UC San Diego Oceanids’ Sounding Board presents Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D., and husband Thomas Patterson, Ph.D. at its noontime lecture at the Ida and Cecil Green Faculty Club. In 2015, the couple were vacationing in Egypt when Dr. Patterson came down with a stomach bug. What at first seemed like a case of severe food poisoning quickly turned critical, and by the time he had been transferred via emergency medevac to the world-class medical center at UC San Diego, where both were on staff, blood work revealed why modern medicine was failing: he was fighting one of the most dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the world. This story led them to the launch of IPATH at UC San Diego, the first phage therapy center in North America. Dr. Strathdee is an infectious disease epidemiologist renowned for her research on the intersection of HIV and drug use, and is the Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences and Harold Simon Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego where she codirects the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics. Thomas L. Patterson is Professor of Psychiatry at UC San Diego and has conducted research in a number of areas including HIV/AIDS prevention, rehabilitation of older patients with psychosis, and stress responses of caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients. Together, they co-direct a research and training program on the Mexico-US border.