Steffanie Strathdee's Blog
October 16, 2020
And Now for Something Completely Different
One of the aspects of our story that has received less attention is that we enlisted the help of a psychic and a healer when Tom was gravely ill. They both played an unusual but important role in supporting me, Tom and our family as his life hung in the balance.
For the first time, Tom and I wre joined by psychic-intuitive counselor, Robert Lindsy-Milne, to discuss his role in Tom's recovery in the Everything Imaginable podcast.
https://everything-imaginable.simplec...
For the first time, Tom and I wre joined by psychic-intuitive counselor, Robert Lindsy-Milne, to discuss his role in Tom's recovery in the Everything Imaginable podcast.
https://everything-imaginable.simplec...
May 27, 2020
On the Subject of Hope
I've been asked many times what I was thinking when I was told by Tom's doctors that he wasn't going to make it. I came across this quote today that really resonated with me. It captures the essence of what I was feeling during those dark times.
"Hope locates itself in the premise that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act...Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists" -Rebecca Solnit, "Hope in the Dark."
For Tom, this quote captures the feeling he describes during one of his interludes in The Perfect Predator when he had been wandering in the desert for 100 years and saw a mirage. Dare he push himself with the last of his reserves towards it, knowing that it could represent false hope? Or in the spaciousness of uncertainty, is there room to act, clinging to the last sliver of hope that it could represent a way out?
For both of us, hope is what propelled us. What fueled us. What gave us a small shred of comfort. Because in the spaciousness of uncertainty is when miracles are made.
"Hope locates itself in the premise that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act...Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists" -Rebecca Solnit, "Hope in the Dark."
For Tom, this quote captures the feeling he describes during one of his interludes in The Perfect Predator when he had been wandering in the desert for 100 years and saw a mirage. Dare he push himself with the last of his reserves towards it, knowing that it could represent false hope? Or in the spaciousness of uncertainty, is there room to act, clinging to the last sliver of hope that it could represent a way out?
For both of us, hope is what propelled us. What fueled us. What gave us a small shred of comfort. Because in the spaciousness of uncertainty is when miracles are made.
November 12, 2019
Accolades
Tom and I wrote The Perfect Predator to raise awareness about the global threat of the superbug crisis and the potential for a 100 year old forgotten cure to thwart it. We had a few other goals too: to make science --and scientists -- accessible to the public, and to inspire young people, especially girls, to consider a career in science. The jury is still out on this, and history will be the judge.
What we never expected was for our book to receive acclaim. So far, Amazon voted our book as one of the best nonfiction books of 2019 so far. Today, we were delighted to learn that enough readers wrote in votes for The Perfect Predator that it is listed as one of the semi-finalists in Goodreads Choice Awards for 2019 in the category Science and Technology. If you liked our book, we'd be honored to have you cast your vote before Nov 17, 2019 which is when the finalists will be decided. Until then, phage on! https://www.goodreads.com/choiceaward...
What we never expected was for our book to receive acclaim. So far, Amazon voted our book as one of the best nonfiction books of 2019 so far. Today, we were delighted to learn that enough readers wrote in votes for The Perfect Predator that it is listed as one of the semi-finalists in Goodreads Choice Awards for 2019 in the category Science and Technology. If you liked our book, we'd be honored to have you cast your vote before Nov 17, 2019 which is when the finalists will be decided. Until then, phage on! https://www.goodreads.com/choiceaward...
October 30, 2019
Turning the Phage on Antibiotics
Over the last eight months, Tom and I have given countless talks to conferences, book clubs and organizations, but the presentations we participated in over the last month were nothing short of mind-blowing.
For example, when we gave a presentation to several hundred health professionals conference in Temecula, CA, a woman came up to us afterwards, in tears. Immediately, I recongnized her as one of the ICU nurses who had cared for Tom. We all embraced, and she was able to see firsthand how her care had led to Tom's recovery.
Two weeks ago, I was asked to give a presentation at the MANOVA Summit, which focused on the 'future of health'. Since the summit was based in Minneapolis, I invited John H, a phage therapy patient who I met on Facebook. He had had 19 surgeries on his leg following a knee replacement surgery that became infected, and he and his wife Barb had just picked out his wheelchair as he prepared himself for amputation. Instead, he became the first patient at the Mayo Clinic to receive phage therapy, and within two IV infusions, his infection cleared. Needless to say, his doctors are now enthusiastic phage phans, just like Tom's. At the end of my presentation, I asked John to join me on the stage to say a few words, since he lives in Minnesota. It was apparently a highlight of the meeting and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!
Finally, last week I was asked to join the new World Health Organization's Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance for South East Asia. I was flown to Delhi, where I presented on phage therapy. The task force members were incredibly interested and are recommending a regional meeting on alternatives to antibiotics, including phage therapy.
At IPATH, we have received funding from the NIH to launch a clinical trial of phage therapy among CF patients with superbug infections. It will be led by my colleague, Dr Chip Schooley, who readers will remember was pivotal in Tom's case and his survival.
I feel amazingly blessed to have the opportunity to move the field of phage therapy forward. Stay tuned for more news, and until then, may the phage be with you.....
For example, when we gave a presentation to several hundred health professionals conference in Temecula, CA, a woman came up to us afterwards, in tears. Immediately, I recongnized her as one of the ICU nurses who had cared for Tom. We all embraced, and she was able to see firsthand how her care had led to Tom's recovery.
Two weeks ago, I was asked to give a presentation at the MANOVA Summit, which focused on the 'future of health'. Since the summit was based in Minneapolis, I invited John H, a phage therapy patient who I met on Facebook. He had had 19 surgeries on his leg following a knee replacement surgery that became infected, and he and his wife Barb had just picked out his wheelchair as he prepared himself for amputation. Instead, he became the first patient at the Mayo Clinic to receive phage therapy, and within two IV infusions, his infection cleared. Needless to say, his doctors are now enthusiastic phage phans, just like Tom's. At the end of my presentation, I asked John to join me on the stage to say a few words, since he lives in Minnesota. It was apparently a highlight of the meeting and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!
Finally, last week I was asked to join the new World Health Organization's Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance for South East Asia. I was flown to Delhi, where I presented on phage therapy. The task force members were incredibly interested and are recommending a regional meeting on alternatives to antibiotics, including phage therapy.
At IPATH, we have received funding from the NIH to launch a clinical trial of phage therapy among CF patients with superbug infections. It will be led by my colleague, Dr Chip Schooley, who readers will remember was pivotal in Tom's case and his survival.
I feel amazingly blessed to have the opportunity to move the field of phage therapy forward. Stay tuned for more news, and until then, may the phage be with you.....
August 3, 2019
How the story of A Lovesick Gorilla Brought Tom and I Together, and more...
If you enjoyed The Perfect Predator or would like a glimpse of part of a book chapter that didn't make it into the book, check out my essay on Elemental , called "I Blinded Him With Science" . If you like it, please leave a 'clap' or feedback that I'd be happy to respond to.
https://elemental.medium.com/i-blinde...
https://elemental.medium.com/i-blinde...
May 27, 2019
On the subject of Hope
I've been asked many times what I was thinking when I was told by Tom's doctors that he wasn't going to make it. I came across this quote today that really resonated with me. It captures the essence of what I was feeling during those dark times.
"Hope locates itself in the premise that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act...Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists" -Solnit, "Hope in the Dark."
For Tom, this quote captures the feeling he describes during one of his interludes, when he had been wandering in the desert for 100 years and saw a mirage. Dare he push himself wit the last of his reserves towards it, knowing that it could represent false hope? Or in the spaciousness of uncertainty, is there room to act, clinging to the last sliver of hope that it could represent a way out?
For both of us, hope is what propelled us. What fueled us. What gave us a small shred of comfort. Because in the spaciousness of uncertainty is when miracles are made.
"Hope locates itself in the premise that we don't know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act...Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists" -Solnit, "Hope in the Dark."
For Tom, this quote captures the feeling he describes during one of his interludes, when he had been wandering in the desert for 100 years and saw a mirage. Dare he push himself wit the last of his reserves towards it, knowing that it could represent false hope? Or in the spaciousness of uncertainty, is there room to act, clinging to the last sliver of hope that it could represent a way out?
For both of us, hope is what propelled us. What fueled us. What gave us a small shred of comfort. Because in the spaciousness of uncertainty is when miracles are made.
May 12, 2019
A Scientific Breakthrough
Since Tom's recovery, he and I have been contacted by many people who received intravenous phage therapy as a result of his case. It is a deeply humbling experience.
But perhaps the most incredible experience to date was the recent announcement of the world's first case of a genetically engineered phage to be successfully used to treat a human superbug infection. This was necessary to convert this phage from being one that 'hits the snooze button' to one that goes on a 'phage rage', replicating inside bacterial cells before blowing them to bits.
My new friend, Isabelle, has cystic fibrosis. When she was 15 yrs old last year, she had a double lung transplant, which was hard enough to deal with but that wasn't the least of her problems. Her new lungs were being attacked by a superbug that threatened to take her life.
Isabelle's treatment was overseen by her doctors at GHOSH in London, who reached out to Dr Chip Schooley, the doctor who oversaw Tom's phage therapy (a prominent figure in The Perfect Predator). Chip convinced Isabelle's doctors and her mother that IV phage therapy was safe and would be critical to her survival. She was given <1% chance of living but it worked! Even more stunning is the fact that Isabelle's bacterial infection is in the same genus as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, lending hope that maybe someday phage therapy could be used to treat TB.
We are a long ways off from having natural phage or engineered phage become mainstream therapy, but Isabelle's case, like Tom's was an important proof of concept that has created a great deal of excitement in the world of medicine, science, pharma and biotech. Her story was all over the news this week (e.g., NPR, CNN, Science magazine, Forbes, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal).
Tom and I will be going to visit Isabelle in the UK before long, and when she friended me on Facebook she said, "When are you coming? I'll make cupcakes!" We tease each other that her superkiller phage came from a moldy eggplant, whereas Tom's came from sewage.
Tom and I are both deeply moved that his case could help Isabelle in a small way. We're now part of the same 'phage phamily', and together we hope our cases will inspire more patients.
But perhaps the most incredible experience to date was the recent announcement of the world's first case of a genetically engineered phage to be successfully used to treat a human superbug infection. This was necessary to convert this phage from being one that 'hits the snooze button' to one that goes on a 'phage rage', replicating inside bacterial cells before blowing them to bits.
My new friend, Isabelle, has cystic fibrosis. When she was 15 yrs old last year, she had a double lung transplant, which was hard enough to deal with but that wasn't the least of her problems. Her new lungs were being attacked by a superbug that threatened to take her life.
Isabelle's treatment was overseen by her doctors at GHOSH in London, who reached out to Dr Chip Schooley, the doctor who oversaw Tom's phage therapy (a prominent figure in The Perfect Predator). Chip convinced Isabelle's doctors and her mother that IV phage therapy was safe and would be critical to her survival. She was given <1% chance of living but it worked! Even more stunning is the fact that Isabelle's bacterial infection is in the same genus as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, lending hope that maybe someday phage therapy could be used to treat TB.
We are a long ways off from having natural phage or engineered phage become mainstream therapy, but Isabelle's case, like Tom's was an important proof of concept that has created a great deal of excitement in the world of medicine, science, pharma and biotech. Her story was all over the news this week (e.g., NPR, CNN, Science magazine, Forbes, the Guardian, Wall Street Journal).
Tom and I will be going to visit Isabelle in the UK before long, and when she friended me on Facebook she said, "When are you coming? I'll make cupcakes!" We tease each other that her superkiller phage came from a moldy eggplant, whereas Tom's came from sewage.
Tom and I are both deeply moved that his case could help Isabelle in a small way. We're now part of the same 'phage phamily', and together we hope our cases will inspire more patients.
April 25, 2019
Inspiring new careers
I just had the most wonderful email from a student that I had to share it:
"My book club and I just finished reading The Perfect Predator and we all loved it! I was so excited to propose the memoir following our phone call in February, and it was awesome seeing you and Tom at Warwick's. I admit you have become an epidemiological role model for me along with the likes of John Snow (the Englishman, err ... scientist!).
With the advice you gave me during our conversation, along with the insights into the field of public, and truly global health, evidenced in yours and Tom's memoir, I have decided to pursue a MPH! As you related to such affect in your memoir the times and places that so many decisions were made, and your mindset of the time, I think it is only fair that I do so as well. Below is the exact passage I was reading in The Perfect Predator where I decided to pursue public health; made while sipping a Nelson IPA (not wine I'm afraid) at Green Flash after a particularly stressful day working in biotech:
"... because of my preference for working with people rather than Petri plates, epidemiology might be a perfect fit: all the intrinsic beauty of biology, but instead of being about populations of cells, it was about populations of people. Epidemiology was the big-picture, bird's-eye lens needed to develop strategic action to help people" (Pg 23, Strathdee & Patterson 2019)".
"My book club and I just finished reading The Perfect Predator and we all loved it! I was so excited to propose the memoir following our phone call in February, and it was awesome seeing you and Tom at Warwick's. I admit you have become an epidemiological role model for me along with the likes of John Snow (the Englishman, err ... scientist!).
With the advice you gave me during our conversation, along with the insights into the field of public, and truly global health, evidenced in yours and Tom's memoir, I have decided to pursue a MPH! As you related to such affect in your memoir the times and places that so many decisions were made, and your mindset of the time, I think it is only fair that I do so as well. Below is the exact passage I was reading in The Perfect Predator where I decided to pursue public health; made while sipping a Nelson IPA (not wine I'm afraid) at Green Flash after a particularly stressful day working in biotech:
"... because of my preference for working with people rather than Petri plates, epidemiology might be a perfect fit: all the intrinsic beauty of biology, but instead of being about populations of cells, it was about populations of people. Epidemiology was the big-picture, bird's-eye lens needed to develop strategic action to help people" (Pg 23, Strathdee & Patterson 2019)".
February 7, 2019
Starred review from Publisher's Weekly
Tom and I are thrilled to have advance praise in the form of a starred review from Publisher's Weekly. When I was described as "balanc[ing] her role as a loving caregiver with a “pit bull scientist’s” determination to save her husband," I had to chuckle. Back in the 1990s when I was a junior researcher studying HIV, I earned the nickname 'pitbull' for never giving up on an issue I felt strongly about, whether it was needle exchange programs to prevent the spread of HIV among people who inject drugs, or supporting the rights of the LGBTQ community.
Tom and I have both come to realize that our experience fighting the HIV epidemic prepared us well for fighting his superbug infection. Both HIV and superbugs caused stigmatized diseases that most the general public lacks awareness of. Tom felt like a pariah when everyone who approached him had to be gloved and gowned. I learned how to become an advocate after watching many friends and colleagues die agonizing deaths before resources were dedicated to find life saving antiviral treatments that extended the lives of people with HIV.
That same community of AIDS researchers and people living with HIV reached out to support us in our time of need. Based on our experience, we're now using our voices as scientists, and as a survivor and caregiver to raise awareness of the global superbug crisis and ways that we can stop it.
Tom and I have both come to realize that our experience fighting the HIV epidemic prepared us well for fighting his superbug infection. Both HIV and superbugs caused stigmatized diseases that most the general public lacks awareness of. Tom felt like a pariah when everyone who approached him had to be gloved and gowned. I learned how to become an advocate after watching many friends and colleagues die agonizing deaths before resources were dedicated to find life saving antiviral treatments that extended the lives of people with HIV.
That same community of AIDS researchers and people living with HIV reached out to support us in our time of need. Based on our experience, we're now using our voices as scientists, and as a survivor and caregiver to raise awareness of the global superbug crisis and ways that we can stop it.
January 27, 2019
Thrilled to award the Inaugural Thomas L Patterson Graduate Fellowship in Phage Research at Texas A&M
The Perfect Predator describes how a global village of doctors, nurses and phage researchers, many of whom were total strangers to us, stepped up to the plate to save Tom's life. One of these people was PhD student Adriana Carolina Hernandez, from Texas A&M University. Tom and I had the pleasure of visiting their campus recently to award the inaugural Thomas L Patterson Graduate Fellowship in Phage Research to Adriana for her tireless efforts. She showed us where she slept in the lab for several weeks preparing enough phage to ensure that Tom would have a fighting chance to overcome the superbug that was eating him from the inside out. Here's a photo and caption from this wonderful award ceremony: https://biochemistry.tamu.edu/2019/01...
