Transcript - [Printable PDF format] Dr. Biology: Everybody ready to rock and roll? Shelley Haydel: Let's go. Dr. Biology: All right. This is "Ask‑A Biologist", a program about the living world, and I'm Dr. Biology here with my co‑host Marissa Henderson from Mesa Academy. Marissa, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself? Marissa: Well, like you said, I go to Mesa Academy and I'm in seventh grade. I'm 12 years old and I have a little brother who is a normal little brother. [laughs] I love learning and I like science. Dr. Biology: Oh what a perfect combination. Marissa have you heard anyone use the term "mad science" or "mad scientist"? Marissa: Mm hmm.
Dr. Biology: You have, OK. Today we get to do something that's not really mad
science, instead we're going to be talking about mud science. I don't know about
you, but I've never thought about using mud to help cure disease or as a
treatment, but I think we might learn a little bit in our story today about mud
or what someone might call clay, a little bit later. Shelley: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here with you and Marissa. Dr. Biology: Do you mind if we call you Shelley? Shelley: Absolutely, it's required. Dr. Biology: It's required. Shelley: It's required. Dr. Biology: OK, all right. Marissa, what do you think about when I say the word "mud"? Marissa: Kind of dirty and pigs. [laughs] Dr. Biology: Dirty and pigs, OK. Shelley: Pigs, wow. Dr. Biology: OK. I think we're going to be corrected here, and I'm going to be at least corrected because we're not really talking about mud, are we?
Shelley: Not really. We're talking about a component of mud. Now let me put out
that I am a microbiologist, I am not a geologist, so I understand just the
basics as well. And basically the way I understand it is soil is everything. Marissa: How on Earth did you ever get started studying minerals?
Shelley: As a microbiologist I was just a shocked to find myself studying clay
minerals at this point in my career, but obviously because I'm involved there's
a microbiological component to it and so back in 2000 there was a French
humanitarian who actually traveled to Central and Western Africa and began
treating kids or children that were afflicted with the disease that's known as
Buruli ulcer. Dr. Biology: Do people actually die from these ulcers? Shelley: It takes a very long time to actually die from the ulcers. The infection can become systemic in a sub‑group of population, meaning it gets into the blood and is spread throughout the body, but it takes a really long time and usually they die of something else, some other secondary infection or some other problem. Dr. Biology: OK, all right. None the less, this is a really, really bad disease.
Shelley: It's a bad disease because it's devastating because you can see it.
It's not something that's going on inside of the body and later you die, but
these people have disfiguring wounds and it's much like we saw historically with
leprosy. Marissa: What is it about the mud or clay that it can be used to treat these particular ulcers? Shelley: That's the one billion dollar question and when you become a scientist and figure it out you'd be rich. Dr. Biology: [laughs]
Shelley: Well and actually we don't know yet and that is the whole basis of
some of the studies that are going on in my lab. Dr. Biology: So not all clays are created equal. Shelley: Not all clays are created equal. They are extraordinarily different. I mean if you think about it on a chemical level all it takes is one chemical component to make a clay different. Dr. Biology: Well you brought some samples in. Shelley: Yes. Dr. Biology: Which I love. They're actually dry. Shelley: These are dry. Dr. Biology: And when I think of clay, I'm always thinking maybe about class where I'd be modeling with clay or something. This looks like powder to me. Shelley: What gets stuck under your tires. Dr. Biology: Right. Shelley: Or you slip and fall when you walk through it. Clays are actually defined as minerals that are less than two microns, which is .002 millimeters. You can see a millimeter on a ruler, very, very, very small. These are actually fine powder clay. You should feel them. These are just arbitrary names that we gave them that don't mean anything. Dr. Biology: Alright. Shelley: But one of these can kill bacteria and one of them can't. Dr. Biology: It's powdery. Shelley: Like Talc, like Talcum powder. Dr. Biology: Yes. Marissa: It's like flour. \Shelley: It's like flour right. Dr. Biology: Yes, yes like flour only in this case it's green flour. Shelley: That one's green and this one has a greenish tint to it as well, sort of grey green. So did you feel that one? Why don't you feel the one that Dr. Biology has. Dr. Biology: Are they different? Marissa: Yes, they are a little different. One of them is thicker and one of them is kind of thinner. Shelley: Do you think that's important? Dr. Biology: One's coarser and one's finer in the powder. Shelley: And that might be just how they were milled because you can mill. Have you ever used a pepper mill? Marissa: Yes. Shelley: And you can change that little dial at the bottom so you get coarse pepper and then you get fine pepper. It's the same thing with the clays. I actually have a napkin somewhere. Dr. Biology: Well here I'll give you a Kleenex and we can wipe that off our fingers. Marissa: OK. Shelley: OK and so that was the dry clay. So then what I did was I took some of the dry clay and just hydrated it and made it a gel or what's known as a poultice like material. These aren't the French clays, these are other clays from the United States but basically how it was used in treatment was basically you just put it on your skin like a gel. Dr. Biology: OK, I'm game. Shelley: OK. Dr. Biology: I'm going I'll try a little bit of it. Marissa: Alright. Dr. Biology: Oh, it's interesting. It seems almost I don't know mine seems a little oily feeling in a way or looking. Marissa: It's kind of like lotion. Shelley: It's like lotion. Dr. Biology: Right, yes, yes, right OK that's... Shelley: Do you want to feel this one Dr. Biology? Dr. Biology: OK, oooh, yes. I'd like to do some painting. Shelley: It feels cool and smoothing and people will pay a hundred dollars in Scottsdale to go get a clay facial. Marissa: Ohhh, yes. Shelley: You're getting it at the Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences for free. One of these can kill bacteria, one of them can't. Dr. Biology: OK and so you have a 50/50 chance of picking the right one. I'm going to pick the lighter colored green one that seemed to be a little smoother. Shelley: So this one, OK. Dr. Biology: What are you going to pick? Marissa: I'll do the other one, the darker green. Dr. Biology: OK. Shelley: The winner is Marissa. Marissa: Alright. [laughs] Dr. Biology: So Marissa got it. Shelley: We've actually shown that this particular clay in its hydrated state can actually kill bacteria. Dr. Biology: Now how did you do that in a simple form? Shelley: In a simple way, we followed clinical microbiological approaches where basically we just grow up the bacteria and we have it in a hydrated suspension at a certain number of bacteria. Then we add the powdered clay minerals directly to that bacteria and we're rotating it in a suspension at 37 degrees Celsius, which is body temperature, for 24 hours. Then we perform dissolutions and put the remaining solution onto Petri dishes to see what grows. Dr. Biology: And I see some Petri dishes here. Shelley: We've got Petri dishes and this isn't actually from some of the clay studies but I wanted to bring sort of what bacteria look like on a plate. Dr. Biology: Yes. Shelley: So this would be Escheria coli or Salmonella type vermerium. Dr. Biology: You'll hear it on the news they'll say E. Coli. Shelley: E. Coli, right. Salmonella type vermerium and this is a laboratory strains so it won't hurt you but on this particular plate... Marissa: That's bacteria? Shelley: It's good that... but then it's also sealed with parafilm and it's not going to jump off the plate so you'll be OK. It's sort of yellow. What I wanted to also bring is E. Coli would look just like this on the plate as well.
Another thing that we can do related more to our other studies is that we can
make bacteria turn colors. In this one, this is E. Coli where we put in a
plasmid which is another piece of DNA, on a circularized piece of DNA that will
allow the bacteria to turn red. We can put different colored DNA molecules to
make the bacteria turn different colors and so we can use that as sort of a
tool. Marissa: Just barely. Shelley: Look at it real, real, real close. Marissa: It's like in kind of strands almost sometimes. Shelley: What I did was I struck it out on there with a little Q‑Tip. I took that from my own body. Marissa: Eww. Shelley: And most people would go oh, that's gross. Marissa: Yes.
Shelley: But it's on my body, it's on Dr. Biology's body and it's on Marissa's
body. This was from behind my ear. I swabbed it and then swabbed it on this
plate. That's telling you that the bacteria are supposed to be there and they
help to keep us safe as part of the normal flora. The normal bacteria that are
supposed to be in your body. Dr. Biology: And it's actually really important point that we have a tendency to say "bacteria" and we give the "eww, bacteria" as in all bacteria's bad and that is not true. There are a lot of things that are very important and actually help keep us healthy. We want to be a little careful about thinking that all bacteria are bad. Shelley: And there's a lot of bacteria in mud and dirt and the soil and its there for a reason. It's there to help degrade different things and help break down plant material and whatnot. As Dr. Biologist said, not all bacteria are bad. Marissa: So if clay minerals become a popular treatment, how would they be administered to patients?
Shelley: Well right now this is strictly being approached as an alternative
therapeutic treatment and a lot of people in this country as well as many other
countries are looking towards alternative, non tradition medical treatments. And
so the approach that I have is, as a topical treatment much like it was used to
treat Buruli ulcer patients. We are not advocating to go and to drink this or
eat this clay. Dr. Biology: Really! Shelley: Yes. Dr. Biology: Marissa, have you been eating clay lately? Marissa: You know, last week. No... [laughs]
Shelley: And I don't judge these people, they believe that it really helps
their health and it might because we know that clay is a great physical
absorption agents and so that the clay that you rubbed on your skin just now, is
probably very dry. And basically what it does, is this particular type of clay
absorbs oils and toxins and waters, and so if you wipe that clay off of your
skin, you are going to be removing probably some of the bacteria that were in
some oil, some water, anything on the skin. Dr. Biology: You said not all the clays are the same and for example, some of them aren't the type that will actually kill bacteria. So, they may not have any effect. But are there any, that actually encourage bacteria to grow?
Shelley: There are, and we have identified a number of them in our studies. And
so whenever we actually look at clays because we are interested in clays that
can kill bacteria. So anti‑bacterial clays, but we have to screen a number of
different clays in order to find these. Dr. Biology: So, you want to be careful, you don't want to go out digging your backyard Marissa for clay, and start using it as your home remedy. Marissa: So, could we have run in to the same problem as antibiotics. Well that is the problem of the bacteria becoming immune to that treatment with clay minerals. And if so, how can we prevent it?
Shelley: Well, the first thing that we have to do is, find out how they are
killing bacteria. Dr. Biology: It's a really good question. Shelley: It's a very good question. Dr. Biology: Something to watch out for. So, do you think these clays could be used for treating other diseases?
Shelley: I do. Are we ever going to get in to mainstream medicine with clays? I
can see it both ways. We use leeches and maggots in the hospital and I can
imagine the hurdles that people had to jump over in order to use leeches and
maggots in the hospital. So, if we determine that clay mineral treatment, at
least topically is beneficial and the treatment of some people that have
different infectious diseases or, different problems like eczema or psoriasis,
would it be advantageous? And I think it absolutely is, if we see a great
benefit that is not found in traditional medicine. Dr. Biology: And saved the patient! Shelley: And saved the patient. Marissa: So which clay seems to be the most promising that you have found so far?
Shelley: Well, it can almost be a needle in the haystack search. Because the
clays from France, that we use to treat Buruli ulcer patients. We actually had
those two clays ‑ 2000 and 2001. And the one that actually killed bacteria, of
course, that's the one we are all excited about. Dr. Biology: Now, are we going to be able to manufacture these clay? Should we actually find the holy grail of clays, or is this something that only Mother Nature can do?
Shelley: Well, with some of the studies that we have actually done, we might be
able to synthesize something that's natural, but also synthetic. Because it's a
mixture of chemicals, and can we get it right, to synthesize it? And so, are the
clays important? Dr. Biology: Alright so now comes the fun part or at least the part a lot of listeners like. That is where we ask three questions. When I have my co‑host, Marissa, here on the show I like them to ask some of the questions. We talked about this a little before and Marissa is going to start us out. Marissa: Alright. So when did you first know that you wanted to be a scientist or biologist?
Shelley: Actually I was a sophomore in college. I knew I was interested in
biology and medicine, but I floundered quite a bit. I changed my major in
college five times before I found microbiology. So when you go to college and
your parents go, Marissa, are you going to change your major every semester,
every quarter? Tell her yes, until I find what I really, really want to do, but
you don't want to change it all the way through your senior year or else you
will never graduate. Marissa: So, if you weren't a scientist then what would you want to be? Shelley: That is a good question. Dr. Biology: Yeah. No science, none at all, taking it out. Shelley: No science, so no medicine because physicians are scientists. I am very analytical in nature and so it would probably be like a detective of some sort because they still get to analyze a lot of different things. Dr. Biology: Right. Shelley: Maybe even forensics, but that's science. Dr. Biology: Yeah, it is back to science. It kind of gets back to the fact that you really can't remove science from just about any occupation, but it is fun to try. Shelley: Yeah, yeah, because I also thought of, OK, I like to play golf. I'm not good, and I just started playing about three years ago. Then I thought, well, run a golf course, but you still need science because you got to make the grass grow. And when you have the dead greens that are brown nobody is going to come to your golf course. So you have to understand how do I make it green, how do I make the grass grow, how do I aerate, and that is science. Dr. Biology: We will let you off the hook with detective. Shelley: OK. Dr. Biology: Because I think that sounds like a especially kind of a cool job. Doesn't it? Marissa: Yea. Shelley: And my brother is a detective so I have learned a little bit about it through him. And there is danger. Dr. Biology: Yeah. Shelley: I like the danger. Dr. Biology: You like the danger. Shelley: Well this is dangerous. I mean. Dr. Biology: Yeah, well. Shelley: I am working with MRSA that could kill me. It might take a little. Well, no, it could kill me pretty quickly. Dr. Biology: Alright, Well let's not kill you off yet. Shelley: OK, thank you Dr. Biology. Dr. Biology: In fact, what I would like you to do is give us some tip. I don't want a long story, but what little bit of wisdom you might want to give someone say, like Marissa, who might want to become a biologist.
Shelley: I can even broaden that to scientist just in general. Don't ever stop
asking questions. Always be critical about what you are reading and what you’re
understanding, because for everything that we know scientifically someone had a
question, or someone made an observation and subsequently asked a question and
developed the answer. Dr. Biology: I guess I have one more question to add to our three questions and that is did you play with mud when you were young? Shelley: Absolutely. My sisters and neighborhood friends we actually made mud pies, and you make a mud pie, you have to taste it and you have to eat it. So we would actually taste it. We were doing real science. Dr. Biology: Early on. Shelley: I didn't taste very good. It was gritty as you would expect, but yes, played with mud, got dirty, made mud pies, and ate it. Dr. Biology: Well, Professor Haydel, thank you for visiting with us. Shelley: Thank you, Dr. Biology, and thank you, Marissa. Marissa: You are welcome. Dr. Biology: Marissa, I hope you enjoyed being a co‑host. Marissa: Yeah. Dr. Biology: You would do it again? Marissa: Of course. Dr. Biology: You would recommend it to others? Marissa: Yes. Dr. Biology: OK. What was the best part about today?
Marissa: Probably getting to talk to Dr. Haydel, she's cool. Shelley: Cool. Alright. Not many young kids say that about us older people.
Dr. Biology: Yeah, well, you are not nearly as old as I am, and I agree, she is
cool. Alright, you have been listening to ask a biologist whom my guest has been
Professor Shelley Haydel from the ASU School of Life Sciences, and a researcher
in the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Biodesign Institute
at Arizona State University. Marissa: Yeah. Dr. Biology: An also remember even though our program is not broadcast live you can still send us your questions about biology using our companion website. The address is askabiologist.asu.edu or you can just Google the words "ask a biologist." I am Dr. Biology. Marissa: And I am Marissa Henderson. Dr. Biology: And teachers, podcasting is also a great project to do in your classroom or in school. We have all the information about podcasting and the contest and how you can create a contest in your own school. We have details about the equipment, the software used to create podcasts, and much of the equipment by the way, and software is inexpensive and in some cases free. Transcription by CastingWords |