Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
The Robert G. Fenley Writing Awards: Solicited Articles
Bronze
This entry is a feature article describing a unique collaboration between a virologist, a wildlife veterinarian, and an ecologist to study Bourbon virus, a tick-borne virus identified in 2014 that affects parts of the South and the Midwest United States, including the St. Louis, Missouri region.
What is one thing you learned from your entry/experience?
From Jacquelyn Kauffman: I learned how different branches of science complement each other and how scientists go about unraveling the mysteries of a new disease. In some ways, the attempt to understand Bourbon virus is similar to the global effort to understand the COVID-19 virus, except in the second case thousands of scientists around the world worked together, and in the first case just three scientists were involved.
What challenge did you overcome?
From Jacquelyn Kauffman: The main challenge lay in weaving together multiple research projects into a coherent whole. Pieces of the story were already out there, but nobody had seen the full picture, because the pieces were scattered across different disciplines and multiple institutions. I had to bring them together to explain why this obscure virus matters to those of us in the St. Louis area and the larger scientific community.
Contact: Tamara Bhandari
tbhandari@wustl.edu