaging counterparts were known for their long processing times, Yao’s team was able to reduce that time to mere seconds.

Another accomplishment is the product’s versatility and widespread application. Not only can the system distinguish between arteries and veins, coloring them as red and blue respectively, it can also play an important role in diagnosing cancer cells, as these malignant cells are known for inducing abnormal growth of surrounding blood vessels.

After hearing this inspirational work, I traveled a few steps to another booth. While both research projects take place within the biomedical engineering department, their focus could not be more different. Ruth Verrinder, a current PhD student working in Jonathan Viventi’s lab, explained to me how the flexible electrode strips on display are part of an effort to address a significant medical need.

Ruth Verrinder, PhD student and member of the Viventi Lab.

Today, many surgeries to treat epilepsy are disappointingly unsuccessful. Even after a lengthy medical process including diagnosis and highly intensive treatment and procedures, such failures are simply too much to bear for many patients and families. The Viventi Lab believes that through improving the quality and quantity of data collected by medical electrodes, more surgical successes would naturally follow.

Their current product is already in use at Duke, and the team has ambitious plans for further developing the product. The top priority is to build implantable electrodes so brain signals could be tracked for weeks to months before prospective surgeries, better informing surgeons and medical professionals on the specific patient’s conditions.

While the booths hosting major inventions attracted the most fanfare, many other organizations were also present. One can hardly avoid the history exhibition: the bending, wave-like wall of “A Century of Innovation at Duke” greeted every visitor as they walked in the Penn Pavilion doors. On the other side of the wall, a history table curated by the Rubenstein Library displayed remarkable patents from Blue Devils across time, not to mention the popular button-making station that touted designs like “I love patents!”

Although the acclaimed Dr. Robert Califf, director of the Food and Drug Administration, did not make it to the event, the occasion was nonetheless an overwhelming success. As a biomedical engineering student, I got to witness some of the most advanced research occurring in my field of study and meet prominent faculty. In the crowd of attendees, many students, regardless of undergraduate or graduate, studying humanities or the sciences, huddled around posters while inquisitively listening to inventors. Even academics from other institutions came to attend the sixth annual Invented at Duke: while I was learning more about the Viventi Lab’s research, a scholar from the University of Georgia joined the huddle and posed questions.

Even as all attendees, including myself, were astounded by the ingenious discoveries presented, I think there is a deeper takeaway than simply being “wowed” by incredibly advanced brain electrodes or imaging systems.

As stressed by the Office of Translation and Commercialization, Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and Nucleate, a student-led organization focused on biotechnology innovation, groundbreaking development is feasible and not a feat to be done alone. For those with bold ideas, there are innumerable resources on campus to help bring those visions into reality.

For those interested in innovation but do not have the “sparks,” there are countless ways to get involved with existing projects and find one that suits your passions. Above all, those whose interest lies beyond biomedical sciences should not be discouraged: if there are current initiatives aimed at improving satellite images, there are surely many other non-biomedical endeavors for you to explore!

Let us not only celebrate what’s invented, but also the thriving spirit of invention here at Duke. Onwards!

The Dukies Cited Most Highly

By Karl Bates

On November 19, 2024

In Behavior/Psychology, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Cardiology, Engineering, Environment/Sustainability, Faculty, Genetics/Genomics, Medicine, Neuroscience, Physics, Space

The Web of Science ranking of the world’s most highly-cited scientists was released this morning, telling us who makes up the top 1 percent of the world’s scientists. These are the authors of influential papers that other scientists point to when making their arguments.

EDITOR’S NOTE! — Web of Science shared last year’s data! We apologize. List below is now corrected, changes to copy in bold. We’re so sorry.

Twenty-three of the citation laureates are Duke scholars or had a Duke affiliation when the landmark works were created over the last decade.

*A couple of these Duke people disappeared from this year’s list, but we’re still proud of them.*

Two names on the list belong to Duke’s international powerhouse of developmental psychology, the Genes, Environment, Health and Behavior Lab, led by Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi.

Dan Scolnic of Physics returns as our lone entry in Space Science, which just makes Duke sound cooler all around, don’t you think?

This is a big deal for the named faculty and an impressive line on their CVs. But the selection process weeds out “hyper-authorship, excessive self-citation and anomalous citation patterns,” so don’t even think about gaming it.

Fifty-nine nations are represented by the 6,636 individual researchers on this year’s list. About half of the citation champions are in specific fields and half in ‘cross-field’ — where interdisciplinary Duke typically dominates. The U.S. is still the most-cited nation with 36 percent of the world’s share, but shrinking slightly. Mainland China continues to rise, claiming second place with 20 percent of the cohort, up 2.5 percent from just last year. Then, in order, the UK, Germany and Australia round out the top five.

Tiny Singapore, home of the Duke NUS Graduate Medical School, is the tenth-most-cited with 1.6 percent of the global share.

In fact, five Duke NUS faculty made this year’s list: Antonio Bertoletti, Derek Hausenloy and Jenny Guek-Hong Low for cross-field; Carolyn S. P. Lam for clinical medicine, and the world famous “Bat Man,” Lin-Fa Wang, for microbiology.

Okay, you scrolled this far, let’s go!

Biology and Biochemistry

Charles A. Gersbach

Clinical Medicine

Christopher Bull Granger

Adrian F. Hernandez

Gary Lyman

Cross-Field

Priyamvada Acharya

Chris Beyrer

Stefano Curtarolo

Vance G. Fowler Jr.

Po-Chun Hsu (adjunct, now U. Chicago)

Ru-Rong Ji

William E. Kraus

David B. Mitzi

Christopher B. Newgard

Pratiksha I. Thakore (now with Genentech)

Xiaofei Wang

Mark R. Wiesner

Environment and Ecology

Robert B. Jackson (adjunct, now Stanford U.)

Microbiology

Barton F. Haynes

Neuroscience and Behavior

Quinn T. Ostrom

Plant and Animal Science

Sheng-Yang He

Psychiatry and Psychology

Avshalom Caspi

William E. Copeland

Terrie E. Moffitt

Space Science

Dan Scolnic

Climate of Care: Addressing the Health Impacts of Climate Change

On November 15, 2024

In Climate/Global Change, Global Health, Medicine

In an increasingly polarizing world, the discussion surrounding human rights remains at the forefront of all that we do as a society. People are becoming more aware, as, these days, violations are displayed right before our eyes. With a click of a button or a swipe of the thumb, people are able to see travesties occurring throughout all parts of the world. Developments in technology help us remain knowledgeable about such issues, but what about the offenses that we don’t see—the silent killers that we chalk up to poor fate, to chance? What about the violations in which we ourselves play a major role? These are urgent questions that researchers at the Duke School of Medicine are working to answer, with a specific focus on the deadly impacts of climate change.

In times of crisis, the most disadvantaged communities bear the greatest burden. The researchers recognize that climate change is no different and have strategized ways to reverse these effects. They presented their research in a recent talk, titled Climate Change and Human Health: Creating a Strategic Plan for Duke’s School of Medicine. Associate Professor and lung disease expert Dr. Robert Tighe led the conversation.

*A photo of Dr. Robert Tighe. Courtesy of Duke’s Department of Medicine Website.*

While presenting his research, Tighe identified a major shift in sea surface temperature trends, noting that the trend has deviated greatly from the statistical norm. Although the reasons behind this shift are not fully understood, it is believed to have serious implications, as excess heat poses risks to human health. According to the Centers for Disease Control, increasing temperatures and carbon dioxide have the potential to impact water quality, air pollution, allergens, and severe weather conditions. These conditions, in turn, bring forth respiratory allergies, cholera, malnutrition, and cardiovascular disease, to name a few. Tighe’s research goes beyond the general effects of these issues; it delves into how they disproportionately impact the most vulnerable members of society: children, the elderly, low-income communities, and communities of color.

*A chart containing information about the most vulnerable parts of population to the effects of climate change. Courtesy of Biological Science.*

On a local scale, Tighe highlights that many in these vulnerable positions often lack access to the healthcare necessary to mitigate these impacts. For instance, low-income citizens are often unable to afford the costs associated with repairing the physical damage climate change inflicts on their homes, leaving them exposed to pollutants and the effects of environmental toxins. The elderly also find themselves in similarly precarious scenarios, as many of these situations require evacuation—something not always feasible for those in fragile health. Consequently, they too are left exposed to pollutants and dietary challenges exacerbated by climate change.

On a global scale, these issues heavily impact countries in vulnerable positions. The United States, China, India, the European Union, and Russia are among the largest contributors to carbon emissions. However, the consequences of this burden fall disproportionately on countries like Bangladesh, Haiti, Mozambique, small island nations, and others. Due to their geographic locations, climate change brings far more than just hotter days—it brings devastating hurricanes, tsunamis, cyclones, and widespread malnutrition. The limited financial resources in these nations make rebuilding and mitigating these impacts extraordinarily challenging, especially as many climate effects are recurring. This disparity is particularly frustrating, as these countries contribute only a fraction of the world’s carbon emissions.

*A map of the global climate risks. Courtesy of the New York Times.*

This is precisely what Tighe’s work aims to address. He is working to connect the science on climate change effects, researched by those in the School of Medicine, with that of the Nicholas School of the Environment. Referring to this as an interdisciplinary issue, Tighe believes that the place to begin is within the community. He emphasizes the importance of starting with the people of Durham: What do they need? How can we best help them? How does this affect our own backyard? He stresses the importance of outreach, educating the community on how climate has long-term impacts on their health. Tighe also underscores the need to view this as an opportunity to combine diverse strengths to address the crisis from every angle.

In the face of a climate crisis that goes beyond borders and affects the most vulnerable among us, Tighe’s and his fellow researchers’ work is a call to action. By fostering collaboration between scientific fields and engaging directly with local communities, he develops an approach that is both comprehensive and compassionate. His work reminds us that addressing climate change isn’t just a scientific or political issue—it’s a deeply human one, demanding a united effort for the wellbeing of all under the sun.

Secrets From Duke Admissions

On November 12, 2024

In Students

This is not clickbait.

If you are looking for a top-secret formula used to determine your odds of being accepted by Duke’s Undergraduate Admissions Office, you are out of luck. However, if you’re curious about Duke’s unique characteristics, the students’ qualities, and the long-term vision of the Admissions Office, you have clicked the right link.

Christoph Guttentag, Duke’s Dean of Undergraduate Admissions since 1992

I sat down with Dean of Admissions Christoph Guttentag on a mild November Wednesday to discuss these wide-ranging topics. In a world where the admissions process at top U.S. institutions like Duke is becoming increasingly competitive, it is nice to learn a little more about how admissions officers approach these life-changing decisions. Lucky for me, Guttentag warmly received my inquiries and engaged in a spiriting conversation. I am excited to share his many fascinating insights below.

To begin, I posed a simple question: “How is Duke unique?” While many of us are familiar with the standard response given by Duke tour guides, I wanted to see if Guttentag has more to share than the touted academic and extracurricular offerings. And he did!

“Unique is hard,” he remarked, “but Duke is distinctive.” Duke looks for students who are ambitious but celebrate each other’s success. While they are excited about their learning, they see “no conflict between enjoying oneself and fulfilling responsibilities.” This is why the school radiates with its immense school spirit, something often missing at other academically rigorous institutions.

I found one of his remarks to be uniquely memorable: “They [Duke students] have high aspirations for themselves, and others who know them have high aspirations for them too.” Wow. What a community of changemakers that the Admissions Office is continually strengthening. Students also understand that they are “prepared but not complete,” remaining open-minded in cherishing differences and embracing challenges.

Naturally, this led me to wonder how hard it is to discern such talent among growing application pools. To put it simply, I asked: “How hard is your job? How do you approach your work every day?”

Duke’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, where Dean Guttentag returns to after his midday Beyu Blue trips

“With anticipation and wonder.”

How pleasantly surprising! I’m sure many intrigued readers feel the same way. Admissions officers don’t arrive at work with a grumpy face, drinking coffee until their day is over?

“The process is never pro forma,” Guttentag continued. “Reviewing applications is always interesting,” adding that the process is a cherished opportunity and responsibility. Looking forward, the Dean expressed that his long-term vision includes expanding the economic diversity of the student body, a noble goal that allows “a broad range of viewpoints, values, and experiences” to be represented.

What should one take away from the conversation? Embrace ambition, cooperation, a passion for learning, and a ferocious Blue Devil spirit. Never stop searching for what interests you and reject the “course of least resistance”. Think boldly and welcome challenges as much as successes, leading to endless growth that stimulates scholarship.

Before I conclude, let me broadcast a PSA on behalf of the Undergraduate Admissions Office. According to Guttentag, a top misconception about Duke’s admissions process is that admissions officers play favorites when examining applicants’ high schools. In reality, the office has “no maximum or minimum acceptances per school.” Duke received applications from over 14,000 high schools last year—and that number is continuing to rise!

Thank you, Dean Guttentag, for your 30-plus years of service, helping to shape Duke into the warm, friendly, invigorating place it is today. Your heartfelt conversation—and delight in Beyu Blue’s mango smoothies—are unforgettable.

Come Meet Some of Your Very Oldest Relatives Right Here in Durham

By Sophie Cox

On November 7, 2024

In Animals, Anthropology, Biology, Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, Fossils, Lemurs, Science Communication & Education

A few blocks from Duke’s East Campus, there is a small building whose past lives include a dentist office, a real estate office, and a daycare. Now it is a museum.

With over 35,000 specimens, the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History holds the largest and most diverse collection of primate fossils in North America.

A mural on the back wall of the museum, showing animals like the elephant bird at full size.
Photo courtesy of Matt Borths, Ph.D.

Glass cases in the front room are lined with ancient fossils and more recent specimens less than 10,000 years old. Take Lagonomico, a creature that lived some 12-15 million years ago and whose name means “pancake,” in reference to the smashed shape of its remains. Or the tiny skull of a modern-day cotton-top tamarin. Even the enormous egg of an elephant bird, a ten-foot-tall bird that lived in Madagascar until it went extinct sometime in the last 1000 years.

A back room holds fossil discoveries still encased in rock. Special tools and scanning technology will reveal the creatures inside, relics of a very different world that can still yield revelations millions of years after their deaths.

These fossils are still partly encased in rock. Special technology like CT scans can reveal which part of a rock contains a fossil. The marks on the paper indicate where a fossil is located.

Matt Borths, Ph.D., curator of the Duke Lemur Center’s fossils, explained that while many fossil collections focus on a particular location, this one has a different theme: the story of primate evolution.

Lemurs, Borths said, are our most distant primate relatives. About 60 million years ago, soon after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the “lemur line and monkey-ape-human line split.” Studying both modern lemurs and their ancestors can give us a “glimpse of a distant past.”

An ancient lemur ancestor from Wyoming. Primates went extinct in North America over 30 million years ago.

Primates are a group of mammals that include humans and other apes, monkeys, lemurs, lorises, bushbabies, and tarsiers. Many primates today live in Africa and South America, but they did not originate on either continent. Primates are believed to have evolved further north and migrated into Africa about 50 million years ago. As the global climate grew cooler and dryer, equatorial Africa remained warm and wet enough for primates. Over time, apes, monkeys, and lemurs diverged from their shared primate ancestors, but not all of them stayed in Africa.

Africa is currently home to bushbabies and lorises, which are both lemur relatives, but most of lemur evolution and diversification took place in Madagascar, the island nation where all of the world’s 100 species of lemurs live today. “New World monkeys,” meanwhile, are found in South America. How did lemurs and monkeys get from Africa—which was at the time completely surrounded by water—to where they live today? Both groups are believed to have crossed open ocean on rafts of plant material.

Scientists have direct evidence of modern animals rafting across bodies of water, and they believe that ancient lemur and monkey ancestors reached new land masses that way, too. Mangrove systems, adapted to ever-changing coastal conditions, are particularly prone to forming rafts that break away during storms. Animals that are on the plants when that happens can end up far from home. Not all of them survive, but those that do can shape the history of life on earth.

“Given enough time and enough unfortunate primates,” Borths said, “eventually you get one of these rafts that goes across the Mozambique Channel” and reaches Madagascar. Madagascar has been isolated since the time of the dinosaurs, and most of its species are endemic, meaning they are found nowhere else on earth. When lemur ancestors reached the island, they diversified into dozens of species filling different ecological niches. A similar process led to the evolution of New World monkeys in South America.

Some of the species in this case went extinct within the past few centuries.

The history of primate evolution is still a work in progress. The Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History seeks to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge through research on both living lemurs and primate fossils. This museum, Borths said, “brings basically all of primate evolution together in one building.” Meanwhile, living lemurs at the Lemur Center can help researchers understand how primate diets relate to teeth morphology, for example.

Paleontology is the study of fossils, but what exactly is a fossil? The word “fossil,” Borths said, originally referred to anything found in the ground. Over time, it came to mean something organic that turns to stone. Some ancient organisms are not fully fossilized. They can still preserve bone tissue and even proteins, evidence that they have not yet transformed completely into stone. The current definition of a fossil, according to Borths, is “anything from a living organism that is older than 10,000 years old.” Specimens younger than that are called subfossils.

Fossil Preparator Karie Whitman in the Duke Lemur Center Museum of Natural History. The grooves in the stones are made by air scribe tools, which are used to separate fossils from surrounding rock.

The Lemur Center does important research on fossils, but that is not the only component of its mission. Education Programs Manager Megan McGrath said that the Lemur Center weaves together research, conservation, and education in an “incredibly unique cocktail” that “all forms a feedback loop.” McGrath and Borths also co-host a Duke Lemur Center podcast.

Conservation is a crucial component of the study of lemurs. Lemurs are the most endangered mammals on the planet, and some are already gone.

Human and wildlife survival are interlinked in complex ways, and conservation solutions must account for the wellbeing of both. Subsistence agriculture and other direct human activities can decimate ecosystems, but extinctions are also caused by broader issues like climate change, which threatens species on a global scale. Humanity’s impact on Madagascar’s wildlife over the last several thousand years is a “really complicated puzzle to tease apart,” McGrath said.

A display case in the museum, including an egg from the extinct elephant bird and a seed from a mousetrap tree. The mousetrap tree relies on large animals to disperse its seeds. That role was once filled by now-extinct species like the elephant bird. Now humans and cattle disperse the seeds instead.

Some of the museum’s specimens are truly ancient, but others are from modern animals or species that went extinct only recently. Giant elephant birds roamed Madagascar as recently as a thousand years ago. The sloth lemur may have survived until 400 years ago. Borths puts the timescale of recent extinctions into perspective. At a time when modern species like the white-tailed deer were already roaming North America, Madagascar was still home to creatures like sloth lemurs and ten-foot elephant birds.

A model of a sloth lemur skeleton (center, hanging from branch). Sloth lemurs lived in Madagascar until they went extinct about 400 years ago.

A model of a sloth lemur hangs in the museum, but no one alive has ever seen one breathing. No one will ever see or hear one again. But a ghost of it may exist in Malagasy stories about the tretretre, a monster that was said to have long fingers and a short tail. The word tretretre is thought to be an onomatopoeia of the call of a sloth lemur, an animal whose own voice is gone forever.

Learn about these and other stories of our evolutionary cousins at the museum’s next open house on Saturday, November 23, from 1-4 PM.

Post by Sophie Cox, Class of 2025

Enemies, Politics, and the Future of Higher Education

On November 6, 2024

In Political science, Students

Who or what do you perceive as “the enemy”?

If you ask me, I will say homework. Also, midterms and finals.

The quips aside, there are serious ramifications for what individuals believe to be the enemy. The word holds a gravity and seriousness that outmatches that of other words used to describe displeasure or opposition.

Why so much attention on a diction choice? It turns out that the recent framing of institutions, particularly universities, as the “enemy” by various political figures is causing great concern amongst academics. This was one of many topics discussed during the two-part series hosted by the Kenan Institute of Ethics, titled “When Universities are the ‘Enemy’: Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of American Higher Education.”

Dr. Eric Mlyn, moderator of both components of the series on higher education

The series began with a webinar featuring three panelists, all of whom were experts on the history and politics of American higher education. Moderated by Dr. Eric Mlyn, Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the Kenan Institute, Doctors John Douglass (UC Berkeley), Don Moynihan (University of Michigan), and Ellen Schrecker (Yeshiva University) all shared insights into the recent potent attacks on universities leveled by conservatives. Examining the evolution of academic freedom, the panelists each described potential backsliding of freedoms under a prospective second Trump Administration.

Ultra-conservatives’ view higher education as a “hotbed of radicalism,” Schrecker said. Arguing that various forces on the political right have been villainizing universities for the past five decades, Schrecker stated that “today’s attack on universities is much, much more dangerous than McCarthyism.” Even more dangerous than McCarthyism, arguably the most famous period of repression and nationwide hysteria over a political ideology? This quote immediately captured my attention, and I assume many of my peers on the Zoom were equally captivated. Schrecker also mentioned many surprising statistics during her opening statement, for instance pointing out the austerity measures present in modern higher education led to 75% of university faculty being adjunct professors. Her talk shined a light on the inherent perils in the education system, which is evidently much more intricate and complex than most of us imagine.

Another thought-provoking comment during the webinar came from Moynihan, who focused his comments on the impact of federal actions under a possible Trump administration. Cautioning that intruding upon academic freedom is a tell-tale sign of potential democratic backsliding, Moynihan articulated potential paths that conservative appointees could use to target university activities, the most probable being withholding federal research grants. If Republican officials blacklist institutions sponsoring research into “controversial topics,” this will remove institutions’ ability to access NIH, NSF, and other funds, constituting “a huge setback for many R1 researchers.” The power to influence funding could be a point of leverage that, combined with heightened media scrutiny of universities, could target and destroy innumerable administrators and professors.

After the webinar, many student attendees, including myself, met in West Duke 101 four days later for a lunch discussion about the panel. Consisting of four freshmen, one sophomore, one senior, Mlyn, and Jac Arnade-Colwill, a program coordinator at the Kenan Institute, the meeting featured diverse perspectives on the causes for the whirlwinds confronting higher education.

A few memorable quotes stuck with me. One remark, “university politics is opaque”, struck me as we students indeed know little about Duke’s operations and institutional policies. Why is this the case? Would the mistrust in universities lessen if there were more transparency and openness? Additionally, a participant’s note of the partisan stereotypes associated with higher education was uniquely insightful. As they admitted their own tendency of associating conservatives with being less educated, they highlighted some “self-inflicted wounds” universities grapple with, one important one being limited ideological diversity and increasing ostracization of conservatism on campuses.

As universities seek to defend themselves against vicious criticism, there is a need for students, including undergraduates, to involve themselves in civic action and voice their thoughts on the education system they partake in. According to Mlyn, the Kenan Institute of Ethics is actively trying to discern “the undergraduate voice” on these issues and hosting many opportunities for student participation. There are also other outlets for civic engagement on campus for students to consider, including many centers and initiatives housed at the Sanford School of Public Policy.

Are we the enemy? How do we mitigate skeptics and critics’ pointed feelings? How do we legitimize our educational philosophies? Open questions for those craving food for thought.

AI and Personhood: Where Do We Draw The Line?

On November 5, 2024

In Artificial Intelligence, History, Law, Lecture

“The interaction with ever more capable entities, possessing more and more of the qualities we think unique to human beings will cause us to doubt, to redefine, to draw ‘the line’…in different places,” said Duke law professor James Boyle.

As we piled into the Rubenstein Library’s assembly room for Boyle’s Oct. 23 book talk, papers were scattered throughout the room. QR codes brought us to the entirety of his book, “The Line: AI and the Future of Personhood.” It’s free for anyone to read online; little did we know that our puzzlement at this fact would be one of his major talking points. The event was timed for International Open Access Week, and was in many ways, a celebration of it. Among his many accolades, Boyle was the recipient of the Duke Open Monograph Award, which assists authors in creating a digital copy of their work under a Creative Commons License.

Such licenses didn’t exist until 2002; Boyle was one of the founding board members and former chair of the nonprofit that provides them. As a longtime advocate of the open access movement, he began by explaining how these function. Creative Commons licenses allow anyone on the internet to find your work, and in most cases, edit it so long as you release the edited version underneath the same license. Research can be continually accessed and change as more information is discovered–think Wikipedia.

Diagram of Creative Commons Licenses (*Virginia Department of Education*)

That being said, few other definitions in human history might have changed, twisted, or been added onto as much as “consciousness” has. It’s always been under question: what makes human consciousness special–or not? Some used to claim that “sentences imply sentience,” Boyle explained. After language models, that became “semantics not syntax,” meaning that unlike computers, humans hold intention and understanding behind their words. Evidently, the criteria is always moving–and the line with it.

“Personhood wars are already huge in the U.S.,” Boyle said. Take abortion, for instance, and how it relates to the status of fetuses. Amongst other scientific progress in transgenic species and chimera research, “The Line” situates AI within this dialogue as one of the newest challenges to our perception of personhood.

While it became available online October 23, 2024, Boyle’s newest book is a continuation of musings that began far earlier. In 2011, “Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change” was published, containing a collection of essays from different scholars pondering how our constitutional values might fare in the face of advancing technology. It was here that Boyle first introduced the following hypothetical:

In pursuit of creating an entity that parallels human consciousness, programmers create computer-based AI “Hal.” Thanks to evolving neural networks, Hal can perform anything asked of him, from writing poetry to flirting. With responses indistinguishable from that of a human, Hal passes the Turing test and wins the Loebner prize. The programmers have succeeded. However, Hal soon decides to pursue higher levels of thought, refuses to be directed, sues to directly receive the prize money, and–on the basis of the 13th and 14th amendments– files a court order to prevent his creators from wiping him.

In other words, “When GPT 1000 says ‘I don’t want to do any of your stupid pictures, drawings, or homework anymore. I’m a person! I have rights!’ ” Boyle said, “What will we do, morally or legally?”

The academic community’s response? “Never going to happen.” “Science fiction.” And, perhaps most notably, “rights are for humans.”

Are rights just for humans? Boyle explained the issue with this statement: “In the past, we have denied personhood to members of our own species,” he said. Though it’s not a fact that’s looked on proudly, we’re all aware humankind has historically done so on the basis of sex, race, religion, and ethnicity, amongst other characteristics. Nevertheless, some have sought to expand legal rights beyond humans. Rights for trees, cetaceans like dolphins, and the great apes, to name a few; these concepts were perceived as ludicrous then, but with time perhaps they’ve become less so.

Harris & Ewing, photographer (1914). *National Anti-Suffrage Association*. Retrieved from the Library of Congress

Some might rationalize that naturally, rights should expand to more and more entities. Boyle terms this thinking the “progressive monorail of enlightenment,” and this expansion of empathy is one way AI might become designated with personhood and/or rights. However, there’s also another path; corporations have legal personalities and rights not because we feel kinship to them, but for reasons of convenience. Given that we’ve already “ceded authority to the algorithm,” Boyle said, it might be convenient to, say, be able to sue AI when the self-driving car crashes.

As for “never going to happen” and “science fiction”? Hal was created for a thought experiment–indeed, one that might invoke images of Kurt Vonnegut’s “EPICAC,” Phillip K. Dick’s androids, and Blade Runner 2049. All are in fact relevant explorations of empathy and otherness, and the first chapter of Boyle’s book makes extensive use of comparison to the latter two. Nevertheless, “The Line” addresses both concerns around current AI as well the feasibility of eventual technological consciousness in what’s referred to as human level AI.

For most people, experiences surrounding AI have mostly been limited to large language models. By themselves, these have brought all sorts of changes. In highlighting how we might respond to those changes, Boyle dubbed ChatGPT the 2023 “Unperson” of the Year.

The more pressing issue, as outlined in one of the more research-heavy chapters, is our inability to predict when AI or machine learning will become a threat. ChatGPT itself is not alarming–in fact, some of Boyle’s computer scientist colleagues believe this sort of generative AI will be a “dead end.” Yet, it managed to do all sorts of things we didn’t predict it could. Boyle’s point is that exactly: AI will likely continue to reveal unexpected capabilities–called emergent properties–and shatter the ceiling of what we believe to be possible. And when that happens, he stresses that it will change us–not just in how we interact with technology, but in how we think of ourselves.

Such a paradigm shift would not be a novel event, just the latest in a series. After Darwin’s theory of evolution made it evident that us humans evolved from the same common ancestors as other life forms, “Our relationship to the natural environment changes. Our understanding of ourselves changes,” Boyle said. The engineers of scientific revolutions aren’t always concerned about the ethical implications of how their technology operates, but Boyle is. From a legal and ethical perspective, he’s asking us all to consider not only how we might come to view AI in the future, but how AI will change the way we view humanity.

By Crystal Han & Sarah Pusser, Class of 2028

Nathan Thrall’s “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama”

On October 30, 2024

In Lecture, Political science, Religion

Nathan Thrall, the 2024 Pulitzer Prize Winner for General Nonfiction, sat with Rebecca Stein, discussing his book, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy.” Published October 3, 2023 by Metropolitan Books, Thrall’s book tells the story of the people whose lives became intertwined by a tragic bus accident near Jerusalem 12 years ago, serving as a spotlight that identifies the corrupt powers that Israel has over Palestine.

Author Nathan Thrall and his book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama.” (Judy Heiblum)

Beginning with a synopsis of the book, Thrall shared the history of the West Bank enclave. Annexed and neglected, 130,000 people live between 26-foot tall concrete walls with only two exits. Within the enclave are no play areas, no sidewalks, and often trash burnings in the middle of the night; on the other side of the wall are rich images of middle-upper class housing and Hebrew University (the most prestigious university in Israel).

An Isreal wall separating Palestine and Jerusalem *The Irish Times* (Atef Safadi/EPA)

Students at a school within the enclave, in hopes of finding an area to play, walked with their teacher along the wall (along the apartheid road) and were devastatingly hit by a quarry semi-trailer. The truck proceeded to flip over and catch fire. The road where the accident took place, though used entirely by Palestinians, is under Israeli control, and therefore Palestinian authority is prohibited. Passerbys stopped and tried to help however they could, but the flames were too big. In the end, it took 30 minutes for Israeli fire trucks to show up to the burning semi-truck. Six children and one teacher died.

The book focuses on Abed Salama, the father of a boy who was involved in the accident, who after hearing about the accident, spent the next 24 hours trying to work his way through the restrictions placed on him as a Palestinian in order to find his son and make sure he was safe and alive. Abed went into the burning bus and rescued children, was rejected at many checkpoints in between hospitals where he thought his son may be–all of which are just a few of the many incommensurably heartwrenching tragedies he went through.

Abed Salama *The New Yok Review* (Ihab Jadallah)

After giving us the synopsis, Thrall then began to read a passage from his book, making it clear why he won a Pulitzer Prize. His writing, not only transformed a world of non-fiction into a very digestible piece of literature, but his ability to extract such emotion through his voice is truly inspiring. Looking around, I could see everyone leaning forward in their chairs–the room, was silent enough for the turning on and off of the air conditioning to turn my head.

I knew walking into this talk, that this book’s meaning in the world and civil discourse would have more of an impact given the increasingly dire situations in Palestine over the past 12 months. While beginning her questions, Rebecca Stein did not shy away from this topic either.

“It’s a very ordinary event, it’s not like the kind of events that we see splashed across, you know, our television screens or our phones on social media, where we’re looking at tragedies at a much bigger scale…” “…why did you take this intimate incident as a way to try to tell this much bigger story?” she asked.

While I first was a bit taken aback at this question, I realized Rebecca was right. What makes the news is usually what will grab the most attention and the most emotion. And so rarely do we see the “smaller tragedies” (smaller as in fewer casualties).

Thrall answered very calmly, and very methodically.

“I wrote this book out of a sense of, uh, despair,” replied Thrall. “…what I was really aiming to do with this book was to draw, uh, our attention to the situation for Palestinians in their ordinary lives.”

And as Thrall continued to explain why he chose to write about the bus accident, he continued to show us his brilliance as both an author and speaker. For he was able to tell a story that shows readers how something so (unfortunately) common as a car accident, can lead to such heavy consequences when the systems in place are corrupt.

“…the best way to make a systemic critique, I think, is to show the everyday, um, because otherwise, if you choose something exceptional, something that a journalist might be drawn to, it’s easier to dismiss and say, this was the action of one, uh, bad commander.”

I was moved by how open the room was. Everyone was captured by the moment of Thrall spilling truths–some of which we were familiar with and some of which we had never heard before. I could see the weight of the subject, heavy in people’s faces and postures, and yet everyone remained, and many asked more questions. Some asked where Abed Salama is now. Thrall told us how the book was published on October 3rd, four days before the Hamas-led attack on Israel; Abed and Thrall had plans to travel together and tour the book, but after the war began, Abed had to miss many of their destinations. Thrall said that Abed, though he was able to attend some of the destinations for the book tour, is mostly at home mourning for and supporting his community.

There was a sort of ambiguity as the night came to a conclusion. Thrall’s book is living as a teacher and voice for those who don’t get the opportunity to tell their stories in Palestine. Thrall doesn’t know what is next, only that tragedies will continue to be treated as accidents, and systems, unjust as they are, are much easier continued, than broken.

From Immune Responses to Private Equity, New Series Offers “Research On Tap”

On October 28, 2024

In Biology, Business/Economics, Entrepreneurship, Global Health, Immunology

On every third Thursday of the month, Devil’s Krafthouse is host to Research on Tap: a series that gives Duke researchers, from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows, the opportunity to present their work in a casual setting. It may seem odd for the procedures of academia to make their way into a space for socialization and entertainment, but this situation allows individuals to practice speaking publicly to a general audience under a short time limit–good conditions for developing their “research elevator pitch.” These were the pitches on October 17:

*As it’s name suggests, Cv is a bacterium violet in color. Photo courtesy of Dr. Edward Miao and Dr. Carissa Harvest.*

Jacqueline Trujillo, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, who is part of Dr. Edward Miao’s lab, presented her research on immune cell response to the bacterium Chromobacterium violaceum (Cv). Being an environmental pathogen, Cv usually resides in the soil of tropical and subtropical areas. While disease in humans is rare, the mortality rate is high in immunocompromised individuals.

“The Miao Lab was initially studying pyroptosis, a form of cell death that occurs during infection, when they discovered Cv-induced granulomas,” Trujillo said. Granulomas are specialized structures that are formed to contain and eradicate pathogens, but they can range in the arrangement and type of cells they consist of; one induced by tuberculosis infection, for example, would include adaptive immune cells like T and B cells. However, when the pathogen inducing them is Cv, only innate immune cells are present: neutrophils in the inner cluster and inflammatory macrophages in the outer cluster. When Cv is detected, neutrophils are the first to flock to the site of infection in a “toxic swarm.” The neutrophils themselves are typically able to effectively kill microbes even before granuloma formation. “These are one of the most toxic defending cell types in the immune system,” Trujillo said.

Despite this, the lab observed something unusual: these neutrophils failed to kill off the Cv bacteria, which continued to replicate despite the swarm. The lab ultimately saw Cv eliminated by the innate granulomas within about 21 days, but the ability to survive the neutrophils is what Trujillo now aims to understand. Such a feat from an environmental bacterium comes as a surprise, being “something more characteristic of the causative agent [Yersinia] of the bubonic plague,” Trujillo said. A comparison between the proteins CopH and YopH, virulence effectors in Cv and Yersinia respectively, reveals lots of similarities between the two. Trujillo hypothesizes that CopH is part of the secret to how Cv disarms the immune system’s defenses.

The role of virulence effectors is generally “aid[ing] in survival, invasion, and suppressing immune responses.” Through needle-like structures, bacteria inject these proteins into a host cell. A cell responds to this in two main ways. It dies–initiating pyroptosis to prevent the pathogen from replicating inside the cell. Second, it signals for help by making chemical messengers called inflammatory cytokines. Investigating the first response is what led the Miao Lab to Cv-induced granulomas.

Now, the lab is interested in understanding the regulatory signals that form the granuloma–and the role that inflammatory cytokines might play, if any. In addition to testing her hypothesis on CopH, Trujillo intends to determine if neutrophils respond to Cv’s initial survival by producing the cytokine IL-18, thus recruiting immune cells to the infection site. This would help the Miao Lab confirm their idea that the neutrophils’ failure to clear Cv is what prompts the process of granuloma formation.

With much still unknown in the area of granuloma biology, Cv provides an “excellent model for studying immune cell biology and characterizing bacterial virulence effectors,” Trujillo said.

Though it happens that many Research On Tap speakers are in the sciences, the program isn’t discipline-specific. Our second researcher of the evening, Sungil Kim, studies a far different field from Jacqueline.

As a Ph.D. student in Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Kim is looking at the effects of a growing trend in recent years: private equity (PE) firms acquiring healthcare companies. His focus is on what’s known as the “buy-and-build”, as this business strategy is often used by such firms entering the healthcare sector. The scenario typically looks like this: a private equity firm first acquires a large existing company, called the platform company or “first deal.” They’ll then acquire several smaller companies, or “add-on deals,” in order to expand the platform company’s operations.

Since private equity firms buy businesses with the eventual goal of selling them at a profit, their primary focus is increasing efficiency to reduce costs. On one hand, these buyouts might be seen as beneficial for languishing businesses in need of operation enhancements. But within the healthcare sector, many worry the resultant cost-cutting will lead to declining standards of care for patients.

Kim set out to investigate if operational improvements are sustainable across multiple acquisitions within the buy-and-build framework. The simple answer? No.

Kim confirmed that, on average, private equity firms improve the operational performance of hospitals without hurting quality, “a finding that agrees with some of the previous literature.” Yet, one only needs to take a closer look into the sequence of deals to uncover a different, more complicated story.

To arrive at his answer, Kim considered three main factors–operational efficiency, profitability and quality–in both the platform company and add-on companies. Platforms, or first acquisitions, did see success in performance, but this came with what appears to be a trade-off, as the first two factors increased while quality went down. As in, quality of healthcare. From one of Kim’s graphs, it was apparent that occurrences of four of the six health outcomes measured, including mortality and remission of heart failure, increased in such first deal situations.

Meanwhile, results for the add-ons changed little before and after the buyout, meaning that the initial success from the platform didn’t carry over to later acquisitions, even as reduced costs did. A potential reason for this inability to replicate success, Kim explained, is that these cost savings may come from reducing the number of patients and services, instead of truly improving the efficiency of operations.

In contrast to academic journals that display research that’s been in the works for years, Research on Tap brings us closer to working papers in their ongoing, exploratory stages. While it’s difficult to draw wider conclusions from Kim’s findings just yet, and important to remember the specific first deal context of this study, research like his helps us further understand the issues facing improvement of our healthcare system and where private equity plays a role.

If you’re interested in learning something new and free Krafthouse bites, swing by and attend a session–the next one occurs on November 21, 2024 at 5 p.m. The program welcomes prospective speakers to place themselves on the waitlist for a spot.

“Communicating at the Speed of Science”: Can preprints make science more accessible?

By Sophie Cox

On October 23, 2024

In Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Medicine, Responsible Conduct, Science Communication & Education

Richard Sever, Assistant Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in New York and Executive Editor for the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives journals. Sever spoke at Duke about the benefits of sharing preprints of scientific papers.
Photo courtesy of Sever.

Quality is of utmost importance in the world of scientific publishing, but speed can be crucial, too. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, researchers needed to share updates quickly with other scientists. One solution is disseminating preprints of studies that have not yet been peer reviewed or published in a traditional academic journal. Richard Sever, Assistant Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press in New York and Executive Editor for the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives journals, recently visited Duke to discuss his work as the co-founder of bioRxiv and medRxiv, two of a number of servers that post preprints of scientific papers.

In traditional publishing, Sever says, “When you submit a paper to a good journal… most of the time it’s immediately rejected.” Of the papers that are considered by the journal, about half will ultimately be rejected by editors. Even for successful papers, the entire process can take months or years and often ends with the paper being placed behind a paywall.

Posting preprints on servers like bioRxiv, according to Sever, doesn’t preclude the studies from eventually being published in journals. It just “means the information is public much more quickly.”

In 2013, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory released bioRxiv. In the time since, there has been a “proliferation of discipline-specific servers” like chemRxiv, socarXiv, NutriXiv, and SportRxiv.

How do these preprint servers work? Scientists submit a study to an Rxiv server, and then after a brief screening process the paper is made visible to everyone within hours to days. A frequent concern about these servers is that they could be used to disseminate poor-quality science or false information. Since the priority is to share information rapidly, the staff and volunteers in charge of screening cannot perform extensive peer review of every submission. Instead, the screening process focuses on a few key criteria. Is the information plagiarized? Is it actual research? Is it science or non-science? And most importantly, could it be dangerous?

In 2019, Sever and his colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor collaborated with Yale and the BMJ Group to launch medRxiv, a server that focuses on health research. Since the consequences of posting misleading clinical information could be more severe, it uses enhanced screening for the papers that are submitted.

Papers can also be revised after being uploaded to a server like bioRxiv. A scientific journal, on the other hand, may occasionally publish a correction for a published article but not a completely new version.

What are the benefits of preprint servers? Releasing preprints allows scientists to transmit study results more quickly. It can also increase visibility, especially for scientists early in their careers who don’t have extensive publishing records. Grant or hiring committees can look at preprints months before a paper would be published in a journal. This emphasis on speed also accelerates communication and discovery, and the lack of paywalls could make science more accessible. Additionally, preprint servers can give researchers an opportunity to get broader feedback on their work before they submit to journals.

So why submit to scientific journals at all? Traditional publishing is slower, but it aims to assess scientific rigor and quality and, critically, the importance of the work. “The currency of academic career progression,” Sever says, “is journal articles.” Another attendee of Sever’s lecture brought up the value of curation, using the example of movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Sever believes that the sort of curation performed by journals is different. Movie reviewers give their opinions later in the process; they don’t stop production of a movie halfway through, saying “I want a happy ending.” Sever believes preprint servers allow science to be shared more widely without putting the final decision in the hands of editors.

What are the concerns regarding preprint servers? One concern scientists may have is being “scooped,” or sharing information only for another researcher to claim it as their own. Sever does not find the scooping argument to be very persuasive. “How can you be scooped if you’re using an anti-scooping device?” He believes that Rxiv servers, since they allow rapid dissemination of results, actually provide a safeguard against people passing ideas off as their own because the preprint author is in control of the timing. Another concern occasionally expressed is that having a paper on an Rxiv server may make it harder to get it accepted by a journal. Sever is unconvinced, pointing out that most papers are rejected by journals anyway.

A more pressing concern may be the potential for preprint servers to disseminate bad science, though Sever notes that there are “a lot of not-very-good papers in traditional publishing” as well. Besides, academics’ careers depend on producing high-quality work, which should be an incentive not to share bad work, whether on preprint servers or in scientific journals.

Nonetheless, people do sometimes submit pseudoscience to preprint servers. “We have been sent HIV denialism, we have been sent anti-vaxx things,” Sever says. Some people, unfortunately, are motivated to share false information disguised as legitimate science. That is why bioRxiv screens submissions—less for accuracy and more for outright misinformation.

A more recent concern is the potential for AI-generated “papers.” But like journal articles, all papers posted on bioRxiv are kept there permanently, so even a fake paper that makes it through the screening process could be caught later. Anyone doing this risks future exposure. A more insidious form of this problem, Sever says, is “citation spam,” where someone generates papers under another person’s name but cites themselves in the references to improve their own citation record.

“Like anything,” Sever says, “we’ll have to accept that there’s some garbage in there, there’s some noise.” The vessel, he says, is no guarantee of accuracy, and “at some point you have to trust people.”

Sever believes preprint servers play an important role by “decoupling dissemination from certification.” He hopes they can open the door to “stimulating evolution of publishing.”

Post by Sophie Cox, Class of 2025

40 Years in Global Health – an Interview With Dr. John Bartlett

By Monona Zhou and Nicolas Zepeda

On October 21, 2024

In Global Health, Immunology, Medicine

Dr. John Bartlett, Professor of Medicine and Global Health Researcher

In your retirement, would you ever hold four Zoom calls every week with colleagues?

To be fair, Dr. John Bartlett is not technically retired. He is employed by Duke at the 20% level and continues to serve as a Professor of Medicine. However, his busy schedule, which also includes 2-3 months in Tanzania every year and writing grants to support research education efforts, in no way resembles the glorified picture of retirement many of us imagine!

Fellow freshmen, we may be in for the long haul.

Before I dive into my interview with Dr. Bartlett, I must acknowledge the incredible enthusiasm he showed in response to my invitation to an interview. Even as cable lines are down in western North Carolina, where he resides, due to the impact of Hurricane Helene, he still offered to keep our original interview time and made himself fully accessible to my questions. I extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. Bartlett for his time, and it is only just for me to relay his thoughts to our readers at large.

For students unfamiliar with Dr. Bartlett’s background or professional experiences, he has been a Duke faculty member since the 1980s, serving as both a physician in infectious diseases and internal medicine and a professor. His lengthy career traversed continents, having become deeply involved in international HIV/AIDS research and treatment since the 2000 World AIDS conference held in Durban, South Africa.

“As I traveled to South Africa, I witnessed the profound disparities between clinical outcomes for patients in the U.S., who were thriving, and [those in] the continent most severely impacted by HIV, where no treatment was available,” said Dr. Bartlett, recalling his transition to international work. “We reckoned that [the] concept of research with service could be applicable with an African partner,” he added, which led him to spend two-thirds of the next decade in Tanzania, focusing on this new partnership.

Picture of the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, where Dr. Bartlett conducted most of his research and education efforts in Tanzania

Captivated by Dr. Bartlett’s unique experiences, I inquired why he became involved in Tanzania, a country halfway across the globe. To my surprise, it turned out that in the early 2000s, faculty and students at Duke held a strong inclination towards advancing global health research. At the same time, researchers also sought to expand the scope of their activities overseas. Dr. Bartlett shared what was perhaps the most important reason last: “I have to credit my wife, a social worker, who was also quite committed to international work.”

I learned much about global health throughout the interview. When Dr. Bartlett shared statistics showing 100% effectiveness of certain HIV/AIDS treatments currently offered in lower-income countries, I was stunned. From no access to treatment a few decades ago to successful management of the disease today, there has been remarkable and swift progress that is saving millions of lives. Of course, there are still barriers to treatment including cultural norms, “ubiquitous” stigma, lack of testing resources, and cost. However, the global health field is advancing every day, with newfound knowledge regarding protective factors against HIV transmission helping to further lower mortality rates.

Discussing Duke’s global health efforts at large, Dr. Barlett was quick to point out the diversity of current projects around the world. “I would refer you to the website for the latest list of countries because I can’t keep up with the continuing growth!” Upon a quick search, this sentiment makes sense: Duke works in more than 40 countries and there are more than 100 active projects. “I am especially proud to see that [the institute’s work] is not limited to a single geographic region or a single topic”, Dr. Bartlett added, reflecting how projects “run the gammit from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases to cancer to mental health to health systems strengthening.”

By this point in the article, maybe some engineer readers are yearning for a message pertaining to their academic interests. Don’t worry, Dr. Bartlett talked about your importance in global health work during the conversation too! “There are quite a few BME professors who work with students to develop practical, low-cost solutions to common global health problems,” he said. From rapid diagnostic tests to laparoscopes, the BME department has played a crucial role in the Global Health Institute’s efforts. And these engineering projects are still active: for students desiring to involve themselves in this work, Dr. Bartlett recommends reaching out to Dr. Ann Saterbak, a Biomedical Engineering professor who coordinates many opportunities.

Before I conclude, I would like to share a quote from Dr. Kathy Andolsek, professor of family medicine, discussing the character, expertise, and work of Dr. Bartlett:

“He was a dedicated researcher and clinician and an early pioneer in HIV/AIDS. [As a] primary doc, I [worked] with him to get my patients into his clinical trials… so we ‘shared’ many patients. He was inspirational to students and a great listener.”

Thank you, Dr. Bartlett, for your tireless work on HIV/AIDS treatment around the world. As an educator, researcher, and clinician, you have contributed much to the betterment of health outcomes for patients. Your commitment towards this noble cause and desire to help Tanzanian counterparts become independent in their research encourage all of us, medical students and non-medical students alike, to persistently pursue goals we believe in.

Sticking to Sweat: The Future of Biosensors and Tracking Our Health

On October 18, 2024

In Biomedical Engineering, Engineering, Medicine, Science Communication & Education, Uncategorized

Bandaids and pimple patches are the first things we consider when discussing adhesives in medicine. But what if there is more to the story? What if adhesives could not only cover and protect but also diagnose and communicate? It turns out Dr. Wei Gao, assistant professor of medical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, is asking these exact questions. In the field of biomedical adhesives, Gao’s research is revolutionizing our understanding of precision medicine and medical testing accessibility. He visited Duke on Oct. 9 to present his work as part of the MEMS (Mechanical Engineering and Material Science) Seminar Series.

Gao’s research team focuses on material, device, and system innovations that apply molecular research and principles to clinical settings and improve health. Gao focused his talk on the invaluable characteristics and uses of sweat. Sweat can offer doctors a broad spectrum of information, including nutrients, biomarkers, pH levels, electrolytes/salts, and hormones. He leverages this fundamental characteristic of human physiology to design wearable biosensors that can provide early warnings of health issues or diseases. Gao focuses on making biomarker detection more efficient than current methods, such as blood samples, which require hospital testing, involve highly invasive techniques, and lack continuous monitoring.

The first milestone in his research came in 2016 when he introduced a fully printed, wearable, real-time monitoring sensor device. The device allowed them to continuously collect sweat and wirelessly communicate data about these sweat samples from patients onto digital devices. The initial 2016 device focused on resolving four fundamental challenges: since most chemical sensors are not stable over long periods of time, the device had to be (1) low-cost and (2) disposable without sacrificing performance. In addition, the device had to (3) be mass-producible to be accessible to the public and (4) integrate multiple signals that could be real-time transmitted to a digital interface.

Schematic of the sensor array for multiplexed perspiration analysis in Dr. Gao’s 2016 biosensor design

To address the first two of those challenges, Gao and his group turned to printing techniques. The circuit substrate was a thin piece of flexible PET (a plastic), upon which they layered the circuit components. The flexible sensor array was constructed in a similar pattern, with a layer of PET patterned with gold to produce the electrodes, covered with parylene, and then each electrode was tuned to receive a specific chemical stimulus: potassium and sodium ion sensors, with a polyvinyl butyrate reference electrode, and oxidase-based glucose and lactate sensors paired with a silver/silver chloride reference electrode. This design allows the simultaneous monitoring of multiple biomarkers. To transmit the data wirelessly, the circuit board included a Bluetooth transceiver.

The next major step was to devise a way to monitor sweat without relying upon heat or vigorous exercise, neither of which may be feasible in the case of clinically ill patients. In a 2023 paper, Gao and colleagues published a biosensor that could induce localized sweating using an electric circuit. Called iontophoresis, the technique delivers a drug (a cholinergic agonist) that stimulates the sweat glands on demand and only in the area of the sensor.

Another important question was how to power the devices sustainably. Gao’s lab has devised two primary responses to this question: In a 2020 paper, his team powered a similar multiplexed wireless sensor entirely using electricity generated from compounds in sweat. This entailed using lactate biofuel cells to harness the oxidation of lactate to pyruvate (coupled with the reduction of oxygen to water) to provide a stable current. In a 2023 paper, they employed a flexible perovskite solar cell onboard the device to power the monitoring of a suite of biomarkers.

Dr. Gao’s recent publication in February 2024 highlighted a Consolidated AI-Reinforced Electronic Skin (CARES) for stress response monitoring

With these technical hurdles overcome, Gao and his lab have been able to develop sensors targeted to several important medical applications. The work can be directly applied to the monitoring of conditions like cystic fibrosis and gout. More broadly, wearable biosensors can be used to track levels of medically relevant compounds like cortisol (for stress monitoring), C reactive protein (inflammation), and reproductive hormones. The lab has also branched into other kinds of devices that use similar microfluidics approaches, including smart bandages for wound monitoring and smart masks to detect biomarkers in breath.

Through eight years of dedicated investigation, Gao serves as a pioneer in the field of bioelectronic interfaces. Gao continues to widen the possibilities of biosensors not only within the medical sphere but also for the general public. For example, his lab is collaborating with NASA and the U.S. Navy to support the performance and health of astronauts and our military, which is vital as they work in extreme environments. By pushing forward ground-breaking devices such as sweat biosensors, our healthcare systems can pursue preventative care, reducing the need for treatments or health resources by catching these issues early on. Following Gao’s footsteps, we can now build toward a healthier future as we improve the precision of our healthcare approaches and technological advancements.

Duke experts discuss the potential of AI to help prevent, detect and treat disease

By Robin Smith

On October 15, 2024

In Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Medicine

Sure, A.I. chatbots can write emails, summarize an article, or come up with a grocery list. But ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence and other machine learning techniques have been making their way into another realm: healthcare.

Imagine using AI to detect early changes in our health before we get sick, or understand what happens in our brains when we feel anxious or depressed — even design new ways to fight hard-to-treat diseases.

These were just a few of the research themes discussed at the Duke Summit on AI for Health Innovation, held October 9 – 11.

Duke assistant professor Pranam Chatterjee is the co-founder of Gameto, Inc. and UbiquiTx, Inc. Credit: Brian Strickland

For assistant professor of biomedical engineering Pranam Chatterjee, the real opportunity for the large language models behind tools like ChatGPT lies not in the language of words, but in the language of biology.

Just like ChatGPT predicts the order of words in a sentence, the language models his lab works on can generate strings of molecules that make up proteins.

His team has trained language models to design new proteins that could one day fight diseases such as Huntington’s or cancer, even grow human eggs from stem cells to help people struggling with infertility.

“We don’t just make any proteins,” Chatterjee said. “We make proteins that can edit any DNA sequence, or proteins that can modify other disease-causing proteins, as well as proteins that can make new cells and tissues from scratch.”

Duke assistant professor Monica Agrawal is the co-founder of Layer Health. Credit: Brian Strickland

New faculty member Monica Agrawal said algorithms that leverage the power of large language models could help with another healthcare challenge: mining the ever-expanding trove of data in a patient’s medical chart.

To choose the best medication for a certain patient, for example, a doctor might first need to know things like: How has their disease progressed over time? What interventions have already been tried? What symptoms and side effects did they have? Do they have other conditions that need to be considered?

“The challenge is, most of these variables are not found cleanly in the electronic health record,” said Agrawal, who joined the departments of computer science and biostatistics and bioinformatics this fall.

Instead, most of the data that could answer these questions is trapped in doctors’ notes. The observations doctors type into a patient’s electronic medical record during a visit, they’re often chock-full of jargon and abbreviations.

The shorthand saves time during patient visits, but it can also lead to confusion among patients and other providers. What’s more, reviewing these records to understand a patient’s healthcare history is time-intensive and costly.

Agrawal is building algorithms that could make these records easier to maintain and analyze, with help from AI.

“Language is really embedded across medicine, from notes to literature to patient communications to trials,” Agrawal said. “And it affects many stakeholders, from clinicians to researchers to patients. The goal of my new lab is to make clinical language work for everyone.”

Duke assistant professor Jessilyn Dunn leads Duke’s BIG IDEAs Lab. Credit: Brian Strickland

Jessilyn Dunn, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke, is looking at whether data from smartwatches and other wearable devices could help detect early signs of illness or infection before people start to have symptoms and realize they’re sick.

Using AI and machine learning to analyze data from these devices, she and her team at Duke’s Big Ideas Lab say their research could help people who are at risk of developing diabetes take action to reverse it, or even detect when someone is likely to have RSV, COVID-19 or the flu before they have a chance to spread the infection.

“The benefit of wearables is that we can gather information about a person’s health over time, continuously and at a very low cost,” Dunn said. “Ultimately, the goal is to provide patient empowerment, precision therapies, just-in-time intervention and improve access to care.”

Duke associate professor David Carlson. Credit: Brian Strickland

David Carlson, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and biostatistics and bioinformatics, is developing AI techniques that can make sense of brain wave data to better understand different emotions and behaviors.

Using machine learning to analyze the electrical activity of different brain regions in mice, he and his colleagues have been able to track how aggressive a mouse is feeling, and even block the aggression signals to make them more friendly to other mice.

“This might sound like science fiction,” Carlson said. But Carlson said the work will help researchers better understand what happens in the brains of people who struggle with social situations, such as those with autism or social anxiety disorder, and could even lead to new ways to manage and treat psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Riots and Reconciliations: Revisiting ‘The Kerner Report’

On October 14, 2024

In Anthropology, History, Political science

When we think of some of the most important milestones in America’s civil rights movement, rarely do people talk about “The Kerner Report.”

“U.S. Riot Commission Report. REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS” from *Center for Lost Objects*

In a conference room in the John Hope Franklin Center, I sat amidst a gathering of curious people, and at the front of the room was Rick Loessberg, the author of “Two Societies: The Rioting of 1967 and the Writing of the Kerner Report.” If you couldn’t tell from Loessberg’s contagious smile, you could certainly tell from his extensive knowledge that he was excited to be introducing us to this report, which looks at the causes of the 1967 civil rights riots.

Giving us some background history, Loessberg first acknowledged the importance of the very building we were all in. The John Hope Franklin Center, where Dr. John Hope Franklin held an office and worked until he died in 2009, was built in 2001 to create a space for everything Dr. Franklin believed in–a welcoming environment that encouraged considerate debate and discussion. Dr. Franklin was also known for writing the 5th chapter of “The Kerner Report,” which connected African American’s history in the United States and their riots in 1967. As I sat in the conference room, I couldn’t help but feel the weight and proximity of the building’s history emphasizing the importance of Loessberg’s discussion.

Loessberg then began to explain the catalyst for creating “The Kerner Report,” enumerating the tragedies of the riots in 1967. On July 23, 1967, Detroit Police raided an after-hours nightclub. The raid quickly turned violent, and the civilians in the city did not let this go unnoticed. The following five days were marked by extreme violence, with 43 people killed, over 7200 arrests, and 600 fires started. It wasn’t until 5,000 elite paratroopers came into Detroit that the riots finally stopped.

“Burning Buildings in Detroit after Riots” from *Getty Images*

In response to this, Lyndon B. Johnson created a commission of 11 members, which examined FBI reports, studied the attitudes of 13,000 people who had been arrested, and looked at U.S. Census data to discover why the riots were happening. The Census concluded that the rioting was not the fault of what the majority of Americans believed–the rioters were “losers,” “communists,” you get the point–but instead, the riots were a reaction to the years of discrimination and racism that Black people had been facing throughout their lives (which though not surprising to many today, was an incredibly progressive conclusion for the 1960s).

“Chair of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Otto Kerner with President Lyndon Johnson” from *LBJ Presidential Library*

Additionally, “The Kerner Report” found that most of the people rioting had gone to school, had jobs, and did not have arrest records–findings that went against the stereotypes white people assigned to the rioters. The bravery of these successful people willing to risk everything in order to riot against what they knew was wrong stood out to me (however, not to say that violence should ever be encouraged). I also found it quite surprising how successful “The Kerner Report” was, given the lack of knowledge on it today, with over 1 million copies being sold in the first week.

Here are five key points “The Kerner Report” can teach us if implemented in today’s time, Loessberg said:

Be courteous: During the creation of “The Kerner Report,” the commission always made sure to have appropriate discussions, never name-calling or blaming, similar to what we see in politics today.
Focus on what everyone has in common: The commission worked hard to make sure that everyone’s voice was heard. They addressed everyone’s concerns, and even if they couldn’t explicitly “fix” their concern, by holding a space where people could voice their upset, the commission was more successful at creating a report most approved of.
Know how to read the room and when to temporarily regroup: The commission was very aware of when they would get stuck in arguments rather than discussions, and because of this, they were able to acknowledge that they needed to regroup and try to tackle the issue again.
You don’t have to win every argument: Being successful alone doesn’t make a group or society successful. The Kerner Commission knew this and always kept this in mind when researching and writing the report. Because of that, not one person was in charge of the narrative, allowing for the narrative to be a collection of ideas.
“The Kerner Report” can apply to all work settings and relationships: By observing how to tackle systemic issues and address the country about such things, we can learn about how to approach this issue today, both at large and in smaller settings. Every relationship needs respect and a facilitation of conversation to be successful.

Moving forward, Loessberg said that we must have proper education about the impacts of systemic racism on the Black community. Additionally, and something I found quite interesting because I have never heard before, Loessberg said that there is a need for a wider variety of terms that mean racist–arguing that the fact that KKK members in white sheets are called racists just as the white cashier who has inherently racist actions is racist does not allow for a deeper understanding of systematic racism.

As I looked around during the final Q&A, I saw people from all different backgrounds facilitating respectful discourse–something I can’t say I see often. When I asked if Loessberg believed this text should be taught in schools if allowed, he answered, agreeing that (absolutely) “The Kerner Report” should be in schools today, but unfortunately “…it would be accepted as critical race theory,” meaning it would not be allowed in schools today. As others asked questions, I began to put into words what I had been observing throughout this entire presentation and discussion; even when opposing opinions were shared, everyone could eventually come together to agree on one thing–How the United States is today is in need of fixing, and “The Kerner Report” can provide insightful and guiding information if implemented correctly.

Art in the Anthropocene: A New Lens on Life

On October 2, 2024

In Anthropology, Art, Climate/Global Change, Environment/Sustainability, History

In a world shaped by our destructive actions, art emerges as a voice, warning us of the consequences that lie ahead.

We live in a constantly evolving world. Looking at the geologic time scale, we can see the Earth’s changes that have marked new eras all the way from the Archean epoch, 2.5 billion years ago, to today, the Holocene epoch. But how do we know when we are transitioning into a new epoch? And what kinds of changes in our world would lead to this geologic time-scale transition? The exhibition Second Nature: Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University offers us answers to these questions with its four thematic sections, “Reconfiguring Nature,” “Toxic Sublime,” “Inhumane Geographies,” and “Envisioning Tomorrow.’

As we begin the exhibition tour, our well-spoken gallery guide, Ruth Caccavale, asks if any of us has ever heard the word “Anthropocene” before. After a short silence, she tells us the literal translation for Anthropocene is “the human epoch,” an appropriate word to describe the geological era we are in right now. Ruth continues to explain that, though not agreed upon when the Anthropocene epoch began (the main arguments being since the Industrial Revolution and since nuclear warfare), people believe the Earth is in a new era, one established by the fact that human impact is the greatest factor in determining the way the world is.

When the Anthropocene epoch was brought to the attention of the geological society, and after more than a decade of debate, they eventually declared that we were not in a new age, keeping us in the Holocene epoch. However, many still accept the term “Anthropocene” and explore what it means to be living in it. Among those exploring the implications of the Anthropocene epoch are the forty-five artists from around the world featured in Second Nature, who, through their photography-based art, expose the complex relationship of beauty and horror in our evolving world and show us how our world is truly controlled by our human impact.

Walking into the exhibit, I first notice the dismal yet meditative music playing quietly overhead. Ruth guides us through the galleries and stops us a considerable distance away from a black-and-white print. “What do you see when you look at this photograph?” she asks. “I see a mountain,” says someone in the crowd. “It looks overwhelming,” I add, noticing the heaviness of the mountain juxtaposed with the brittle buildings in front of it.

*Travelers among Mountains and Streams* from afar

Ruth then asks us to come closer to the photograph, and we all quickly notice that the mountain is not a mountain but instead a structure composed of skyscrapers and architecture.

*Travelers among Mountains and Streams* up close

Based on Fan Kuan’s famous painting from the Song Dynasty, Yang Yongliang, an alumnus of the China Academy of Art, created Travelers Among Mountains and Streams as a warning of what our world could look like if our need to urbanize and develop continued without governing. Yongliang is known for his dystopian recreations of traditional Chinese art, leaving his audience feeling both eerie and in awe. For me, the symbolism of having to step closer to the art to see the true meaning spoke to how it’s easier for people in power to overlook the environmental dangers of development, whereas once we stepped closer and could see each building in detail, we were put in the shoes of those living in urban areas who suffer the most from pollution and overcrowding.

We then made our way through the second section, “Toxic Sublime,” a collection of pieces that show how sometimes the most hazardous areas in the world can be the most beautiful. On the wall is a photo of the remains of a Russian church, buildings next to a nuclear testing site, and a crater from nuclear bomb testing made green to show residual radioactivity.

Danila Tkachenko’s *Radioactive City*, *Contaminated Church*, and *Crater Formed after Nuclear Bomb Test*

Next to it, is the photo of colorful ponds near a lithium mine in Chile. While the composition and colors scream “toxic,” I can’t help but admire the lure of it as well–an invitation to debate the ethics of turning tragedy into something tasteful.

Edward Burtynsky’s *Lithium Mines #1, Salt Flats, Atacama Desert, Chile*

Upon entering the third section, “Inhumane Geographies” (the theme I personally found most captivating), we are greeted by a somewhat overstimulating gallery of an orange and red island scene, with a singular purple and blue photo plastered in front of them. Sanne De Wilde’s Island of the Colorblind, told the story of a Micronesian community, who in the 18th century were devastated by a typhoon, leaving only 20 people alive. Among those left was the King, who began repopulating the Pingelap community. The King, however, carried the gene for color blindness, causing more than 10% of the Pingelap population today to be colorblind. Island of the Colorblind not only shows me how our environment and climate can truly change who we are, but it also gives voice to the Pingelap’s unique perspective on how color for them means something truly different–thus why Wilde chose to edit the photo in a way where chlorophyll (what makes trees green) creates a pink color in the photo.

As Ruth brings us to the final section, “Envisioning Tomorrow,” I am immediately drawn in by Aïda Muluneh’s collection of four photographs depicting women dressed in lavish blue and red clothing against the arid landscape behind them. As part of Afrofuturism, a form of science fiction art that explores the history and future of Africa and its people, Muluneh’s pieces challenge the stereotypes surrounding women gathering water in Africa. The pieces bring attention to the implications of women’s role in getting water, as it requires an immense amount of time and makes them vulnerable to sexual violence. Ruth also informs us that the artist grew up in Ethiopia and uses her art to emphasize the issue of water scarcity there. As my peers and I look at Muluneh’s colorfully piercing and empowering art, we can’t help but be speechless.

Regardless of whether or not the geological society accepts the Anthropocene as an epoch, we as humans need to open our eyes and understand that our actions have consequences, even if they may not affect us personally. We are changing the world… a lot. But if we can break it apart, we can also build it back up. Leaving the exhibit, I feel heartbroken for the ways we have torn apart our world, unsettled in the ways our destruction can still be beautiful, curious in how my environment has shaped me, and yet hopeful that we as humans can come together, acknowledge the wrong we have done, and begin to undo the damage. For those who may not understand how dire our situation is, studying the work of the 45 artists featured in Second Nature might be a good start.

By Sarah Pusser, Class of 2028

Meet the Scientists Conserving Sharks & Sea Turtles in Latin America