biology

Natalie Prystajecky

Natalie Prystajecky is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Natalie Prystajecky rather than just read about it. In short: Natalie Anne Prystajecky a Canadian biologist who leads the Environmental Microbiology program at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control Public Health Laboratory. She holds a clinical assistant professor position at the University of British Columbia.

Key takeaways

Natalie Prystajecky belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Natalie Prystajecky to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Natalie Prystajecky from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Natalie Anne Prystajecky a Canadian biologist who leads the Environmental Microbiology program at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control Public Health Laboratory. She holds a clinical assistant professor position at the University of British Columbia. During the COVID-19 pandemic Prystajecky was involved with the development COVID-19 testing capabilities.

Early life and education Prystajecky studied environmental science and biology at the University of Calgary. She moved to British Columbia as a graduate student, where she first worked toward a certificate in watershed management. In 2010 Prystajecky earned her doctoral degree at the University of British Columbia. Her research considered epidemiological studies of Giardia spp.

Research and career After completing her doctorate, Prystajecky joined the British Columbia Provincial Health Services Authority, where she led British Columbians through outbreaks of norovirus and influenza. At the time, Prystajecky's advice was to “wash your hands all the time, and soap and water is the best,”. Prystajecky leads the Environmental Microbiology program at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control Public Health Laboratory. She investigates the relationship between environmental exposures and clinical outcomes. To do this, Prystajecky developed technology for genome sequencing. She has used these genomic technologies to search for pathogens that might cause foodborne illnesses. Prystajecky has used metagenomics to test for bacteria and viruses in water in an effort to improve the health of people and ecosystems. In early 2020 Prystajecky was involved in two British Columbian oyster One Health studies named UPCOAST-V for Vibrio parahaemolyticus and UPCOAST-N for Norovirus, Improved detection of the viruses will help to reduce the spread of disease and help the Canadian oyster industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic Prystajecky was involved with the development COVID-19 testing capabilities. The first quantitative PCR acid was shared by researchers in Wuhan with World Health Organization, and forms the basis of many COVID-19 tests, including those developed by Prystajecky. In particular, Prystajecky looked to reduce the time taken between testing and obtaining results in an effort to understand transmission and protect vulnerable members of the population. The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control program that conducts the testing is known as Responding to Emerging Serious Pathogen Outbreaks using Next-gen Data (RESPOND), and makes use of genome sequencing to identify which patients have been infected by the disease.

Selected publications Van Rossum, Thea; Peabody, Michael A.; Uyaguari-Diaz, Miguel I.; Cronin, Kirby I.; Chan, Michael; Slobodan, Jared R.; Nesbitt, Matthew J.; Suttle, Curtis A.; Hsiao, William W. L.; Tang, Patrick K. C.; Prystajecky, Natalie A. (2015-12-16). "Year-Long Metagenomic Study of River Microbiomes Across Land Use and Water Quality". Frontiers in Microbiology. 6: 1405. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2015.01405. ISSN 1664-302X. PMC 4681185. PMID 26733955. Uyaguari-Diaz, Miguel I.; Chan, Michael; Chaban, Bonnie L.; Croxen, Matthew A.; Finke, Jan F.; Hill, Janet E.; Peabody, Michael A.; Van Rossum, Thea; Suttle, Curtis A.; Brinkman, Fiona S. L.; Isaac-Renton, Judith (2016-07-11). "A comprehensive method for amplicon-based and metagenomic characterization of viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotes in freshwater samples". Microbiome. 4 (1): 20. doi:10.1186/s40168-016-0166-1. ISSN 2049-2618. PMC 5011856. PMID 27391119. Dunn, Gemma; Harris, Leila; Cook, Christina; Prystajecky, Natalie (2014). "A comparative analysis of current microbial water quality risk assessment and management practices in British Columbia and Ontario, Canada". Science of the Total Environment. 468–469: 544–552. Bibcode:2014ScTEn.468..544D. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.08.004. hdl:2429/63620. ISSN 0048-9697. PMID 24055670.

Personal life Prystajecky has two children.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Natalie Prystajecky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Natalie Prystajecky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Natalie Prystajecky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Natalie Prystajecky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Natalie Prystajecky

In research: Natalie Prystajecky appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Natalie Prystajecky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Natalie Prystajecky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century Canadian biologists, 21st-century Canadian women scientists, 21st-century women biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Natalie Prystajecky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Natalie Prystajecky in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Natalie Prystajecky means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Natalie Prystajecky out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Natalie Prystajecky in simple terms?

Why does Natalie Prystajecky matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Natalie Prystajecky?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Natalie Prystajecky.