One Health is a broad term. To bring this concept to life, scientists need to be introduced to the concept at an early career stage in order to lay the foundations for the future of One Health. Therefore, the One Health Platform hosts an annually event for young researchers where they can present their own research, network interdisciplinarity and obtain valuable knowledge for their future career as One Health scientists: the Young One Health Forum (YOHF). In 2024 the YOHF took place in Ulm on June 3-4.
The YOHF actually started under difficult conditions, as regions in southern Germany, including Ulm and the surrounding area, were battling with flooding on the date of the event. This made travel difficult or impossible for some participants. Fortunately, a hybrid solution was quickly achieved, which meant that the meeting could still take place.
Valuable Career Tips
The meeting started with two career talks in which established researchers gave insights into their career paths and passed on valuable career tips to the participants based on their own experiences. The CV of Prof. Sören Becker, from the University Hospital Saarland, has one special feature: In addition to his work as a doctor, he also decided to pursue a career in research and successfully completed a doctorate in natural sciences after his medical studies. In his opinion, research should be relevant to clinical practice, which is why he is active in both worlds. In his research on AMR in Africa he made the experience that special preparation for studies abroad is needed. Especially, if you try to build up a laboratory abroad. In general, he emphasized the importance of mentors for his own career development. For those interested in a career in tropical medicine and global health, he recommended the Gorgas courses (more information available here: www.Gorgas.org). He also passed on the following tips to combine research and clinical work:
- Work on things you are passionate about.
- Try to combine similar topics in both worlds.
- Engage with respective authorities to get things certified.
- Identify mentors.
- Be flexible with regard to the location of your work.
- Write down what you want to achieve (milestones and long-term goals).
- Don’t let others discourage you!
- Train in time management and conflict management.
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Pfänder also gave an insight into her own career. The virologist, who is a professor for emerging viruses at the Leibnitz Institute for Virology and the University Lübeck, works on coronaviruses. Therefore, she experienced a lot of pressure during the pandemic. That period emphasized for her the need for a good team and communication skills. From her own experiences she recommended to go abroad for a certain period and to apply for awards to increase visibility and to obtain funding. She also advised to keep the translational aspects of one’s own research in mind. Her top 4 tips for a career in research were:
- Be well connected, have a good network.
- Be curious.
- Be passionate about what you do and have fun.
- Be open, be flexible (concerning your place of work/ mobility, topic).
After these valuable tips from experienced researchers the YOHF offered interesting insights into research and areas of activity related to One Health.
Does biodiversity matter or will all nature do?
Prof. Scherer-Lorenzen (University Freiburg) introduced the “Dr. FOREST project”. The project deals with the question what benefits biodiversity can bring to human health. It has already been shown that being in the forest can have beneficial effects on health. However, it remains unclear if the health benefits depend on the degree of biodiversity. Forests play an important role in heat protection. But first results indicate that while the forest structure and composition have large effects on that property, diversity has only little effects. Furthermore, forest have positive effects on mental health, anxiety and stress. These effects can be increased not by biodiversity but by the perceived biodiversity. Another important link between human health and forests are tick borne diseases. The presence of ticks is influenced by composition and irrigation and canopy density (structure of forest). A lower abundance of borrelia in high diversity forests could be found which might be explained by the dilution effect. Overall the results of the project suggest that there is no super forest that can increase all existing health effects of forests. However, the right forest management might be beneficial for human health. Prof. Scherer-Lorenzen concluded that in the end more research is need to understand all connections but a commitment to biodiversity seems to be also a commitment to health.
Great apes - sentinels for human health
Dr. Ariane Düx introduced the activities of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH) at the meeting. The HIOH is keen to set up a One Health Surveillance – at African sites and in Pommerania, Germany, which combines environmental data and data from humans and animals. In Africa her research work is mainly focused on great apes. Because of their similarity to humans they are interesting sentinels for emerging diseases. By observing their behavior and health alongside with the collection of non-invasive samples the group could discover novel pathogens, novel presentations of diseases, novel ecological data, as well as novel conservation risks.
AMR-a multifactorial problem
Maresa Neuerer gave an inside into Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) as a multifactorial problem. Actually, AMR is a natural phenomenon but it is also human driven. The paradox is that there are higher AMR rates in countries with lower antibiotics use. For the future it is essential to improve awareness for AMR and promote a more responsible antibiotics use. To achieve this goal, Maresa Neuerer appealed for a cooperation between microbiologist, anthropology, human medicine and veterinary medicine. Data showed that it is often easy to purchase antibiotics without prescription and that there are misconceptions of AMR also in the medical field. Misuse of antibiotics can be diverse and does not necessarily mean overuse but also the application of too low doses. A design thinking approach might be required to tackle the challenge of AMR.
Biodiversity, zoonotic infections and the gut microbiome
Prof. Simone Sommer (University Ulm) gave insights into her research on the interplay between biodiversity, zoonotic infections and the gut microbiome in wildlife. She explained how a loss of biodiversity causes shifts in pathogen diversity and prevalence, which provides a possible link between biodiversity and zoonoses. Different human stressors such as land use change, climate change or pollutants have effects of on wildlife health and zoonotic infections also through the interaction with the gut microbiome. The gut microbiome is key for host health. A loss of homeostasis leads to dysbiosis, which can have negative effects on health. Generally, habitat disturbance and stressors effect species in different ways. However, Prof. Sommer and her team could show that the microbiome serves as an early indicator for wildlife health and that biodiversity conservation can be health conservation.
One Health in practice
In addition to the keynote speeches, the program was enriched by poster presentations (online and on-site) by the participants.
Mascha Kaddori and Dr. May Hokan also gave insights into the implementation of the One health concept in practice. Dr. Hokan May presented the activities of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) in relation to zoonoses and One Health. The WWF does also give politicians arguments at hand, that they need to advocate One Health measures. She said that these are not necessarily the best arguments in science, which is why it might be helpful for scientist to change perspectives when advising politicians.
Mascha Kaddori introduced some activities of Veterinarians sans frontiers (VSF). She focused on the humanitarian aid VSF is providing in Sudan and explained why it can make sense to base humanitarian aid on the one health approach.
The meeting was concluded with a short introduction into Science Pitch Storytelling by Dr. Birgit Stelzer (Entrepreneurs Campus University Ulm). She gave tips how to present one’s own work effectfully, how to use tools such as chatGPT to make a science pitch and how to structure a pitch.
Overall the YOHF 2024 offered a rich program with different aspects of One Health. In addition to the numerous presentations, there were many opportunities for participants to network and exchange ideas. After two days, it was already clear how openly the participants accepted the One Health concept and what opportunities they see in it for their own research.