Tracking disease
For someone
who humbly says that he’s rarely the smartest one in the room, Northern Arizona
University alum Lance Price is one of the top researchers in the growing field
of genomic epidemiology – the study of tracing the root of diseases. Today, he
continues to work with the university as an adjunct faculty member while
simultaneously heading up two research departments at TGen North – located in
Flagstaff – and teaching in the nation’s capital at George Washington
University.
As an
undergraduate student, Price says he began performing research early on, and
learned a lot of what he uses today from two professors he credits as being his
mentors – Paul Keim and Richard Shand
“It was
pivotal,” Price says. “Paul Keim and Richard Shand had different styles. Shand was
very micromanaging – he kept an eye on me – and I learned so much about
bacterial and research techniques. Then I went to Paul’s lab, and he gave me a
lot of freedom, and allowed me to really expand on my own with light-handed
guidance.”
Keim once instructed
Price, but today, they are partners in researching the genomes of diseases.
“He
continues to be my best collaborator, friend, and mentor,” Price says.
At TGen,
Price is the director for two different departments: the Center for
Microbiomics and Human Health, and the Center for Food Microbiology and Human
Health.
“In one
center, I study all the bacteria – all the microbes – that live in or on the
human body, and how those play a role in health and disease,” Price says. “And,
in the other group, I’m trying to quantify the human health impacts of feeding
animals antibiotics.”
The latter
research is currently a controversial topic, as the outcomes of his team’s
research – aided by Paul Keim – demonstrated that the use of antibiotics in
American livestock was leading to the rise of drug-resistant diseases that
could transfer back to people. The story grabbed headlines across the country
and was covered by several major newspapers and news outlets.
“Last year,
we completed a study where we showed, very clearly using the advanced DNA-base
techniques we use here, that staphylococcus
aureus strains that started off in people jumped from people to livestock,”
Price says. “And, in those livestock where we used a lot of antibiotics, it
became Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). So, it went from plain, old, easily-treatable
staph aureus to something that’s very difficult to treat. Then, it jumped back
to people. We were able to show this.”
This
discovery was only possible through the emerging field of genomic epidemiology,
where Price and others use the genome of the disease to determine where it
originated. This was the reason for a spiked interest in Keim’s anthrax
research in 2001, when anthrax was sent through the mail to locations on the
east coast.
“There are
things that we’re doing here at Northern Arizona University and TGen that
almost no one else is doing in the whole world,” Price says. “We’re really some
of the leaders in what is known as genomic epidemiology – using bacterial,
fungi, or viral genomics to trace their origins. If we have an outbreak of an
infection, and we want to know where it came from, we use this process.”
Price says
that although Northern Arizona University may not have the inherent reputation
of some larger institutions, there is groundbreaking work being done here by
himself, Keim, and others – including both undergraduate and graduate students.
“We’re doing
globally-recognized, important research,” Price says. “We’re part of a small
group of researchers around the world who are affecting policy and human lives.
We were part of the team that identified the source of the cholera epidemic in
Haiti.”
Price
recently began teaching at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.,
but he travels back to Flagstaff often to check up on TGen. He is proud of the
work he did as an undergraduate, and he stresses that, with hard work, anyone
can change the world.
“All
students have the same capacity,” Price says. “I’m not super-smart, but I
worked really hard and I made these relationships with my professors to the
point where I could do research in their labs. I went that extra mile and worked a little
harder.”