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Researcher's and student's work provides break-through view of science
October 19, 2006 -- By Carol Flaherty
MSU News Service
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John Shier in a boat while working on "Jewels of the Jungle."
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| Gary Strobel in his trademark red stocking cap. Undated photo. | |
The work of an MSU plant pathologist and an MSU student in the Science/Natural History Filmmaking program is an excellent example of symbiosis, "the close association of two dissimilar organisms in a mutually beneficial relationship."
Plant Scientist Gary Strobel and grad-student, writer-director-cinematographer John Shier worked together for more than two years to produce "Jewels of the Jungle," a film that will be aired nationally on public television in 2007.
"Jewels" documents Strobel's work as he searches for novel medicinal compounds created by creatures that live between the cells of plants. He has been on the hunt for those protomedicines for about 20 years. Shier approached him in 2002 with a proposal to document the hunt. With Strobel's help, Shier snagged a National Science Foundation grant that let him go with Strobel on working visits with Australian aborigines and Amazonian healers, looking for clues to which plants might host beneficial organisms.
The resulting film shows the whole process of discovery: talking with native healers who have a superb knowledge of their local plants, lab work to identify the compounds isolated from the plants, collaborations with a pharmaceutical company and another university, and the final contract between Strobel, MSU and the tribes who helped identify and find the plants.
For his work, Shier obtained his Master's of Fine Arts in Science and Natural History Filmmaking in 2005 and several awards. Strobel ended up with a documentary that he said summarizes about half of his professional career.
MSU's Science/Natural History Filmmaking program is the only one of its type in the United States. It is designed to educate students not just in film and video production but also in the language and methodology of research and natural resources conservation.
Strobel, who is on a committee to review applicants for the program, said it is one of the most sought after programs at MSU, with 15 slots each year and about 90 applicants from all over the world.
"It's very competitive," Strobel said. "Applicants need to have a high GPA (grade point average), film or video experience, excellent English composition skills and knowledge of science. It also helps to know a foreign language and have had experience traveling."
Shier, who was from Wisconsin and now is adjunct professor in the program, said he was drawn to it because "it mixes the creative with the technical. If you can find a project you are passionate about, you can fully commit yourself to it."
Strobel's and Shier's efforts have similarities: the more exciting times of travel or filming on location are followed by long months of effort in the lab for Strobel and in the edit bay for Shier and his wife, Sara (MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking ). Sara Shier was editor for "Jewels of the Jungle" and has credits herself, including "Fighting for Life: Emelia's Story," which won a Bronze Telly Award and aired on PBS.
Symbiosis also is the relationship of the endophytes Strobel seeks between the cells of plants and the plants they live within. About 10 percent to 15 percent of the endophytic fungi that Strobel collects have antibiotic activity. Scientists think that activity, which may become beneficial to humans in future medicines, may protect the plants from invading bacteria and perhaps even viruses.
Symbiosis is also a good term for the give and take between Strobel and the native peoples he has worked with. He listens to their elders and folk doctors, follows their advice on which plants have healing properties, and then makes sure they profit along with his Western collaborators if any of the compounds that come from those plants are patented. To date, Strobel and/or MSU have patents on more than two dozen compounds and processes from endophytes and other patents are pending.
The endophytes live within the plant but often outside of the plant's cells. As if taking a hint from his hidden prey, Strobel describes himself as both insider and outsider to the scientific community. He is inside the system in terms of his grant-getting abilities, his full-professor status at MSU and his doctoral degree from the University of California at Davis. But he is outside of the main stream in the sense that he fosters what start out looking like off-the-wall collaborations -- whether with film students or dinosaur hunters -- and also bucks the system, as when he and EPA regulations came to philosophical blows in the 1980s.
From his trademark red stocking cap, which he both wore and used to hold plant specimens, to his put-put motor bike, which he uses on the unusual days that he doesn't walk to work, Strobel is unique.
John Shier caught much of Strobel's quirkiness, perseverance and success in "Jewels of the Jungle," including collaborative work with Eli Lilly, Brigham Young University and scientists in Brazil, Peru, and Australia. More than 75 Public Broadcasting System stations have signed on to air the video, and international stations have expressed interest in airing it.
"I have always been sensitive to the fact that the public funds my research and the public deserves to know what I am doing," Strobel said. "Sometimes that is misconstrued as blowing one's own horn."
In Strobel's scientific quest, "symbiotic relationships are the best," he has said. That also seems to be the case in his relationships with filmmakers, Australian aborigines and pharmaceutical companies.
"There is intense interest and very little data about endophytes," Strobel said. "My hope is that other scientists will become interested and go out to document the microbes in their countries."
Contact: Gary Strobel (406) 994-5148 uplgs@montana.edu, John Shier (406) 994-6403 or jshier@montana.edu
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