UWM Science Bag: ‘We Cured Hep C’

Posted on by

It may be a meme, but it’s no joke. A picture of a baby with a smug look on his face, a fist raised in the air and the words ‘We Cured Hep C’ in bold print was the image on the final slide of University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee associate professor David N. Frick’s presentation Nov. 16.

Sandie and Jim Linnemann check out chemistry equipment used during the UWM Science Bag presentation Nov. 16. Photo by Katie Eggers.
Sandie and Jim Linnemann check out chemistry equipment used during the UWM Science Bag presentation Nov. 16. Photo by Katie Eggers.

Frick came to UWM in 2010 as a Chemistry teacher. He told the audience that while he does teach classes, he does far more research than teaching. He came to work at UWM after teaching and also running a research lab for 10 years at New York Medical College. He devotes his research to finding and developing new treatments and cures for diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis C. A few weeks ago, the new cure for Hepatitis C was made available, and he’s telling anyone who will listen.

The presentation was a part of a series of presentations known as UWM Science Bag. October marks the first month of the 42nd year of the UWM Science Bag. This year there are presentations in November, January, February, March and April. The topic for each presentation changes monthly, and the goal is to educate people while entertaining them. Presentations are held every Friday night at 8 p.m., with a matinee performance once a month on a Sunday at 2 p.m. The topic for this month is “The New Hepatitis C Wonder Drugs,” and it is a topic that is very personal for Frick.

“I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C shortly after it was discovered,” Frick said. “I was diagnosed in 1994, and it was discovered in 1988.”

He contracted the virus when he was a child from a blood transfusion he received. Many people who contracted it from blood transfusions were from the baby boomer generation and will start to exhibit symptoms soon.

An audience member uses a push pin and balloons to demonstrate how viruses attack healthy cells. Photo by Katie Eggers.
An audience member uses a push pin and balloons to demonstrate how viruses attack healthy cells. Photo by Katie Eggers.

In the past, the cure for Hepatitis C was unreliable. It consisted of a yearlong series of painful shots, and only about half of the people that went through the treatment were cured. Frick was one of the lucky ones whose body responded to the treatment, which for him also included a life-saving liver transplant.

Audience members watch David N. Frick’s presentation on the cure for Hepatitis C intently. Photo by Katie Eggers.
Audience members watch David N. Frick’s presentation on the cure for Hepatitis C intently. Photo by Katie Eggers.

Frick’s presentation, which lasted just over an hour, was interactive. He could have just talked to the audience for an hour but chose to have a slideshow presentation with many diagrams and a few videos. He also had very easy to understand displays, and took volunteers from the audience to help him with scientific demonstrations. These demonstrations make it interesting for the audience, and are typical of many of the Science Bag presentations.

“One of the things I’ve never forgot, they had a session that dealt with bats,” said Jim Linnemann, a member of the audience. “This gentleman went through a large part of the hours-worth of time and all of sudden reached in his pocket and took a couple bats out and let them loose.”

The presenter went on to explain how many mosquitoes bats eat compared to their weight. The presentation provided Linnemann with a better understanding about bats and their usefulness in the environment.

Linnemann and his wife, Sandie, have been attending UWM Science Bag sessions ever since their 38-year-old son, Jerad, was in middle school. It started out as an extra credit opportunity for Jerad, and became part of a family tradition. Even though their son is all grown up with a master’s degree now and living in Washington, D.C., Jim and Sandie have continued to come to the presentations monthly, so long as they don’t have commitments with family during the time of the presentation.

with,” said Jim Linnemann. “It’s the exposure to something new. It’s mindboggling the amount of work that went into making a cure.”

“Being retired, that’s one of the things that they say, that you need to learn something new every day,” said Sandie Linnemann. “When you come to the science bag, you probably learn enough new things to last you all week.”

The presentations are made to be kid friendly and interactive while also stimulating the minds of the older people in the audience.

Frick will be giving his presentation about the cure for Hepatitis C again on Nov. 21 and 28. Both events will be at 8 p.m. in room 137 of the Physics Building on the UWM campus. All of the presentations are free and open to the general public.