What’s the extent of methamphetamine
use in America’s
suburbs? Miriam Boeri, a sociologist in
the College of Humanities and Social
Sciences, knows that it takes humility
and open-mindedness to find out.

That’s because fi nding users requires
going into the streets, shops and hangouts
of those who use the substance
and trying to encourage people to talk
to her.

At the other end of the research
spectrum, Jonathan McMurry is investigating
a basic science phenomenon at
the molecular level. McMurry, from the
College of Science and Mathematics,
is researching how bacteria assemble
fl agella, a process with implications for
a host of bacterial diseases.

And despite being ensconced in
different colleges, both KSU academics
share something in common: They
have received prestigious National
Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to study
problems affecting human health.

We explore both professors’ fascinating
research and note how their work
is expanding knowledge.



BOERI: Explaining
methamphetamine use
in surburbia

When Miriam Boeri hits streets — mean
and otherwise — that intersect around
methamphetamine use, the paradigms
go out the window. She absorbs new
and different perspectives as she goes
one-on-one with former and current
methamphetamine users to explore use
of a drug that has taken a tremendous
toll in communities across the United
States.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse,
a part of the NIH, is providing a grant
of $180,900 for this research, which
takes a look at how and why people
in suburban Atlanta start — and stop
— using methamphetamine. The study
targets former and current users within
a 50-mile radius of Atlanta and within 30
miles from Kennesaw.

Many previous studies have explored
methamphetamine use in mainly urban
or completely rural areas. Suburbia was
primarily untouched by researchers.
Boeri began her research in the suburbs
in 2007 and anticipates completing the
study next year. Thus far, she says, the
research has gone well and has been
quite enlightening — not just from talking
with users themselves, but also the
process of finding them.

National and regional chains of diners
and big-box discounters, which are
open 24-hours-a-day, are a prime target
for Boeri and her student assistant to
place fl iers, asking users for their participation.

After all, methamphetamine
causes days-long periods of wakefulness,
and those on the drug need
somewhere to go and they eventually
wind up at those places.

Some of those types of businesses,
mostly large and corporate-owned,
have told her “no.” But locally-owned
small businesses are often very eager
to help.

“They almost always let us put a flier
up,” she said. “These small businesses
are very helpful, supportive, and very
concerned about the problem.”

In talking with suburbanites who’ve
used the drug, there’s often a common
reason why that dialogue leads to
one ugly core of American societal
dysfunction: Methamphetamine users,
Boeri said, often use the drug to become
more productive, whether at work
or at home.

“That says something about our
society, and how methamphetamine has
spread from the West Coast in the last
10 years to across the nation,” she said.

“What has changed about suburban
society is the fact that I can give a fl ier
to someone who knows someone else
using methamphetamine, whereas 10
years ago, most suburbanites didn’t
even know about it.”

Because those on the drug fret about
being caught, finding people who still
use the drug has been challenging,
Boeri said. She and her assistant must
gain trust from participants and the
participants, in turn, must feel that the
researchers aren’t in law enforcement or
otherwise aren’t trying to get the users
in trouble.

A confidentiality certificate from the
National Institute on Drug Abuse
ensures that neither Boeri nor her
assistant will be subpoenaed by the
criminal justice system, helping to
encourage honest feedback from, and
fostering trust with, study participants.

In the end, this research will help the
country focus on the problem of methamphetamine
abuse, and ways to tackle
the problem, from the highly successful
drug courts in some Georgia counties
which mandate treatment, to addressing
mental and physical health problems
associated with drug use, Boeri said.

McMURRY: Understanding
bacterial flagella

Salmonella enterica is a bacterial species
most often associated with improperly
cooked food in America. But
in the rest of the world, it is much more
rampant and associated with debilitating
disease, namely typhoid fever and
salmonellosis. These diseases can cause
severe diarrhea and other gastrointestinal
problems, which, if untreated, can
lead to death.

Thanks to a $201,000 grant from the
National Institute of General Medical
Sciences, a subsection of the NIH,
Jonathan McMurry is further exploring
how these bacteria work and move.

McMurry’s research looks at how salmonella
recognize and secrete proteins
that form flagella. Flagella are nanomachines
composed of long strands of
more than 20,000 proteins which propel
bacteria through their environment, not
unlike the outboard motor of a boat.

By studying flagella, scientists can
better understand not only how they
are assembled, but also another nearly
identical process that directly causes
a wide range of bacterial diseases in
humans, from gastroenteritis to bubonic
plague.

And in the end, scientific inquiry can
lead to breakthroughs that treat or even
cure disease, leading to answers as to
why toxic proteins that make people
sick are generated, and how they can
be counteracted.

“You can’t have new products until
certain fundamentals are understood,”
said McMurry, who began his work on
salmonella during a postdoctoral fellowship
at Yale University in New Haven,
Conn.

There is a significant undergraduate
research component to his work at KSU,
McMurry explained, which helps to
meet the university’s mission as a learning-
centered institution.

He said students with undergraduate
research experience are better prepared
for future careers, whether going
to graduate school, medical school
or into industry is their next step after
KSU. Besides, research should be an
integral component of every student’s
education.

“It’s indispensable for a quality undergraduate
education,” McMurry said.

KSU, the Office of Sponsored Programs,
and the College of Science and
Mathematics are great supporters
of research, and McMurry said he is
reaping the fruits from other past grant
recipients who have used funds to purchase
equipment that assists the overall
faculty-student research mission.

He said that funding agencies are
starting to recognize the importance
of research at KSU — not officially a
“research” institution in the University
System of Georgia, but an institution,
nonetheless, where important research
and scholarship is under way.

“Many faculty members across KSU
are very supportive about discussing
their experiments, and this is a great
environment in which to do research,”
he said.