March 11, 2024 • 36 mins
We visit the UNSW Museum of Human Disease which has hundreds of diseased specimens on display.
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Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ellen (00:01):
We have a lot of kidneys
Kate (00:03):
lots of nail gun accidents
Ellen (00:07):
that's coal dust that he's breathes in for his whole
life it's this ball of hair,which is the exact shape of her
stomach
Kate (00:17):
Welcome to Roadshow and Tell, a podcast for people
hoping to improve their pubtrivia team score.
I'm your host, Kate, and I'llvisit museums so you can learn
things you never knew you wantedto.
Today we are visiting the Museumof Human disease at the
University of New South Wales inSydney.
(00:38):
It's at the Kensington campus, ashort 15 minute drive from the
Sydney CBD.
And how can you have a museum ofhuman disease?
With hundreds and hundreds ofdisease specimens.
That's right, biological samplesof organs and tissues that show
a particular disease preservedin a solution and displayed in
(00:59):
sealed containers.
From malaria to measles.
Tuberculosis to tetanus, thismuseum has an amazing
collection.
There are stories that accompanymany specimens and they provide
insights into the nature of thedisease specimen and allow us to
see the effects on the humanbody and the progression of
specific conditions.
(01:20):
I chat with the museum curator,Ellen Worgan, who is contagious
in her enthusiasm for scienceeducation.
We talk about the collectionprocess, eradication of diseases
and the crucial role diseasespecimens play in education.
We also take a tour and delveinto particularly interesting
specimens, such as an ovary thatstarted growing teeth.
(01:43):
That's just one example of themany quirky and curious exhibits
in this museum.
So, get ready for aninfectiously good time.
So today I'm at the Museum ofHuman Disease with Ellen Worgan
at U N S W.
Hello, Ellen.
Hi.
And Ellen.
Whose land are we on today?
Ellen (02:04):
We're on the land of the Cadigal people.
Lovely,
Kate (02:07):
what is the Museum of Human Disease?
Ellen (02:10):
So here we have a collection of a couple of
thousand specimens of humantissue and organs, which are all
showing disease in some way.
So we don't have any healthyones.
But about 1400 of them are ondisplay.
And then we've got some otherlocations or in storage and
things as well.
Kate (02:30):
And why would you wanna collect diseased specimens?
Ellen (02:33):
It's a great question.
It's definitely not somethingthat you see every day, which I
think makes it a special placeto come and visit.
The real value of it iseducational.
There are not a lot of ways thatyou can still be teaching people
something after you die unlessyou have written a book or made
a documentary or something likethat.
But all of the people uh, andfamilies who have donated
(02:55):
specimens to the museum havebeen able to do that.
And so the specimens here areable to help people understand
disease better, help peopleunderstand their own health and
our sort of social and culturalunderstanding of health a little
bit more.
And also sort of see things in away that you wouldn't normally
see.
We talk a lot about disease andeverybody encounters disease in
(03:17):
some ways, a lot in their life.
But it's not very often that youget to see those signs of
disease up close and personal,especially inside the body.
Kate (03:26):
Definitely.
So these specimens, how are theypreserved?
Ellen (03:30):
So they are preserved in a solution of mostly water and
formaldehyde.
So they used to use pureformaldehyde, but it is very
carcinogenic.
So they don't do that anymore.
They use a very dilute solutionof it now, which preserves it
just the same, but is a lot lessdangerous to work with.
And is a lot less dangerous tobe on display should something
(03:52):
happen.
Kate (03:53):
And who are the people that donate?
Do they decide to donate whenthey're healthy or when they
become sick?
Ellen (03:59):
We don't really know for a lot of the specimens, a lot of
them are quite old.
The majority of the collectionhas been here for many decades
and because the legislationaround Transporting and using
human remains has changed overtime, it's very difficult to
have things donated now.
We did have a specimen donatedin the second half of last year
(04:21):
which is our first new one for awhile, and it's what we call a
gastric trick over which isessentially a ball of hair that
has built up inside the stomach.
So like actual hair.
Actual hair.
So it's from a 14 year old girlwho had a condition called
trichotillomania, which is sortof a a nxiety based, obsessive
(04:45):
compulsive condition where shewould pull out her hair and then
she'd eat it.
And so because that can't bedigested really because the hair
protein is so tough, it justbuilds up in the stomach more
and more and more.
And essentially it's this ballof hair, which is the exact
shape of her stomach.
And so it's on display now, andthat was the most recent one.
(05:08):
And the reason that that wassort of easier to get than other
donations is cuz it's notactually human remains uhhuh,
like it's a, it's a mass fromthe body, but it's not actually
an organ or tissue.
So the legislation is a littlebit different around that.
But it's a very rare occurrenceto have one of that size which
you'll get to see in a fewminutes.
(05:28):
But the majority of thespecimens, like I said, were
donated decades ago.
We have histories and sort ofprovidence information for some
and not for others.
We don't know exactly what thedonation process was.
In some cases it may have beenpatients who gave permission
either before they died or whilethey were still alive.
(05:49):
Not all of the specimens werefrom lethal cases or um, were
taken from deceased people.
A lot of them, we, we don't knowwhether it was the person or
their family or at the doctor'srequests.
it's A part of the issue ofhaving a more historical
collection is we don't have allthe information because the
processes for collecting thatwere not as good in the past as
(06:10):
they are now.
Kate (06:12):
What's the history of this museum?
When did it start and whostarted it?
Ellen (06:15):
So the collection was established in the sixties or
seventies by a professor calledDonald Wilhelm.
And we've got some of hisequipment and artifacts out
here.
And he sort of established thecollection in its current form.
The museum has existed sincearound 2000 which is when it
(06:36):
became open to the public andhad a schools program and became
more accessible for peoplebeyond pathology and medicine
staff and students at theuniversity.
Kate (06:46):
Ellen tells me that the specimens are often used for
teaching at the university wherethe museum is housed.
Ellen (06:51):
So the pathology courses that run every year at the uni,
the lecturers we'll request themto use in their presentations,
or they'll send students herefor homework and they'll have to
find specimens
Kate (07:04):
right.
So they might just nip in andborrow a, a heart or a lung.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
Ellen (07:08):
return it in seven days.
Yeah, we sort of act as asupport option as well for the
staff.
Kate (07:13):
what's the most popular part of the museum?
Ellen (07:16):
I don't know if there's a most popular part, but we
definitely have some specimensthat are favorites.
I think one thing that studentsfind really fascinating are the
specimens that you can sort oftell are a body part.
I think for a lot of things,looking at like a lung or a
kidney, it's not something thatyou see every day and think of
as like part of your body.
(07:38):
even though it is.
But we've got, for example,specimens of fingers or a leg or
a hand.
And those ones I think sort ofstand out cuz you go, oh, okay.
That's, that's definitely a bodypart.
Like I see that every day.
Yeah.
And
Kate (07:52):
how come there's no healthy specimens to compare the
diseased ones to?
Ellen (07:56):
Mainly because people don't get asked to donate
healthy specimens.
We do have an anatomy museum oncampus as well, and they tend to
have healthy and pathologicalspecimens as well.
But here, the collection tendsto just be things that I think
generally were noticed bydoctors or pathologists as
(08:17):
noteworthyor interesting forthat particular field of study.
But we are in the process ofputting together a set of
healthy, not specimens, butimages to compare things to.
Because you know, if you don'tknow what a lung looks like,
which most people don't reallyin any kind of detail it's kind
of hard sometimes to notice whatare the signs that these ones
(08:40):
are diseased.
So it's nice to have a bit of acomparison.
Kate (08:43):
So let's take a step back.
What types of diseases arethere?
Ellen (08:46):
We've got a really big range, so, Probably the majority
of specimens that we have hereshow non-infectious diseases.
We have a very large number ofcancer specimens because there
is such a huge range of them.
And because it's so common, youknow, one in two people will get
cancer at some point in theirlifetime.
So that's a very largeproportion of our collection.
(09:08):
But we do have a really bigvariety of other non-infectious
and infectious diseases.
We have quite a good range ofthings from most parts of the
body.
So we've got a, you know,sections for heart specimens and
we've got sections for lungspecimens, but then we also have
sections for like inflammatorydiseases.
We've got some displays onautoimmune diseases,
(09:30):
neurological conditions.
So we've got a prettyrepresentative collection.
Kate (09:35):
While they're not hunting for any new specimens at the
moment, the big question oneveryone's lips is, do you have
any COVID specimens?
Ellen (09:44):
Um, Which we don't.
We definitely have specimens ofthings relevant to Covid.
So in our covid display we have,for example specimens of
pneumonia and specimens of bloodclots because those are
complications that are verystrongly associated with Covid.
But because it's so recent, andagain, because the legislation
around it now is very strict andparticularly during the height
(10:05):
of the pandemic, no one wasgoing to be passing around human
tissue that was infected.
I think we sort of are atcapacity in terms of the number
of specimens that we can have inthis space.
If we get offered interestingones, which sometimes we do buy
other museums or hospitals thathave them in storage or in a
collection somewhere, wedefinitely look through and if
(10:27):
there's things that either aredifferent to what we currently
have or in much better conditionor a better example of a certain
disease or a certain condition.
Then we do see if we can addthem in because it is nice to
have as much variety aspossible.
Kate (10:43):
Speaking of vaccines do you have a display on vaccines
and information about that?
Ellen (10:48):
Yeah, we definitely do.
So we have some specifically inour covid display on the Covid
vaccine.
We've got a few samples of thosevaccines, but we also have one
on vaccination generally.
So a bit about the history, abit about some case studies of
where vaccines have been reallysuccessful in eradicating or
minimizing the effectivediseases.
And that's quite new, but it'sbeen, quite popular so far.
(11:10):
Just been nice.
Kate (11:12):
What diseases should Australians be worried about?
Ellen (11:14):
I think in Australia the biggest burden of disease comes
from non-infectious diseases.
There's a lot of different waysyou can look at it.
If you look at cause of death,for example, the leading cause
of death in Australia iscardiovascular disease.
So anything that affects theheart and the blood vessels.
So heart attacks, strokes butalso a lot of other conditions
that relate to those parts ofthe body.
(11:35):
I think that's a really highpriority and there's been a lot
of attention on that in the pastdecade or so which is actually
starting to flatten out or lowerthe levels of cardiovascular
disease, which is really good.
Lots of education on, how ahealthy diet and lifestyle helps
contribute to cardiovascularhealth.
I think one of the biggesthealth priorities in Australia
(11:57):
now and in the coming years willdefinitely be Alzheimer's and
dementia.
So that's the second leadingcause of death in Australia.
The first for women and thenumbers of Alzheimer's and
dementia patients or diagnosesare increasing dramatically and
are continuing to increase, andit's a disease that we don't
(12:18):
understand that well yet.
It's very hard to study and hardto get any kind of results
around treatments and things.
There's a lot of work being donein it, A lot of really great
research, but it's slow going.
And the rate of increase ofdementia, not just in Australia,
but across the world isdefinitely outstripping our
(12:39):
capacity to care for patientsand support patients and
caregivers.
So I think that's gonna be areal priority.
And that will definitely beovertaking cardiovascular
disease as the number one causeof death in absolutely the next
five to 10 years.
Kate (12:53):
Is there a priority one disease for the world to
eradicate
Ellen (12:57):
in terms of looking at eradication?
I think there's some diseasesthat we're so close to
eradicating, like polio.
We are so, so close toeradicating it, so it would be
amazing if we could, close thatlast bit of a gap there's
definitely other diseases thatwe've made really good progress
on in terms of vaccinationefforts.
(13:18):
When I think about eradicatingdisease, I think infectious
diseases tend to come to mindbecause they're the ones that we
have developed better strategiesto be able to eradicate them.
I think a lot of non-infectiousdiseases, the risk factors are
things like genetics, which weare learning to tackle and
treat, but it's a, a relativelynew approach to medicine and a
(13:43):
lot of environmental andlifestyle factors, which are
just hard to change becauseyou've gotta change people's
behavior to do that.
Whereas infectious diseases,we've got a lot of really well
established strategies fortackling those.
And so things like massvaccination campaigns have been
incredibly successful ateradicating or nearly
eradicating a lot of diseases.
Kate (14:02):
And do you know what the number one disease eradication
success story is?
It's smallpox!
Ellen (14:09):
Yeah, so smallpox is just the, it's the number one vaccine
success story.
So smallpox was very, verycommon.
The vaccine for that was thefirst vaccine ever developed by
a guy called Edward Jenner.
He was a a doctor who did somewildly unethical experiments,
but ended up coming up with avaccine for smallpox.
(14:31):
So he was testing this populartheory at the time that if you
got cowpox, which is kind ofsimilar to chickenpox, like it's
unpleasant, but you don't diefrom it.
So he's, he decided to test thattheory by infecting the son of
his gardener, nine year old boywith cowpox deliberately, and
then deliberately exposing himto smallpox which is quite
(14:55):
deadly.
I think it's about one in sevenchildren with smallpox would die
from it.
And thank God it worked and theboy didn't die.
And for a long time that was howthey vaccinated against smallpox
by infecting people with Cowpox.
THat's actually where the namevaccination comes from Vacca is
(15:15):
latin for Cow.
And so vaccinating someone isexposing them to Cowpox.
Luckily now we have much bettermethods of vaccination, so we do
not need to infect people withother diseases.
And that evolved into being ableto isolate pathogens for disease
and modify them or inactivatethem so that vaccines are not
now carrying any risk ofinfecting someone.
(15:37):
Instead they're just trainingthe immune system to do that.
So smallpox was one of the firstdiseases to have a mass
vaccination campaign.
The World Health Organizationdelivered that through the
sixties and seventies and hasbeen successful in eradicating
that.
Kate (15:53):
There have been no natural cases of smallpox since the last
patient in 1977.
It remains the most notable andprofound public health success
in history.
Ellen (16:04):
There are two, samples of the smallpox virus.
One is in the US and one is inRussia.
And that's held in case there isever a resurgence of that.
And they need to make a vaccineagain or study it again to find
ways to fight against it cuzit's a disease that no one wants
to see come back.
Kate (16:22):
An estimated 300 million people died from smallpox in the
20th century alone.
Smallpox was officially declarederadicated in 1979 and remains
the first and only infectiousdisease eradicated that infects
humans.
Ellen (16:38):
That's absolutely the biggest success.
In Australia, we have hadamazing success at very nearly
eradicating things likediptheria and measles and mumps
rubella things that a lot ofpeople, especially children used
to die from.
And now those things are nearlynonexistent.
Yeah, we're very lucky that wehave access to to vaccines and
(16:59):
to such good healthcare.
Kate (17:00):
What's your favorite exhibit?
Ellen (17:02):
So I don't have a favorite one, but I think for
me, and for most people whocome, the spec, the specimens
that engage them the most arethe ones that relate to an
experience or a person thatthey.
Have or that they know.
So I think the specimens thatstand out to me are ones that
relate to conditions that myfamily members have or my
friends have.
(17:23):
So I don't know if they're, Iwould say they're my favorites,
but they're definitely ones thatI think you've got some sort of
connection to and have that bitof extra meaning and really make
you want to learn more so youcan understand and support your
family and friends with.
Kate (17:36):
Ellen, why do you like working here?
Ellen (17:38):
I partly like working here because it is a really
unique place to work.
And it's working with acollection of things that most
people never or very rarelywould get to see.
I am very passionate aboutscience, education, and
communication.
I was a science teacher prior toworking here.
(17:58):
So I really like being able toengage with school students, but
also with the wider public.
And see them become engaged andinterested in medicine and in
science in a new way.
I think it also is a greatopportunity to use the specimens
here that people have donatedand be able to honor that in a
(18:20):
way and be able to make that areally useful, interesting
fascinating experience for thepeople who come here.
And yeah, be able to keep the,the legacy of all those donors
alive.
Kate (18:32):
Are you a registered organ donor?
Ellen (18:33):
I am.
Kate (18:35):
Should we all be?
Ellen (18:36):
Yes.
Yes.
Oh my gosh, absolutely.
The need for organ donations inAustralia is enormous as in
every country.
And far outstrips the number ofof donations available.
So if you can be a donor, pleaseregister to be a donor and talk
to your family about it, becauseultimately, it doesn't matter if
you're registered, if yourfamily say no, then doctors are
(18:56):
unable to use you as a donor.
So make sure that whoever ismaking your decisions for you in
the event of something terriblehappening knows what you want.
Kate (19:05):
And why should people come and visit the Museum of Human
Disease?
Ellen (19:09):
I'd say they should come here because disease is
something that will affecteveryone in their life, whether
it's you directly, whether it'sa friend or a family member,
whether it's, you know,something really serious or
something really mild.
But I think being able tounderstand that better and what
(19:29):
that means for you and beingable to understand other
people's experiences better isalways really valuable.
And I think coming here buildson your general understanding of
health and scientific literacy,which I think is incredibly
useful as we sort of navigatethrough day-to-day life and are
making decisions about ourlifestyles and our health.
So any information we can haveto help that is always valuable.
(19:52):
And it's also just a chance tosee something that you hardly
ever get to see.
You very rarely get to see theinside of someone's body unless
you are a doctor.
So this is a great chance to doit.
Shall will go and have a look atsome specimens.
Sounds good.
Let's go.
Kate (20:05):
The museum is a few long rooms with shelves lined with
specimens suspended in resin,forming bays with different
medical focuses.
The first side on the left isorganised by body part, with
bays showcasing specimens fromthe mouth, esophagus, stomach,
liver and pancreas, and thenthrough to the brain, spinal
cord and heart.
(20:26):
The opposite side showcasesgeneral, congenital and genetic
diseases such as arthritis,arthritis, inflammation, gout
and bones.
Ellen (20:36):
We have a lot of kidneys because kidneys can be donated,
like kidneys can just be takenout in the case of a transplant.
Or you can even just survivewith one kidney on its own.
So kidneys are something thatare easier to get donated.
In here we also have diseasesrelated to the blood.
So some of these are cancers.
So things like lymphoma.
(20:57):
Also some things which are alittle trickier to classify.
So HIV, for example affects theimmune system, which is
primarily in our blood and ourlymphatic system.
So that's grouped here as well.
Skin conditions as well.
Quite a lot of skin cancers,which is particularly relevant
in Australia for us We've got asection on diseases either
(21:22):
specific to or with specimensfrom infancy and childhood.
So some congenital conditions,things that people are born with
or things that developed inyounger children.
The endocrine system or thesystem that creates our
hormones.
There are quite a lot of veryinteresting conditions to do
with that because hormones arevery active in the body.
(21:42):
So anything that affects thefunction of those is gonna have
quite major impacts on people.
Kate (21:48):
At the back of the museum we enter a trauma bay which has
trigger warnings.
Ellen (21:52):
So this covers physical and psychological trauma.
Physical trauma being injury,psychological trauma being also
injuries, but things thatresulted from various mental
health conditions.
So this one, as you can see, wehave a few sort of signs and
things up just because this canbe an area that's a bit
sensitive for people.
(22:13):
Especially for younger schoolgroups.
We often just let the teachersknow that the sort of things
that are in here.
We've obviously got specimensfrom injuries relating to self
harm, or suicide or suicideattempts, and so we wanna make
sure that people are aware ofthat before coming in.
Kate (22:29):
There's also displays of x rays from unfortunate events,
including lots of nail gunaccidents, a misplaced Buzz
Lightyear action figure, andillicit drugs densely packed
into a pelvis.
You really have to see these tobelieve them.
Ellen (22:45):
We've got a couple of case studies or displays on
particular diseases.
So Covid, obviously, everyonewho comes in wants to know about
that at the moment.
But also malaria, which is areally good example of an
infectious disease that we havestudied a lot and worked very
hard to try and treat andprevent.
(23:06):
And which also has had a lot ofrelevance through the teaching
syllabus as well.
Kate (23:12):
The display covers a wide range of topics, including the
global malaria program, thepotential use of genetic
engineering to eliminate malariaand various prevention
strategies.
It also showcases other notablediseases like smallpox.
(23:32):
There's also a bounty ofinformation available on
epidemics, pandemics andvaccines.
All in all, it's a verycomprehensive display, That
sheds light on the importance ofdisease control and the
advancements made in publichealth.
Ellen (23:46):
We've also got a couple of displays on medical
technologies.
So some of those are things likejoint replacements, artificial
hips, artificial knees.
Most people know someone who hasa grandparent who has one of
those.
And things like artificial heartvalves and pacemakers and
stents, which again, a lot ofpeople know someone with at
(24:06):
least one of those things.
So this is something that peopleoften find quite interesting.
They're like, oh, my nana's gotone of those.
Oh, my uncle got a stent.
Kate (24:14):
I like these too because you can actually see where the
technology, like a stent or anartificial heart valve goes on
the specimen Next, my eye iscaught by a display on vaping.
It features a box full ofdifferent, brightly coloured
vapes.
Ellen tells me that curatingthis display was challenging,
simply because there is limitedinformation on vaping at the
(24:36):
moment.
Ellen (24:37):
It's one thing that we know is incredibly popular.
And it's a little concerningbecause we don't have any
long-term information on whatthe effect of that might be.
If you look at smoking and lungcancer trends, what you see is
that the trends for lung cancerfollow pretty much exactly the
(24:57):
smoking trends, but it's about30 years behind.
So we really might not know for20 or 30 years what the
long-term health effects ofvaping are.
So in some ways it seems safer.
It certainly seems moreappealing because, you don't
have the smell, they look funand cute and colorful, but we,
we really don't know what it'sdoing to people.
(25:18):
So it's one that we felt theneed to highlight as a health
concern, but we don't actuallyhave a lot of information on
what those health effects willbe.
Kate (25:27):
The display notes that already popcorn lung,
bronchiolitis obliterans, AndIvali, which is Vaping
Associated Lung Injury, haveboth been associated with
vaping.
Ellen (25:40):
We've also started to do a few sort of highlight
specimens.
So this is our teratoma with thehair and the teeth growing
inside it there.
Oh, wow.
Out of the ovary.
Kate (25:50):
The next highlight specimen we see is a black lung.
This is exactly what it says onthe box.
An enlarged black lung.
Ellen (25:59):
This one is from a 75 year old miner who you can see
that these lungs are, theyshould be like a sort of reddish
pink color, maybe a little brownif they've been in the
preservation fluid for a longtime.
These ones are just black, likea blue black color, which is
that's coal dust that he'sbreathes in for his whole life,
and it's just worked its wayinto his lung cells now.
(26:20):
oh boy.
Yeah, you look at that andyou're suddenly very glad for
any work, health and safety,things that are in place.
We have this one, which isdefinitely our biggest kidney
specimen.
So the kidney should be aboutthe size of your fist, and this
one is about 30 centimeterstall, And the look of it, it's
(26:42):
basically full of holes.
It looks like a sponge or afocaccia And all of those holes
shouldn't be there, they'recysts.
So just sacks of fluid.
This is what's called polycystickidney disease.
And that's obviously going toreally mess up the function of
the kidney which is essentialfor us.
If you don't have functioningkidneys your body will just shut
down cuz waste products justbuild up and poison your cells.
(27:04):
And this one over here is thetrichobezoar that I was telling
you about before.
So that is the shape of thestomach right there.
Kate (27:12):
So there's a plastic model of the normal shape of a
stomach, kind of like a jellybean shape.
Right beside it, you'll find theactual specimen that matches the
exact shape of that stomach,But, with a striking difference.
It's actually solid and filledwith dense black hair, Like a
ball of hair that would form ifyou were to sweep up all of the
(27:33):
hair on a hairdresser's floorand then scrunch it up.
Ellen (27:36):
And it looks black, but we don't know what color her
hair was.
It could have been any color,but it goes black because of the
stomach acid.
Turns it black, but it doesn'tbreak it down, so it just builds
up there.
Kate (27:46):
Our last highlight specimen that we see is one that
really shook me.
I'm not gonna lie.
It's a series of differentspecimens from the same person.
Ellen (27:55):
So we've got a brain, we've got a skin sample.
So that started with a melanoma,a skin cancer, and then spread
throughout this patient's body.
So it's a 29 year old man whohad this little skin cancer.
You can see there's then thebrain behind with the black
melanomas throughout it.
It's through his heart, it'sthrough his stomach, his liver,
(28:19):
gallbladder, lymph nodes, allthrough the intestines, the
small bowel.
and then through his endocrinesystem as well, the adrenal
glands and the thyroids.
So melanomas can be veryaggressive.
And this is a really goodexample of that.
It's just spread through thewhole body.
Kate (28:34):
The specimens look like normal organs but are speckled
with black dots, some big andsome small, but they're
everywhere, all over his organs,and they're melanomas, so, so
obvious to the naked eye.
The display reads that the manwas 29 when he was diagnosed.
He was treated for 18 months andthen died as a result of
complications from thetreatment.
Ellen (28:56):
So by the time those melanomas are identified,
because it's so aggressive, it'soften quite advanced.
Kate (29:01):
So go get your skin checks and make sure you're getting
them every single year.
Ellen (29:06):
Because if they catch it early, you've got a really good
chance of treating thateffectively and that not
affecting your life at all.
Kate (29:12):
What's, what's this giant stomach ulcer?
Ellen (29:15):
Yeah.
So stomach ulcers are quiteinterested and they are caused
by a bacteria.
And the guy who identified that,bacteria he couldn't get
approval or he didn't want towait for approval to do testing
on it.
So he just like drank thebacteria himself.
Ooh, And how did that go?
(29:36):
And, well, he got a stomachulcer so that sort of helped him
confirm his, his theory.
And since then he has gone on tobe given, I'll have to check
this, but I'm pretty sure hewent on to get the Nobel Prize
for it.
But it's not recommended.
don't, don't drink vials ofbacteria.
It's a really bad idea.
Kate (29:57):
now there's a display of the consequences of drug and
alcohol abuse.
Ellen says it was part of the,part of the state personal
development health and educationsyllabus.
And so nicely relates to thatwith models of a whole range of
different diseases related todrug and alcohol abuse.
Ellen (30:15):
Some of those are direct causes.
So for example, the alcoholabuse, we've got things like
cirrhosis of the liver, which isessentially when there's too
much alcohol for the liver toprocess.
And so that starts to build upin the liver cells and damage
them and causes essentially scartissue to form on the liver.
And so that over time stops theliver from functioning properly
(30:39):
and leads to liver failure,which means that the blood is
not going to be filtered of allthe wastes and toxins that build
up in it.
Kate (30:45):
Other consequences of alcohol abuse include cancer of
the esophagus, impotence,varicose veins, heart disease,
inflamed stomach lining, damageto the central nervous system,
and foetal alcohol syndrome.
Ellen (30:58):
So some of them are direct, some of them are more
indirect.
For example, with drug abuse, ittalks about diseases that can be
spread through, contaminated,for example, intravenous drug
needles.
So things like hiv, aids orhepatitis.
But it is important to note thatthose can of course, spread in a
lot of other ways as well.
Kate (31:15):
Other consequences of drug abuse include vein damage, vein
damage, blood clot in lungs,heart infection, brain
infection, violence, and birthdefects.
Ellen (31:26):
Yeah, it's quite a good display for getting people's
attention, but then it flowsinto a lot of the other displays
as well because things like,cirrhosis, we've got a lot of
examples of that in our othersection.
Kate (31:36):
Ah, so, ever wondered about the origins of Typhoid
Mary?
Well, I certainly did.
Luckily, there's a fascinatingdisplay here that unravels the
whole story.
Mary Mallon.
An Irish born American was bornin 1869 and happened to be a
carrier of typhoid.
Throughout her life, sheunwittingly transmitted the
(31:57):
disease to many families andorganizations where she worked,
ultimately infecting up to 122people and tragically causing up
to 50 deaths.
Despite being asymptomatic, Maryjust couldn't fathom that she
was the source of these typhoidoutbreaks.
And after a thoroughinvestigation, she was placed
(32:18):
under quarantine for the finaltwo decades of her life.
Nowadays, the term typhoid Maryis used to describe people who
unwittingly spread diseases ormisfortune without realizing it.
Ellen (32:30):
This, this one is quite interesting actually.
So this is a, haemangiosarcomaand it's like a major growth all
over the leg.
Kate (32:39):
Did you get that one?
It's a hemangiosarcoma.
This specimen is from a 54 yearold woman who noticed a few
bloody spots on her leg aboutfive months before amputation.
These grew and then became firmand ulcerated.
The specimen displays the leftleg and foot, showing blistered
skin, encrusted raised lesions,and purple discoloration.
(33:03):
Put simply, it looks prettynasty and unpleasant.
Ellen (33:06):
It's a cancer of the wall, of the blood vessels.
It's actually very rare inhumans and it is really common
in dogs.
If you look it up, all thewebsites that you.
Like given in your searchresults, we'll be from Vets So
it's quite an interesting onecuz it's, yeah.
It's not that common in humans.
It did, does happen, but all theresearch on it is in dogs
Kate (33:27):
Ellen, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today.
I've really loved learning aboutall the infectious, I've really
loved learning about diseasesand having a look at the
specimens.
Ellen (33:37):
I'm so glad.
Such a pleasure.
Hope you and many more peoplewill come back.
Kate (33:43):
The museum is conveniently located on the ground floor and
offers both stair and elevatoraccess.
Each specimen is equipped with aQR code that provides access to
its case history, pathology, andmore detailed descriptions,
which are screen readeraccessible.
The Museum of Human Disease islocated in the Samuels Building
at the University of New SouthWales in Sydney.
(34:06):
It's open from 10am to 4pm fromMonday to Friday.
The cost of admission is freefor students and 10 for the
general public.
One thing that I noticed thatthe museum does really well is
how it shows the progress ofmedicine and changing attitudes
over time.
It shows pictures of oldadvertisements promoting things
(34:26):
like lose weight the easy waywith tapeworms and claiming that
Lucky Strike cigarettes canprotect your throat from
irritation and coughs.
It shows massive improvements indiagnosing and treating diseases
as well as in public health.
And I, I think I tried toapproach this museum with an
open mind and explore thecollection with curiosity and
(34:50):
objectivity, but it's exactlylike Ellen said, I couldn't help
but be drawn to exhibits thatdirectly affected my life or
those around me.
and it's really amazing to havethe opportunity to observe these
specimens of diseases up close.
so team, update your to do listfor this weekend.
Register to be an organ donor.
(35:11):
Plan a visit to the Museum ofHuman Disease.
And please stop vaping.
Thanks for listening to Roadshowand Tell.
If you enjoyed this deep diveinto a specialty museum, make
sure you subscribe so you don'tmiss an episode.
We're a new podcast.
So if you wanna help support us,please share it with a friend
(35:33):
and leave a rating and review.
If you are involved with or knowof a regional or specialty
museum that should be featured,please get in touch at
roadshowandtell@gmail.com.
I'm your host, Kate.
Roadshow and Tell was edited andproduced on the lands of the
Gadigal people.
(35:53):
I acknowledge the TraditionalCustodians of the various lands
on which you may be listeningfrom, and the lands that the
museums featured in this podcastreside on.
I also acknowledge anyAboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander people listening tothis podcast.
I pay my respects to elderspast, present, and emerging, and
celebrate the diversity ofAboriginal peoples and their
(36:15):
ongoing cultures and connectionsto the lands and waters of
Australia.
We have a lot of kidneys
Kate (00:03):
lots of nail gun accidents
Ellen (00:07):
that's coal dust that he's breathes in for his whole
life it's this ball of hair,which is the exact shape of her
stomach
Kate (00:17):
Welcome to Roadshow and Tell, a podcast for people
hoping to improve their pubtrivia team score.
I'm your host, Kate, and I'llvisit museums so you can learn
things you never knew you wantedto.
Today we are visiting the Museumof Human disease at the
University of New South Wales inSydney.
(00:38):
It's at the Kensington campus, ashort 15 minute drive from the
Sydney CBD.
And how can you have a museum ofhuman disease?
With hundreds and hundreds ofdisease specimens.
That's right, biological samplesof organs and tissues that show
a particular disease preservedin a solution and displayed in
(00:59):
sealed containers.
From malaria to measles.
Tuberculosis to tetanus, thismuseum has an amazing
collection.
There are stories that accompanymany specimens and they provide
insights into the nature of thedisease specimen and allow us to
see the effects on the humanbody and the progression of
specific conditions.
(01:20):
I chat with the museum curator,Ellen Worgan, who is contagious
in her enthusiasm for scienceeducation.
We talk about the collectionprocess, eradication of diseases
and the crucial role diseasespecimens play in education.
We also take a tour and delveinto particularly interesting
specimens, such as an ovary thatstarted growing teeth.
(01:43):
That's just one example of themany quirky and curious exhibits
in this museum.
So, get ready for aninfectiously good time.
So today I'm at the Museum ofHuman Disease with Ellen Worgan
at U N S W.
Hello, Ellen.
Hi.
And Ellen.
Whose land are we on today?
Ellen (02:04):
We're on the land of the Cadigal people.
Lovely,
Kate (02:07):
what is the Museum of Human Disease?
Ellen (02:10):
So here we have a collection of a couple of
thousand specimens of humantissue and organs, which are all
showing disease in some way.
So we don't have any healthyones.
But about 1400 of them are ondisplay.
And then we've got some otherlocations or in storage and
things as well.
Kate (02:30):
And why would you wanna collect diseased specimens?
Ellen (02:33):
It's a great question.
It's definitely not somethingthat you see every day, which I
think makes it a special placeto come and visit.
The real value of it iseducational.
There are not a lot of ways thatyou can still be teaching people
something after you die unlessyou have written a book or made
a documentary or something likethat.
But all of the people uh, andfamilies who have donated
(02:55):
specimens to the museum havebeen able to do that.
And so the specimens here areable to help people understand
disease better, help peopleunderstand their own health and
our sort of social and culturalunderstanding of health a little
bit more.
And also sort of see things in away that you wouldn't normally
see.
We talk a lot about disease andeverybody encounters disease in
(03:17):
some ways, a lot in their life.
But it's not very often that youget to see those signs of
disease up close and personal,especially inside the body.
Kate (03:26):
Definitely.
So these specimens, how are theypreserved?
Ellen (03:30):
So they are preserved in a solution of mostly water and
formaldehyde.
So they used to use pureformaldehyde, but it is very
carcinogenic.
So they don't do that anymore.
They use a very dilute solutionof it now, which preserves it
just the same, but is a lot lessdangerous to work with.
And is a lot less dangerous tobe on display should something
(03:52):
happen.
Kate (03:53):
And who are the people that donate?
Do they decide to donate whenthey're healthy or when they
become sick?
Ellen (03:59):
We don't really know for a lot of the specimens, a lot of
them are quite old.
The majority of the collectionhas been here for many decades
and because the legislationaround Transporting and using
human remains has changed overtime, it's very difficult to
have things donated now.
We did have a specimen donatedin the second half of last year
(04:21):
which is our first new one for awhile, and it's what we call a
gastric trick over which isessentially a ball of hair that
has built up inside the stomach.
So like actual hair.
Actual hair.
So it's from a 14 year old girlwho had a condition called
trichotillomania, which is sortof a a nxiety based, obsessive
(04:45):
compulsive condition where shewould pull out her hair and then
she'd eat it.
And so because that can't bedigested really because the hair
protein is so tough, it justbuilds up in the stomach more
and more and more.
And essentially it's this ballof hair, which is the exact
shape of her stomach.
And so it's on display now, andthat was the most recent one.
(05:08):
And the reason that that wassort of easier to get than other
donations is cuz it's notactually human remains uhhuh,
like it's a, it's a mass fromthe body, but it's not actually
an organ or tissue.
So the legislation is a littlebit different around that.
But it's a very rare occurrenceto have one of that size which
you'll get to see in a fewminutes.
(05:28):
But the majority of thespecimens, like I said, were
donated decades ago.
We have histories and sort ofprovidence information for some
and not for others.
We don't know exactly what thedonation process was.
In some cases it may have beenpatients who gave permission
either before they died or whilethey were still alive.
(05:49):
Not all of the specimens werefrom lethal cases or um, were
taken from deceased people.
A lot of them, we, we don't knowwhether it was the person or
their family or at the doctor'srequests.
it's A part of the issue ofhaving a more historical
collection is we don't have allthe information because the
processes for collecting thatwere not as good in the past as
(06:10):
they are now.
Kate (06:12):
What's the history of this museum?
When did it start and whostarted it?
Ellen (06:15):
So the collection was established in the sixties or
seventies by a professor calledDonald Wilhelm.
And we've got some of hisequipment and artifacts out
here.
And he sort of established thecollection in its current form.
The museum has existed sincearound 2000 which is when it
(06:36):
became open to the public andhad a schools program and became
more accessible for peoplebeyond pathology and medicine
staff and students at theuniversity.
Kate (06:46):
Ellen tells me that the specimens are often used for
teaching at the university wherethe museum is housed.
Ellen (06:51):
So the pathology courses that run every year at the uni,
the lecturers we'll request themto use in their presentations,
or they'll send students herefor homework and they'll have to
find specimens
Kate (07:04):
right.
So they might just nip in andborrow a, a heart or a lung.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And
Ellen (07:08):
return it in seven days.
Yeah, we sort of act as asupport option as well for the
staff.
Kate (07:13):
what's the most popular part of the museum?
Ellen (07:16):
I don't know if there's a most popular part, but we
definitely have some specimensthat are favorites.
I think one thing that studentsfind really fascinating are the
specimens that you can sort oftell are a body part.
I think for a lot of things,looking at like a lung or a
kidney, it's not something thatyou see every day and think of
as like part of your body.
(07:38):
even though it is.
But we've got, for example,specimens of fingers or a leg or
a hand.
And those ones I think sort ofstand out cuz you go, oh, okay.
That's, that's definitely a bodypart.
Like I see that every day.
Yeah.
And
Kate (07:52):
how come there's no healthy specimens to compare the
diseased ones to?
Ellen (07:56):
Mainly because people don't get asked to donate
healthy specimens.
We do have an anatomy museum oncampus as well, and they tend to
have healthy and pathologicalspecimens as well.
But here, the collection tendsto just be things that I think
generally were noticed bydoctors or pathologists as
(08:17):
noteworthyor interesting forthat particular field of study.
But we are in the process ofputting together a set of
healthy, not specimens, butimages to compare things to.
Because you know, if you don'tknow what a lung looks like,
which most people don't reallyin any kind of detail it's kind
of hard sometimes to notice whatare the signs that these ones
(08:40):
are diseased.
So it's nice to have a bit of acomparison.
Kate (08:43):
So let's take a step back.
What types of diseases arethere?
Ellen (08:46):
We've got a really big range, so, Probably the majority
of specimens that we have hereshow non-infectious diseases.
We have a very large number ofcancer specimens because there
is such a huge range of them.
And because it's so common, youknow, one in two people will get
cancer at some point in theirlifetime.
So that's a very largeproportion of our collection.
(09:08):
But we do have a really bigvariety of other non-infectious
and infectious diseases.
We have quite a good range ofthings from most parts of the
body.
So we've got a, you know,sections for heart specimens and
we've got sections for lungspecimens, but then we also have
sections for like inflammatorydiseases.
We've got some displays onautoimmune diseases,
(09:30):
neurological conditions.
So we've got a prettyrepresentative collection.
Kate (09:35):
While they're not hunting for any new specimens at the
moment, the big question oneveryone's lips is, do you have
any COVID specimens?
Ellen (09:44):
Um, Which we don't.
We definitely have specimens ofthings relevant to Covid.
So in our covid display we have,for example specimens of
pneumonia and specimens of bloodclots because those are
complications that are verystrongly associated with Covid.
But because it's so recent, andagain, because the legislation
around it now is very strict andparticularly during the height
(10:05):
of the pandemic, no one wasgoing to be passing around human
tissue that was infected.
I think we sort of are atcapacity in terms of the number
of specimens that we can have inthis space.
If we get offered interestingones, which sometimes we do buy
other museums or hospitals thathave them in storage or in a
collection somewhere, wedefinitely look through and if
(10:27):
there's things that either aredifferent to what we currently
have or in much better conditionor a better example of a certain
disease or a certain condition.
Then we do see if we can addthem in because it is nice to
have as much variety aspossible.
Kate (10:43):
Speaking of vaccines do you have a display on vaccines
and information about that?
Ellen (10:48):
Yeah, we definitely do.
So we have some specifically inour covid display on the Covid
vaccine.
We've got a few samples of thosevaccines, but we also have one
on vaccination generally.
So a bit about the history, abit about some case studies of
where vaccines have been reallysuccessful in eradicating or
minimizing the effectivediseases.
And that's quite new, but it'sbeen, quite popular so far.
(11:10):
Just been nice.
Kate (11:12):
What diseases should Australians be worried about?
Ellen (11:14):
I think in Australia the biggest burden of disease comes
from non-infectious diseases.
There's a lot of different waysyou can look at it.
If you look at cause of death,for example, the leading cause
of death in Australia iscardiovascular disease.
So anything that affects theheart and the blood vessels.
So heart attacks, strokes butalso a lot of other conditions
that relate to those parts ofthe body.
(11:35):
I think that's a really highpriority and there's been a lot
of attention on that in the pastdecade or so which is actually
starting to flatten out or lowerthe levels of cardiovascular
disease, which is really good.
Lots of education on, how ahealthy diet and lifestyle helps
contribute to cardiovascularhealth.
I think one of the biggesthealth priorities in Australia
(11:57):
now and in the coming years willdefinitely be Alzheimer's and
dementia.
So that's the second leadingcause of death in Australia.
The first for women and thenumbers of Alzheimer's and
dementia patients or diagnosesare increasing dramatically and
are continuing to increase, andit's a disease that we don't
(12:18):
understand that well yet.
It's very hard to study and hardto get any kind of results
around treatments and things.
There's a lot of work being donein it, A lot of really great
research, but it's slow going.
And the rate of increase ofdementia, not just in Australia,
but across the world isdefinitely outstripping our
(12:39):
capacity to care for patientsand support patients and
caregivers.
So I think that's gonna be areal priority.
And that will definitely beovertaking cardiovascular
disease as the number one causeof death in absolutely the next
five to 10 years.
Kate (12:53):
Is there a priority one disease for the world to
eradicate
Ellen (12:57):
in terms of looking at eradication?
I think there's some diseasesthat we're so close to
eradicating, like polio.
We are so, so close toeradicating it, so it would be
amazing if we could, close thatlast bit of a gap there's
definitely other diseases thatwe've made really good progress
on in terms of vaccinationefforts.
(13:18):
When I think about eradicatingdisease, I think infectious
diseases tend to come to mindbecause they're the ones that we
have developed better strategiesto be able to eradicate them.
I think a lot of non-infectiousdiseases, the risk factors are
things like genetics, which weare learning to tackle and
treat, but it's a, a relativelynew approach to medicine and a
(13:43):
lot of environmental andlifestyle factors, which are
just hard to change becauseyou've gotta change people's
behavior to do that.
Whereas infectious diseases,we've got a lot of really well
established strategies fortackling those.
And so things like massvaccination campaigns have been
incredibly successful ateradicating or nearly
eradicating a lot of diseases.
Kate (14:02):
And do you know what the number one disease eradication
success story is?
It's smallpox!
Ellen (14:09):
Yeah, so smallpox is just the, it's the number one vaccine
success story.
So smallpox was very, verycommon.
The vaccine for that was thefirst vaccine ever developed by
a guy called Edward Jenner.
He was a a doctor who did somewildly unethical experiments,
but ended up coming up with avaccine for smallpox.
(14:31):
So he was testing this populartheory at the time that if you
got cowpox, which is kind ofsimilar to chickenpox, like it's
unpleasant, but you don't diefrom it.
So he's, he decided to test thattheory by infecting the son of
his gardener, nine year old boywith cowpox deliberately, and
then deliberately exposing himto smallpox which is quite
(14:55):
deadly.
I think it's about one in sevenchildren with smallpox would die
from it.
And thank God it worked and theboy didn't die.
And for a long time that was howthey vaccinated against smallpox
by infecting people with Cowpox.
THat's actually where the namevaccination comes from Vacca is
(15:15):
latin for Cow.
And so vaccinating someone isexposing them to Cowpox.
Luckily now we have much bettermethods of vaccination, so we do
not need to infect people withother diseases.
And that evolved into being ableto isolate pathogens for disease
and modify them or inactivatethem so that vaccines are not
now carrying any risk ofinfecting someone.
(15:37):
Instead they're just trainingthe immune system to do that.
So smallpox was one of the firstdiseases to have a mass
vaccination campaign.
The World Health Organizationdelivered that through the
sixties and seventies and hasbeen successful in eradicating
that.
Kate (15:53):
There have been no natural cases of smallpox since the last
patient in 1977.
It remains the most notable andprofound public health success
in history.
Ellen (16:04):
There are two, samples of the smallpox virus.
One is in the US and one is inRussia.
And that's held in case there isever a resurgence of that.
And they need to make a vaccineagain or study it again to find
ways to fight against it cuzit's a disease that no one wants
to see come back.
Kate (16:22):
An estimated 300 million people died from smallpox in the
20th century alone.
Smallpox was officially declarederadicated in 1979 and remains
the first and only infectiousdisease eradicated that infects
humans.
Ellen (16:38):
That's absolutely the biggest success.
In Australia, we have hadamazing success at very nearly
eradicating things likediptheria and measles and mumps
rubella things that a lot ofpeople, especially children used
to die from.
And now those things are nearlynonexistent.
Yeah, we're very lucky that wehave access to to vaccines and
(16:59):
to such good healthcare.
Kate (17:00):
What's your favorite exhibit?
Ellen (17:02):
So I don't have a favorite one, but I think for
me, and for most people whocome, the spec, the specimens
that engage them the most arethe ones that relate to an
experience or a person thatthey.
Have or that they know.
So I think the specimens thatstand out to me are ones that
relate to conditions that myfamily members have or my
friends have.
(17:23):
So I don't know if they're, Iwould say they're my favorites,
but they're definitely ones thatI think you've got some sort of
connection to and have that bitof extra meaning and really make
you want to learn more so youcan understand and support your
family and friends with.
Kate (17:36):
Ellen, why do you like working here?
Ellen (17:38):
I partly like working here because it is a really
unique place to work.
And it's working with acollection of things that most
people never or very rarelywould get to see.
I am very passionate aboutscience, education, and
communication.
I was a science teacher prior toworking here.
(17:58):
So I really like being able toengage with school students, but
also with the wider public.
And see them become engaged andinterested in medicine and in
science in a new way.
I think it also is a greatopportunity to use the specimens
here that people have donatedand be able to honor that in a
(18:20):
way and be able to make that areally useful, interesting
fascinating experience for thepeople who come here.
And yeah, be able to keep the,the legacy of all those donors
alive.
Kate (18:32):
Are you a registered organ donor?
Ellen (18:33):
I am.
Kate (18:35):
Should we all be?
Ellen (18:36):
Yes.
Yes.
Oh my gosh, absolutely.
The need for organ donations inAustralia is enormous as in
every country.
And far outstrips the number ofof donations available.
So if you can be a donor, pleaseregister to be a donor and talk
to your family about it, becauseultimately, it doesn't matter if
you're registered, if yourfamily say no, then doctors are
(18:56):
unable to use you as a donor.
So make sure that whoever ismaking your decisions for you in
the event of something terriblehappening knows what you want.
Kate (19:05):
And why should people come and visit the Museum of Human
Disease?
Ellen (19:09):
I'd say they should come here because disease is
something that will affecteveryone in their life, whether
it's you directly, whether it'sa friend or a family member,
whether it's, you know,something really serious or
something really mild.
But I think being able tounderstand that better and what
(19:29):
that means for you and beingable to understand other
people's experiences better isalways really valuable.
And I think coming here buildson your general understanding of
health and scientific literacy,which I think is incredibly
useful as we sort of navigatethrough day-to-day life and are
making decisions about ourlifestyles and our health.
So any information we can haveto help that is always valuable.
(19:52):
And it's also just a chance tosee something that you hardly
ever get to see.
You very rarely get to see theinside of someone's body unless
you are a doctor.
So this is a great chance to doit.
Shall will go and have a look atsome specimens.
Sounds good.
Let's go.
Kate (20:05):
The museum is a few long rooms with shelves lined with
specimens suspended in resin,forming bays with different
medical focuses.
The first side on the left isorganised by body part, with
bays showcasing specimens fromthe mouth, esophagus, stomach,
liver and pancreas, and thenthrough to the brain, spinal
cord and heart.
(20:26):
The opposite side showcasesgeneral, congenital and genetic
diseases such as arthritis,arthritis, inflammation, gout
and bones.
Ellen (20:36):
We have a lot of kidneys because kidneys can be donated,
like kidneys can just be takenout in the case of a transplant.
Or you can even just survivewith one kidney on its own.
So kidneys are something thatare easier to get donated.
In here we also have diseasesrelated to the blood.
So some of these are cancers.
So things like lymphoma.
(20:57):
Also some things which are alittle trickier to classify.
So HIV, for example affects theimmune system, which is
primarily in our blood and ourlymphatic system.
So that's grouped here as well.
Skin conditions as well.
Quite a lot of skin cancers,which is particularly relevant
in Australia for us We've got asection on diseases either
(21:22):
specific to or with specimensfrom infancy and childhood.
So some congenital conditions,things that people are born with
or things that developed inyounger children.
The endocrine system or thesystem that creates our
hormones.
There are quite a lot of veryinteresting conditions to do
with that because hormones arevery active in the body.
(21:42):
So anything that affects thefunction of those is gonna have
quite major impacts on people.
Kate (21:48):
At the back of the museum we enter a trauma bay which has
trigger warnings.
Ellen (21:52):
So this covers physical and psychological trauma.
Physical trauma being injury,psychological trauma being also
injuries, but things thatresulted from various mental
health conditions.
So this one, as you can see, wehave a few sort of signs and
things up just because this canbe an area that's a bit
sensitive for people.
(22:13):
Especially for younger schoolgroups.
We often just let the teachersknow that the sort of things
that are in here.
We've obviously got specimensfrom injuries relating to self
harm, or suicide or suicideattempts, and so we wanna make
sure that people are aware ofthat before coming in.
Kate (22:29):
There's also displays of x rays from unfortunate events,
including lots of nail gunaccidents, a misplaced Buzz
Lightyear action figure, andillicit drugs densely packed
into a pelvis.
You really have to see these tobelieve them.
Ellen (22:45):
We've got a couple of case studies or displays on
particular diseases.
So Covid, obviously, everyonewho comes in wants to know about
that at the moment.
But also malaria, which is areally good example of an
infectious disease that we havestudied a lot and worked very
hard to try and treat andprevent.
(23:06):
And which also has had a lot ofrelevance through the teaching
syllabus as well.
Kate (23:12):
The display covers a wide range of topics, including the
global malaria program, thepotential use of genetic
engineering to eliminate malariaand various prevention
strategies.
It also showcases other notablediseases like smallpox.
(23:32):
There's also a bounty ofinformation available on
epidemics, pandemics andvaccines.
All in all, it's a verycomprehensive display, That
sheds light on the importance ofdisease control and the
advancements made in publichealth.
Ellen (23:46):
We've also got a couple of displays on medical
technologies.
So some of those are things likejoint replacements, artificial
hips, artificial knees.
Most people know someone who hasa grandparent who has one of
those.
And things like artificial heartvalves and pacemakers and
stents, which again, a lot ofpeople know someone with at
(24:06):
least one of those things.
So this is something that peopleoften find quite interesting.
They're like, oh, my nana's gotone of those.
Oh, my uncle got a stent.
Kate (24:14):
I like these too because you can actually see where the
technology, like a stent or anartificial heart valve goes on
the specimen Next, my eye iscaught by a display on vaping.
It features a box full ofdifferent, brightly coloured
vapes.
Ellen tells me that curatingthis display was challenging,
simply because there is limitedinformation on vaping at the
(24:36):
moment.
Ellen (24:37):
It's one thing that we know is incredibly popular.
And it's a little concerningbecause we don't have any
long-term information on whatthe effect of that might be.
If you look at smoking and lungcancer trends, what you see is
that the trends for lung cancerfollow pretty much exactly the
(24:57):
smoking trends, but it's about30 years behind.
So we really might not know for20 or 30 years what the
long-term health effects ofvaping are.
So in some ways it seems safer.
It certainly seems moreappealing because, you don't
have the smell, they look funand cute and colorful, but we,
we really don't know what it'sdoing to people.
(25:18):
So it's one that we felt theneed to highlight as a health
concern, but we don't actuallyhave a lot of information on
what those health effects willbe.
Kate (25:27):
The display notes that already popcorn lung,
bronchiolitis obliterans, AndIvali, which is Vaping
Associated Lung Injury, haveboth been associated with
vaping.
Ellen (25:40):
We've also started to do a few sort of highlight
specimens.
So this is our teratoma with thehair and the teeth growing
inside it there.
Oh, wow.
Out of the ovary.
Kate (25:50):
The next highlight specimen we see is a black lung.
This is exactly what it says onthe box.
An enlarged black lung.
Ellen (25:59):
This one is from a 75 year old miner who you can see
that these lungs are, theyshould be like a sort of reddish
pink color, maybe a little brownif they've been in the
preservation fluid for a longtime.
These ones are just black, likea blue black color, which is
that's coal dust that he'sbreathes in for his whole life,
and it's just worked its wayinto his lung cells now.
(26:20):
oh boy.
Yeah, you look at that andyou're suddenly very glad for
any work, health and safety,things that are in place.
We have this one, which isdefinitely our biggest kidney
specimen.
So the kidney should be aboutthe size of your fist, and this
one is about 30 centimeterstall, And the look of it, it's
(26:42):
basically full of holes.
It looks like a sponge or afocaccia And all of those holes
shouldn't be there, they'recysts.
So just sacks of fluid.
This is what's called polycystickidney disease.
And that's obviously going toreally mess up the function of
the kidney which is essentialfor us.
If you don't have functioningkidneys your body will just shut
down cuz waste products justbuild up and poison your cells.
(27:04):
And this one over here is thetrichobezoar that I was telling
you about before.
So that is the shape of thestomach right there.
Kate (27:12):
So there's a plastic model of the normal shape of a
stomach, kind of like a jellybean shape.
Right beside it, you'll find theactual specimen that matches the
exact shape of that stomach,But, with a striking difference.
It's actually solid and filledwith dense black hair, Like a
ball of hair that would form ifyou were to sweep up all of the
(27:33):
hair on a hairdresser's floorand then scrunch it up.
Ellen (27:36):
And it looks black, but we don't know what color her
hair was.
It could have been any color,but it goes black because of the
stomach acid.
Turns it black, but it doesn'tbreak it down, so it just builds
up there.
Kate (27:46):
Our last highlight specimen that we see is one that
really shook me.
I'm not gonna lie.
It's a series of differentspecimens from the same person.
Ellen (27:55):
So we've got a brain, we've got a skin sample.
So that started with a melanoma,a skin cancer, and then spread
throughout this patient's body.
So it's a 29 year old man whohad this little skin cancer.
You can see there's then thebrain behind with the black
melanomas throughout it.
It's through his heart, it'sthrough his stomach, his liver,
(28:19):
gallbladder, lymph nodes, allthrough the intestines, the
small bowel.
and then through his endocrinesystem as well, the adrenal
glands and the thyroids.
So melanomas can be veryaggressive.
And this is a really goodexample of that.
It's just spread through thewhole body.
Kate (28:34):
The specimens look like normal organs but are speckled
with black dots, some big andsome small, but they're
everywhere, all over his organs,and they're melanomas, so, so
obvious to the naked eye.
The display reads that the manwas 29 when he was diagnosed.
He was treated for 18 months andthen died as a result of
complications from thetreatment.
Ellen (28:56):
So by the time those melanomas are identified,
because it's so aggressive, it'soften quite advanced.
Kate (29:01):
So go get your skin checks and make sure you're getting
them every single year.
Ellen (29:06):
Because if they catch it early, you've got a really good
chance of treating thateffectively and that not
affecting your life at all.
Kate (29:12):
What's, what's this giant stomach ulcer?
Ellen (29:15):
Yeah.
So stomach ulcers are quiteinterested and they are caused
by a bacteria.
And the guy who identified that,bacteria he couldn't get
approval or he didn't want towait for approval to do testing
on it.
So he just like drank thebacteria himself.
Ooh, And how did that go?
(29:36):
And, well, he got a stomachulcer so that sort of helped him
confirm his, his theory.
And since then he has gone on tobe given, I'll have to check
this, but I'm pretty sure hewent on to get the Nobel Prize
for it.
But it's not recommended.
don't, don't drink vials ofbacteria.
It's a really bad idea.
Kate (29:57):
now there's a display of the consequences of drug and
alcohol abuse.
Ellen says it was part of the,part of the state personal
development health and educationsyllabus.
And so nicely relates to thatwith models of a whole range of
different diseases related todrug and alcohol abuse.
Ellen (30:15):
Some of those are direct causes.
So for example, the alcoholabuse, we've got things like
cirrhosis of the liver, which isessentially when there's too
much alcohol for the liver toprocess.
And so that starts to build upin the liver cells and damage
them and causes essentially scartissue to form on the liver.
And so that over time stops theliver from functioning properly
(30:39):
and leads to liver failure,which means that the blood is
not going to be filtered of allthe wastes and toxins that build
up in it.
Kate (30:45):
Other consequences of alcohol abuse include cancer of
the esophagus, impotence,varicose veins, heart disease,
inflamed stomach lining, damageto the central nervous system,
and foetal alcohol syndrome.
Ellen (30:58):
So some of them are direct, some of them are more
indirect.
For example, with drug abuse, ittalks about diseases that can be
spread through, contaminated,for example, intravenous drug
needles.
So things like hiv, aids orhepatitis.
But it is important to note thatthose can of course, spread in a
lot of other ways as well.
Kate (31:15):
Other consequences of drug abuse include vein damage, vein
damage, blood clot in lungs,heart infection, brain
infection, violence, and birthdefects.
Ellen (31:26):
Yeah, it's quite a good display for getting people's
attention, but then it flowsinto a lot of the other displays
as well because things like,cirrhosis, we've got a lot of
examples of that in our othersection.
Kate (31:36):
Ah, so, ever wondered about the origins of Typhoid
Mary?
Well, I certainly did.
Luckily, there's a fascinatingdisplay here that unravels the
whole story.
Mary Mallon.
An Irish born American was bornin 1869 and happened to be a
carrier of typhoid.
Throughout her life, sheunwittingly transmitted the
(31:57):
disease to many families andorganizations where she worked,
ultimately infecting up to 122people and tragically causing up
to 50 deaths.
Despite being asymptomatic, Maryjust couldn't fathom that she
was the source of these typhoidoutbreaks.
And after a thoroughinvestigation, she was placed
(32:18):
under quarantine for the finaltwo decades of her life.
Nowadays, the term typhoid Maryis used to describe people who
unwittingly spread diseases ormisfortune without realizing it.
Ellen (32:30):
This, this one is quite interesting actually.
So this is a, haemangiosarcomaand it's like a major growth all
over the leg.
Kate (32:39):
Did you get that one?
It's a hemangiosarcoma.
This specimen is from a 54 yearold woman who noticed a few
bloody spots on her leg aboutfive months before amputation.
These grew and then became firmand ulcerated.
The specimen displays the leftleg and foot, showing blistered
skin, encrusted raised lesions,and purple discoloration.
(33:03):
Put simply, it looks prettynasty and unpleasant.
Ellen (33:06):
It's a cancer of the wall, of the blood vessels.
It's actually very rare inhumans and it is really common
in dogs.
If you look it up, all thewebsites that you.
Like given in your searchresults, we'll be from Vets So
it's quite an interesting onecuz it's, yeah.
It's not that common in humans.
It did, does happen, but all theresearch on it is in dogs
Kate (33:27):
Ellen, thanks so much for coming on the podcast today.
I've really loved learning aboutall the infectious, I've really
loved learning about diseasesand having a look at the
specimens.
Ellen (33:37):
I'm so glad.
Such a pleasure.
Hope you and many more peoplewill come back.
Kate (33:43):
The museum is conveniently located on the ground floor and
offers both stair and elevatoraccess.
Each specimen is equipped with aQR code that provides access to
its case history, pathology, andmore detailed descriptions,
which are screen readeraccessible.
The Museum of Human Disease islocated in the Samuels Building
at the University of New SouthWales in Sydney.
(34:06):
It's open from 10am to 4pm fromMonday to Friday.
The cost of admission is freefor students and 10 for the
general public.
One thing that I noticed thatthe museum does really well is
how it shows the progress ofmedicine and changing attitudes
over time.
It shows pictures of oldadvertisements promoting things
(34:26):
like lose weight the easy waywith tapeworms and claiming that
Lucky Strike cigarettes canprotect your throat from
irritation and coughs.
It shows massive improvements indiagnosing and treating diseases
as well as in public health.
And I, I think I tried toapproach this museum with an
open mind and explore thecollection with curiosity and
(34:50):
objectivity, but it's exactlylike Ellen said, I couldn't help
but be drawn to exhibits thatdirectly affected my life or
those around me.
and it's really amazing to havethe opportunity to observe these
specimens of diseases up close.
so team, update your to do listfor this weekend.
Register to be an organ donor.
(35:11):
Plan a visit to the Museum ofHuman Disease.
And please stop vaping.
Thanks for listening to Roadshowand Tell.
If you enjoyed this deep diveinto a specialty museum, make
sure you subscribe so you don'tmiss an episode.
We're a new podcast.
So if you wanna help support us,please share it with a friend
(35:33):
and leave a rating and review.
If you are involved with or knowof a regional or specialty
museum that should be featured,please get in touch at
roadshowandtell@gmail.com.
I'm your host, Kate.
Roadshow and Tell was edited andproduced on the lands of the
Gadigal people.
(35:53):
I acknowledge the TraditionalCustodians of the various lands
on which you may be listeningfrom, and the lands that the
museums featured in this podcastreside on.
I also acknowledge anyAboriginal or Torres Strait
Islander people listening tothis podcast.
I pay my respects to elderspast, present, and emerging, and
celebrate the diversity ofAboriginal peoples and their
(36:15):
ongoing cultures and connectionsto the lands and waters of
Australia.
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