Contagious work
by Katrina Kalleske
The advent of swine flu has delivered a significant increase in workload for one UniSA Bachelor and Masters of Applied Science graduate who is employed at the forefront of virus control in the United States.
Kirsten St. George (pictured) heads up the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center in Albany.
The laboratory, which includes several diagnostic and research labs, is responsible for the testing of viral samples including influenza, encephalitis, and the now well-known swine flu. When news of swine flu first emerged from Mexico, St. George was at an international conference for virologists. Within a week of returning to the lab there was a large outbreak in New York City that quickly spread and she was sure they were going to be facing a pandemic.
"It did sound very serious to start with," she said. "But after a few weeks we knew it was relatively mild. In terms of severity, it is similar to normal seasonal flu. We have been very lucky so far."
The same could be said about St. George’s career when it comes to
luck, or more correctly - opportunity. The humble mother of one said
that a lot of the things she has achieved in her career have been
unexpected.
Although she did admit that in her very first job interview, when asked what her goals were, she replied "I eventually want to supervise my own lab". And within six years of graduating from her Bachelors degree and just one year after completing her Masters, she was doing that in Tasmania at the Royal Hobart Hospital’s Department of Microbiology, supervising the virology and serology lab.
"It’s really been a matter of taking up opportunities when they presented themselves and being prepared to be a little bit uncomfortable at times – out of my comfort zone - along with being prepared to move."
The 1985 UniSA graduate has lived in the United States for more than 15 years now, moving from Tasmania when she took up a post as assistant virologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"Initially I undertook a fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and then when a new position was created a year after I left, they asked me to come back," St. George said.
"I got married six weeks before moving to Pittsburgh and originally we were giving ourselves three years there. We were terribly homesick and wanted to move back after the first year but the opportunities that came along just ended up being too good for us to leave."
These included a part-time PhD at the University of Pittsburgh for St. George while working at the medical centre; a position with a world-wide company for her husband who is a business consultant; and a move to the Wadsworth Center in 2004.
The ever-changing properties of viruses help to keep St. George captivated by her work.
"They never do what you expect them to do," she said. "I think swine flu is a wonderful example of that.
"We had been planning for a pandemic for years and had been watching avian flu and then out of the sidelines came swine flu – a different virus than we were expecting and a different degree of pathogenicity than we were expecting."
At the lab, St. George oversaw the surveillance and testing for the first cases of swine flu for the State of New York (excluding New York City). They have also been undertaking ongoing surveillance to track any changes and to see how much it spreads in the community. Her role also means she is a key member of a pandemic planning team for New York.
She said her UniSA Bachelors degree in applied science has given her the advantage of a good general medical science understanding.
"It means that when I am consulting with other specialists, I have a good basic understanding of what they are talking about beyond my specialist knowledge of virology," she said.
St. George’s initial move to undertake a career in medical science was sparked by hours of watching her father’s work as an organic chemist who originally worked on rocket fuels.
"I was inspired by the international nature of his job, the lifelong collaborations and tremendous analytical nature of his work," she said. "I wasn’t actually any good at chemistry – I was much better at biology."