When COVID-19 created a global tailspin, Dr. Eman Anis, assistant professor of microbiology, was six months into her appointment at Penn Vet. She joined the School from the University of Georgia in fall 2019.
“I was just settling in when the University curtailed in-person operations for the lab,” said Anis, who is also section head of the Microbiology Lab at Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System (PADLS). The program is a collaboration among Penn Vet, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania State University in wildlife disease surveillance, research, and mitigation.
Early on in the pandemic, Anis’s team worked on a limited schedule to accommodate social distancing, and the full team was back in the lab in June 2020. “We’ve been very busy and demand for our services incredibly high,” said Anis, who has studied coronaviruses since 2010. “Obviously, COVID-19 has put our work into high gear.” (See page 24 for more about Anis’s testing of SARS-CoV-2 in bat guano.)
“I never really got around to ‘decorating’ my office before we started working remotely, and it’s been nonstop since we came back,” she laughed. “My children’s pictures and art are just waiting at home — someday they’ll make it in.”
1. Lab coat. This was the first thing I received when I was hired — with so many people still working remotely I feel so fortunate to be in the lab, wearing my lab coat.
2. Penned welcome. I received this personal handwritten letter from Dean Hoffman soon after I started. It was such a heartwarming gesture to receive when I arrived and means a great deal to me.
3. Extended family. This is my research team at the University of Tennessee — they’re like my extended family. I love seeing their faces when I can’t be with them.
4. Fresh off the printer. Last year, the lab developed a rapid diagnostic test for bat guano and shared it in the Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation. This development became a critical tool during the pandemic to help prevent additional zoonotic spillover of SARS-CoV-2 and is a body of work that I am particularly proud to have been a part of.
5. Pipe cleaner DNA. At our 2019 holiday party, the lab made this DNA strand. We had no idea in a few months we’d all be socially distant. Even now we can’t gather to enjoy each other’s company as we could before COVID-19 because of social distance protocols. This pipe cleaner is a reminder of the wonderful people I work with, whom I miss.