Amy Burek, scientist and founder of The Awkward Ladies Club, is a staple of the Bay Area zine community and one of the first friendly faces that welcomed Two Photon into the community. In fact, her zine "Never Finish Grad School" about her experience as a PhD student at UC Berkeley was one of our first trades! Amy is creating a zine about Diphtheria, titled “A Brief History of Diphtheria.” 

The book will cover the following topics: an overview of diphtheria symptoms and epidemiology, history of diphtheria research (with emphasis on von Behring’s research and Nobel Prize), the development and production of antitoxin treatment (with emphasis on “A horse named Jim” and the “Great Race of Mercy” in Nome, Alaska), changes in treatment and immunization over time, overview of C. diphtheriae biology and toxin mode of action, and an overview of the disease today.

The project is slated to be completed Fall of 2018. You can stay posted on Amy's project by following her on Instagram!

Curious about the other scicomm grant recipients? Read about their projects!