TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | j u n e 2 0 1 6 7 Once trainees are checked off by biosafety officers and ready to start mentorship, Domenica (Dee) Zimmerman, biosafety officer, environmental health and safety consultant, and environmental health and safety director of the Galveston National Laboratory Environmental Health and Biosafety Regulations and Requirements Core, said she takes them through sce- narios to see how they apply what they have learned to specific situations. "In the lab, they're working directly with the principal investigators and researchers," Zimmerman said. "The mentorship cues them into working with experienced people in the laboratory." Zimmerman added that the mentorship process is a two-way street. The mentor must, of course, be confident that the trainee has acquired the appropriate skills before signing them off, but it's equally import- ant for the trainee to feel secure about his or her own skill set. "Once you have fulfilled the minimum hours crite- ria, if the PI thinks you're doing OK, but you are unsure of yourself, sit down and talk. Maybe you need a few more hours of mentorship," she said. "That conversa- tion is critical." In addition to the training Cuban scientists will experience at UTMB, a team of trainers will travel to Havana to put on a larger training session for anyone interested in attending. "Then we'll be identifying some priorities for common research projects and will have an internal competition for projects," Weaver said. "We'll pair up Cuban and U.S. scientists who work in the same area. They'll work on a proposal together and then do the project together." Given similarities in climate, the U.S. and Cuba share a number of viral diseases, particularly mos- quito-borne infections, and researchers at UTMB and the Instituto Pedro Kouri are studying similar sub- jects. The partnership will offer UTMB scientists the opportunity to study epidemiology and the vector of mosquito transmission in sites where the diseases are more prevalent, for a variety of reasons. "Being a bit further south, Cuba is a little more tropical than Galveston or southern Florida, but it's not too different," Weaver said. "Probably the main reasons they have the diseases more often are cultural and economic differences. They don't have air conditioned homes or screened doors and windows, so mosquitoes can enter their homes more easily than they do here in Houston or Galveston." Weaver said that while transmission of diseases in the two countries is different thus far, the risks are sim- ilar, particularly given that both nations have the type of mosquito that transmits diseases like chikungunya, Zika and dengue: the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Those living in the U.S. have less exposure to the mosqui- toes, thanks to air conditioning and mosquito-control efforts, but the risk for endemic transmission of Zika, for example, is real and significant. Though the project is still very much in its infancy, Weaver is optimistic about the opportunities it will provide, both for the two years of the current project and beyond. "Ideally what will happen is we'll develop some good scientific collaborations and we'll go after NIH grants and other opportunities. I don't know whether, at the end of two years, NIH will be ready to send fund- ing directly to Cuba or not, but hopefully the normal- ization of our relations will allow that to happen soon, and we'll be able to sustain this through other kinds of funding," Weaver said. "It's a great opportunity for UTMB to become one of the first universities to develop an active and collaborative program in Cuba, and we're very excited about it." The Aedes mosquito species, which is primarily responsible for spreading Zika virus, has distinguishing features including telltale black and white markings.

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