Winning a public school poster contest is cause for celebration. But winning one in a professional-level science competition is something else indeed.

To even call "a poster" the five-part presentation that 2008 Salisbury University graduate and Ellicott City resident Christa Williams submitted to the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, and then to the national meeting of the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science, might surprise the lay person-rest of us.

"At professional meetings, posters can be 4 feet high by 6 feet long. They're a summary of research, professionally printed, sort of a condensed version of a scientific paper," explains Williams' adviser, Diane Davis.

Williams' research on the spread of drug-resistant MRSA on inanimate objects (officially, "Survival of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus on Fomites") won first place in the society's student poster contest, earning her a $500 award and a one-year professional membership in the organization.

Her work has since been submitted for publication in the Clinical Laboratory Science Journal, where, having been deemed worthy for professional review, it has passed the first hurdle.

"It's the first time I've had a student get this far," says the pleased-as-punch Davis, pointing out that all the work involved was in addition to Williams' regular college course load.

Certainly, the study's process represents a long road of effort. First, Williams had to develop a topic. Her interest in the particular bug originated with a family member's death from a hospital-acquired infection which could have been MRSA. Next came researching the scientific literature to find out what had already been done. Then she had to design the experiment, come up with a budget and apply to university sources for grants to cover its costs (she got two).

Set-up (no small issue when dealing with a bug as contagious and difficult to treat as MRSA) and procedures had to be completely safe. But after three years in her program, "I guess I'm kind of used to working with things like this," she says, casually.

Then would come both regular wet sampling of MRSA-seeded countertops, glass plates and vinyl tile (previous studies had shown a two-week survival, so she played it safe, allowing a month) and dry sampling of hospital stethoscopes and, finally, writing up the results. These, in addition to this study of the hospital-acquired version, included a separate paper on community-acquired MRSA, often associated with damp places such as gyms, locker rooms and spas.

From the beginning of the fall semester, it was to be all out of the way by final exam time before Christmas. But -- here's the exciting part -- the wet-sampled organism didn't die. Davis and Williams finally had to shut it down at three months, the MRSA still going strong.

Thus Williams' conclusions about the part moisture plays in MRSA's survival included the suggestion that this work could be followed up to the end.

It's certainly not one of those mad science experiments having no conceivable practical application.

And the only luck involved was the perfect timing. Although the events could have taken place anywhere in the country, the undergraduate research conference happened to meet at Salisbury and the laboratory organization meeting was set for Washington, making attendance affordable.

"When I saw that the national meeting (of the society) was in Washington, I said, 'There's your chance,'" Davis recalls. "She was able to do this in exactly the right year."

As a learning experience, "The process is as important as the results," adds the adviser, with the possible exception of a case, like this, in which "you hit a home run."

Alas, no Howard County high school can take credit for grooming Williams for success. She grew up in College Park, graduating from Eleanor Roosevelt High in 2004. Her parents and brother moved to Ellicott City as she headed off to Salisbury.

Last spring, she received her diploma, cum laude, from Salisbury's Clinical Laboratory Science/Medical Technology program and earned national certification from the American Society of Clinical Pathology during the summer. She's now a medical technologist in the lab of Mercy Hospital in Baltimore.

"Right now I'm a generalist there, but I hope to specialize in micro work," she says. But she's also considering graduate school, possibly in patient care as a physician's assistant.

"She's very talented. A lot of things interest her. It's hard to commit to one direction," Davis observes.

In the meantime, Williams will certainly be the go-to person in the Mercy Hospital lab if an MRSA infection shows up.

When not in the lab, Williams can often be found working out at Life Time Fitness in Columbia, where, she says, "Hopefully those little sanitizing wipes they have there work."

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