health Preventing The Next Pandemic Scientist from West Bloomfield hunts and kills deadly viruses before they can get us. Dr. Nathan Wolfe, a former Detroiter known as "the virus hunter" Jeff Kranitz Special To The Jewish News H undreds filled the auditorium inside the Berman Center for the Performing Arts to welcome home renowned biologist Dr. Nathan Wolfe. He was there to discuss his new book, Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age, at the 60th Annual Jewish Book Fair at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. The book offers a modernized perspective on the dangers created by undis- covered viruses that lurk in several remote regions in the world. Wolfe, named one of the 100 most influ- ential people in the world by Time magazine, is a 41-year-old visiting professor at Stanford University as well as founder and CEO of the Global Viral Forecast Initiative. GVFI is head- quartered in San Francisco. The nonprofit group works to locate and kill deadly diseases before they kill us, a new approach that has revolutionized epidemiol- ogy. It has projects set up in Africa, Southeast Asia and southern China, totaling 20 differ- ent countries. Since founding GVFI in 2007, Wolfe has been called the most prominent virus hunter on the planet. Once in a viral hot spot, the goal is to dis- cover and contain any threatening microbes before they become the next HIV or SARS. Instead of waiting for an ambush, they're taking the fight to the enemy. And make no mistake — it's dirty, dangerous work. Wolfe has had malaria three times. The last bout almost killed him. New Viral War In Central Africa, where Wolfe has worked for more than a decade, hundreds of thou- sands of people still hunt and consume tropical wild game, called bushmeat. Bushmeat is virtually the only source of protein in this desperately poor part of the world, but it comes with risks. Viruses can pass between animals and hunters during the bloody process of killing and butchering. "This is a place where people can have contact with animals and their viruses and spark a real pandemic," Wolfe said to a packed audience. "It all comes together here." GVFI gets involved on a number of fronts. Staff members help educate hunters, inform- ing them of the potential risks and the ways to protect themselves. GVFI also collects blood samples from the hunters and their prey. This gives biologists an understanding of what's being passed on from animal to human. Some of the most recent pandemics — including HIV, bird flu and smallpox — all started out as viruses that jumped from animals to people. "We see new retroviruses out there — the category of HIV — and we're very con- cerned because this is the part of the world where HIV jumped from chimpanzees to humans': he said. Wolfe also says the world is now more vul- nerable to pandemic than ever before. The population is constantly growing — 7 billion now — most of whom are packed into dense cities. Globalization and greater connectivity add to the danger. "If you look now at air traffic maps, you see basically a plate of spaghetti': he said. "There are incredible connections — air- lines and boats are moving humans and animals around the globe. The features of globalization have huge consequences on pandemics. It just connects us so much more closely. "As a consequence, every one of these viruses that passes from animals to humans has the capacity to infect all of us." In Viral Storm, Wolfe says it's not a ques- tion of if that will happen, but when. Breeding Ground Three decades ago, Nathan Wolfe was a bright, curious student at Abbott Middle School in West Bloomfield. The son of Charles Wolfe and Carole Wittenberg, he had a reputation as a dedicated, hard worker. "I grew up just a few miles away (from the JCC), where I practiced on the swim team. I was about the same age then as my niece Taylor or nephew Nathan': he said, acknowl- edging his family members in the audience. Wolfe graduated from West Bloomfield High in 1988. He earned a biology degree from Stanford, and then attended graduate school at Harvard University, where, as he began studying the diseases of chimps, his interest in epidemiology grew. "I'm fascinated by the microbes that sur- round us',' he said. "If you imagine individu- als who go out and spend their lives studying primates, well, they're unlikely to identify any new species. Understanding the unseen world of microorganisms around us gives us tremendous potential to not only solve important infectious diseases, but to make fundamental new discoveries about the nature of our world. "Viruses are the most numerous biologi- cal entity on our planet," Wolfe said. "If aliens were tasked with writing a 30-volume ency- clopedia of life on Earth, from a biological perspective, 27 volumes would be devoted to this unseen world of microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses:' The reality Wolfe says, is we are not the dominant species of life on this planet. "If we were to count the number of cells between the top of your head and the socks on your feet, we would find that 90 percent of those cells are not human cells. Ninety per- cent of those cells belong to various microor- ganisms that exist, primarily in your gut and on your skin but also in many, many parts of your body." To be fair, Wolfe points out that he means dominant in terms of diversity, not size. Wolfe views this unseen and vastly unex- plored microbial world as a potentially valu- able resource for all sorts of new medicine. "Right now we suddenly have the tools to understand this incredible unseen world': he said. 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