Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Raise your hand if you remember Amenah's comps topic.
Heh heh heh! so, i'm like surfin the RML site [which btw, you out in the real world could never have direct access too, since like everything here is super duper secure (i mean, go and google the RML and you won't find diddly squat)], and there he was!

Dr. Hinnebusch!












I used his papers for my comps, and he's like around the corner, down the hall, and to the left! budabing, budabang!

I told Kent all about this discovery, and he pushed me out the door, and introduced me to the man.

So, here's a tribute to Yersinia pestis, the alleged etiological agent--but not--of the BLack Death:












and here is my intro to my paper.....

The Culprit of the Black Death

Arguably, no other disease has surpassed the devastation that was the Black Death. Claiming an estimated 17 to 28 million Europeans at a speed of 1.5-5 miles per day during 1347-1350 (Scott, 2001), the Black Death robbed Europe of its livelihood, leaving an unidentified black fingerprint upon its Medieval history. Until recently, the acceptance that Yersinia pestis was the etiological agent of the Black Death has gone uncontested. Currently, studies that suggest otherwise (Cohn, 2002; Gilbert et al., 2004; Scott, 2001) assert that molecular and epidemiological evidence shed light on the flawed connection between these two apparently dissimilar diseases. The elucidation of the causative agent has been previously based on pure speculations of the similarities between symptoms and misuse of archaic medical records. It is necessary to extinguish un-substantiated conclusions formerly declared by these methods, and to replace them with the molecular and epidemiological research that strongly indicates the impossible, if not unwarranted, relation between Y. pestis and the Black Death. It is also crucial to resolve the discrepancies within this controversy in light of a potential threat of the re-emergence of Black Death. Indeed, in order to develop treatments, the causative agent of Black Death must be identified to prevent the effects that claimed the lives of many. To address this question, an examination of aDNA studies, and Y. pestis transmission will be discussed.

and here are some of Joe's papers:

Hinnebusch, B. J., Rudolph, A. E., Cherepanov, P., Dixon, J. E., Schwan, T.G., and Forsberg, A. Role of Yersinia murine toxin in survival of Yersinia pestis in the midgut of the flea vector. Science 296: 733-735, 2002.

Hinnebusch, B. J., Rosso, M.-L., Schwan, T. G., and Carniel, E. High-frequency conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to Yersinia pestis in the flea midgut. Mol. Microbiol. 46: 349-354, 2002.

Hinnebusch, B. J. Transmission factors: Yersinia pestis genes required to infect the flea vector of plague. In: M. Skurnik (ed.) The Genus Yersinia, Kluwer Plenum Press, 2003.