Athens Drive Biomedical Technology and Pharmacy Technology class attended a field trip Jan. 22 to see Athens Drive alumna Dr. Sarah Council, PhD, give a presentation on her current studies on armpit microbiomes at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science.
Dr. Council graduated from the Health Science Academy (HSA) in 2001 and is currently a microbiologist studying skin microbiome. When Dr. Council attended Athens Drive, she aspired to become a dentist, but her interest changed when she took her first microbiology class at North Carolina State University.
“Even though I really liked the class, I still wanted to be a dentist too. It was around my junior year as well that the term ‘biofilm’ started coming about. I really was interested in how all of the organisms got along in a community and that community happened to be in your mouth as plaque,” said Council.
Athens Drive’s Health Science Academy provides opportunities to students with similar interest as Council. HSA prepares students for their higher education in health sciences by expanding educational choices, setting high expectations for all students to improve student achievement and providing students with real-life and hands-on experiences. Jennifer Hulsey became the new HSA director at the beginning of the 2015-2016 fiscal school year. As the new director, she hopes to establish a learning community in which promotes opportunities for students that could not be obtained in a classroom setting.
“Career and Technical Education, or CTE, provides cutting edge programs allowing students to explore the many career options available after high school graduation” said Hulsey.
In order for students to graduate from the academy, students are required to take Health Team Relations, Health Science I Honors, Health Science II Honors, partake in a 135 hour honors internship and finally taking either the Certified Nursing Assistant, Advanced Studies, Pharmacy Tech or EMT course. Council took the EMT course at Athens Drive and trained to take the NC EMT exam.
“Our class passed with flying colors. Even though I didn’t end up being a professional EMT for my career, it started my life on the medical side, beginning to understand all the cool things that happen in our bodies, that inevitably led to my career as a scientist” said Council.
Council continued learning about the health sciences post graduation from Athens Drive. Following graduation, she received a Bachelor of Science in Biological Studies and then continued on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obtain her Ph.D in Oral Biology. After Council graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2013, she began a postdoc, a hybrid teaching and outreach between local universities and museums.
“My first official job out of school was working at the NIH in Bethesda Maryland. It was a post-baccalaureate internship at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) working on the regulation of genes that cause gingival overgrowth and studying the facial features of a disease called Hyper IgG,” said Council.
Currently, Dr. Council works for Postdoctoral Fellow, Genomics & Microbiology Research Lab at the North Carolina Science Museum. Her current investigation revolves around the study of armpit microbiomes. In particular, one experiment held at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences involved people wearing shirts without deodorant while they slept.
Volunteers wore their normal products on the first day of the experiment and the research team took samples of skin swabs and sweat. Then the volunteers went three days without wearing underarm product but were allowed to continue their normal shower routine.
“We also gave them fragrance free sunscreen, shampoo etc. We also gave them a T-shirt to wear at night. Those T-shirts were collected on Day 3 as well as doing skin swabs and sweat collection. On that day as well, we had a “Smell off” where we asked volunteers to smell the tshirts to evaluate overall smell, odor intensity and attractiveness, and we had a free response section,” said Council.
Using the information from the study, Council learned that either people did not answer the surveys correctly or that the human nose cannot pick up subtle differences in smell. Council’s team also did not receive much separation when the volunteers were asked to respond in terms of unattractive versus attractive.
“With our ‘Smell-Off’, we found that most people thought that floral smells were pleasant and attractive while egg and musty smells were deemed unattractive. We also found only one person that correctly identified themselves out of 20 people,” Council said.
Hulsey took her students to see Dr. Council’s presentation because she wanted her students to not only experience Dr. Council’s armpit microbiomes presentation, she wanted the students to have the ability to receive advice from someone who has graduated from the HSA and pursued a medical career. Hulsey aspires for enrollment in the Health Science Academy to increase so that more students have the opportunity to partake in blended college-preparatory and career-oriented programs that can ultimately lead to marketable skills.
