Skip to main content
NIH Intramural Research Program, Our Research Changes Lives

Navigation controls

  • Search
  • Menu

Social follow links

  • Podcast
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Main navigation

  • About Us
    • What Is the IRP?
    • History
    • Honors
      • Nobel Prize
      • Lasker Award
      • Breakthrough Prize
      • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
      • Presidential Medal of Freedom
      • National Medal of Science
      • Searle Scholars
      • The National Academy of Sciences
      • The National Academy of Medicine
      • The National Academy of Engineering
      • The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
      • National Medal of Technology & Innovation
      • Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals
      • Crafoord Prize
      • Fellows of the Royal Society
      • Canada Gairdner Awards
    • Organization & Leadership
    • Our Programs
      • NCI
      • NEI
      • NHGRI
      • NHLBI
      • NIA
      • NIAAA
      • NIAID
      • NIAMS
      • NIBIB
      • NICHD
      • NIDA
      • NIDCD
      • NIDCR
      • NIDDK
      • NIEHS
      • NIMH
      • NIMHD
      • NINDS
      • NINR
      • NLM
      • CC
      • NCATS
      • NCCIH
    • Research Campus Locations
    • Contact Information
  • Our Research
    • Scientific Focus Areas
      • Biomedical Engineering & Biophysics
      • Cancer Biology
      • Cell Biology
      • Chemical Biology
      • Chromosome Biology
      • Clinical Research
      • Computational Biology
      • Developmental Biology
      • Epidemiology
      • Genetics & Genomics
      • Health Disparities
      • Immunology
      • Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
      • Molecular Biology & Biochemistry
      • Molecular Pharmacology
      • Neuroscience
      • RNA Biology
      • Social & Behavioral Sciences
      • Stem Cell Biology
      • Structural Biology
      • Systems Biology
      • Virology
    • Principal Investigators
      • View by Investigator Name
      • View by Scientific Focus Area
    • Accomplishments
      • View All Accomplishments by Date
      • View All Health Topics
      • The Body
      • Health & Wellness
      • Conditions & Diseases
      • Procedures
    • Accelerating Science
      • Investing in Cutting-Edge Animal Models
      • Creating Cell-Based Therapies
      • Advancing Computational and Structural Biology
      • Combating Drug Resistance
      • Developing Novel Imaging Techniques
      • Charting the Pathways of Inflammation
      • Zooming in on the Microbiome
      • Uncovering New Opportunities for Natural Products
      • Stimulating Neuroscience Research
      • Pursuing Precision Medicine
      • Unlocking the Potential of RNA Biology and Therapeutics
      • Producing Novel Vaccines
    • Research in Action
      • View All Stories
      • Too Much of a Good Thing
      • Turning Face Perception on Its Head
      • Safeguarding a Second Chance at Life
      • A Biological Betrayal
    • Trans-IRP Research Resources
      • Supercomputing
    • IRP Review Process
    • Commercializing Inventions
  • NIH Clinical Center
    • Clinical Center Facilities
    • Advancing Translational Science
    • Clinical Trials
      • Get Involved with Clinical Research
      • Physician Resources
  • News & Events
    • In the News
    • I am Intramural Blog
    • Speaking of Science Podcast
    • SciBites Video Shorts
    • The NIH Catalyst Newsletter
    • Events
  • Careers
    • Faculty-Level Scientific Careers
    • Trans-NIH Scientific Recruitments
      • Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators
        • Science, the Stadtman Way
        • Earl Stadtman Investigator Frequently Asked Questions
      • Lasker Clinical Research Scholars
      • Independent Research Scholar
    • Scientific & Clinical Careers
    • Administrative Careers
  • Research Training
    • Program Information
    • Training Opportunities
    • NIH Work/Life Resources
The NIH Catalyst: A Publication About NIH Intramural Research

National Institutes of Health • Office of the Director | Volume 24 Issue 4 • July–August 2016

Demystifying Health Effects of Global Warming

Nature’s Bounty at Risk!

BY MANJU BHASKAR, NINDS

Scientists are shedding light on how global warming may be adversely affecting biodiversity, triggering the spread of diseases, and threatening the supply of medically useful natural products. Jonathan Sleeman, director of the National Wildlife Health Center at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and David Newman, former chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Natural Products Branch, talked about the threats at the April 12, 2016, Demystifying Medicine lecture.

Sleeman explained that climate change—with rising global temperatures, rising sea levels, and changes in precipitation patterns—is already having significant impacts on animal and human diseases and on the incidence and geographic distribution of pathogens. For example, the bluetongue virus—an insect-borne viral disease of cattle, sheep, goats, and yaks as well as of wild deer, elk, and other ruminants—is spreading northward in Europe and the United States. Warmer temperatures allow the insect—a midge—to survive at higher latitudes and altitudes and increase its ability to carry and transmit the virus. The economic costs of such a hard-to-treat disease include reproductive losses, damaged wool, and decreased milk production.

graphic showing emerging diseases investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey from the 1970s through 2016. The 1970s-1980s include avian cholera, and other avian-born diseases; the 1990s-2016 includes West Nile virus, amphibian malformations, chronic wasting disease, coral reef health, avian influenza and others.

CREDIT: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Sleeman also talked about efforts to understand how avian influenza virus strains evolve and how scientists are trying to develop methods to prevent outbreaks. Wild waterfowl serve as natural reservoirs for the low-pathogenic flu virus, which can jump to domestic poultry and then to people. In addition, he discussed the human-health and agricultural implications of white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of insect-eating bats in North America since the winter of 2007–2008.

To monitor and control public-health threats, Sleeman explained, a “One Health” approach is being promoted. The concept is ancient, but the name is recent. One Health recognizes how the health of humans is connected to the health of animals and the environment.

David Newman, an international expert in the development of therapeutics based on natural products, discussed how changes in the environment worldwide are affecting plants and other sources of medically useful natural products, the increasingly devastating effects and challenges for saving, creating repositories, and detecting unexpected mutations affecting natural product synthesis in biologic specimens.

divers underwater inspecting a coral reef

CREDIT: NCI

NIH researchers collect natural products that may have therapeutic value from coral reefs and other areas of the ocean. But warmer ocean temperatures triggered by the El Niño weather pattern, which added to the already warmer waters caused by climate change, threatens some of the marine species.

He described how human activities and global environmental change have affected the rich biodiversity of the Antarctic and southern oceans. Coral bleaching, for example, was triggered by a temperature spike due to the El Niño weather pattern, which added to the already warmer waters caused by climate change. Warmer temperatures can kill the tiny marine algae required to maintain the health of coral and give it color.

Newman also talked about how genome mining—targeted discovery of new natural products from microbes obtained from extreme environments—has led to the identification of a gene cluster directing the biosynthesis of a lasso peptide that could be used as a therapeutic.


To view the videocast of the April 12 Demystifying Medicine lecture “Global Warming: Effect on Vector Distribution, Disease, and Natural Product Research” by Jonathan Sleeman (U.S. Geological Survey) and David Newman (NCI), go to http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?19618.

This page was last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2022

  • Issue Overview
  • Features
    • Demystifying Medicine
    • Digitizing and Preserving Medical History
    • Demystifying Health Effects of Global Warming
    • Demystifying Space Medicine
    • NLM Workshop: Images and Texts in Medical History
  • Departments
    • From the Deputy Director for Intramural Research
    • Research Briefs
    • News Briefs
    • Colleagues: Recently Tenured
    • New Methods
    • From the Annals of NIH History
    • News You Can Use
    • From the Annals of NIH History: Computers
    • The Training Page
    • The SIG Beat
    • Announcements: Kudos
    • Announcements
  • Issue Contents
  • Download this issue as a PDF

Catalyst menu

  • Current Issue
  • Previous Issues
  • About The NIH Catalyst
  • Contact The NIH Catalyst
  • Share Your Story
  • NIH Abbreviations

Catalyst links

  • Follow The NIH Catalyst

Subscribe Today!

Subscribe to The NIH Catalyst Newsletter and receive email updates.

Subscribe

Get IRP Updates

Subscribe

  • Email
  • Print
  • Share Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Main navigation

  • About Us
    • What Is the IRP?
    • History
    • Honors
    • Organization & Leadership
    • Our Programs
    • Research Campus Locations
    • Contact Information
  • Our Research
    • Scientific Focus Areas
    • Principal Investigators
    • Accomplishments
    • Accelerating Science
    • Research in Action
    • Trans-IRP Research Resources
    • IRP Review Process
    • Commercializing Inventions
  • NIH Clinical Center
    • Clinical Center Facilities
    • Advancing Translational Science
    • Clinical Trials
  • News & Events
    • In the News
    • I am Intramural Blog
    • Speaking of Science Podcast
    • SciBites Video Shorts
    • The NIH Catalyst Newsletter
    • Events
  • Careers
    • Faculty-Level Scientific Careers
    • Trans-NIH Scientific Recruitments
    • Scientific & Clinical Careers
    • Administrative Careers
  • Research Training
    • Program Information
    • Training Opportunities
    • NIH Work/Life Resources
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • National Institutes of Health
  • USA.gov

Footer

  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • IRP Brand Materials
  • HHS Vulnerability Disclosure
  • Web Policies & Notices
  • Site Map
  • Search