microTalk

The magnificent coral reefs of the world are dying! These fantastic underwater living structures that support entire ecosystems are undergoing massive die-offs that have decimated coral reefs all over the globe. Tropical coral reefs rely on a symbiosis between the coral polyp and a photosynthetic algae, and when this symbiosis is disrupted, the coral reef undergoes "bleaching" and ultimately dies....

Earth's most abundant biological entities are viruses, and they can be found everywhere where there are living organisms, including extreme (hellish) environments with e.g. low pH, high temperature, etc. Dr. Ken Stedman is a professor at Portland State University and one of the founders of the Center for Life in Extreme Environments. Dr. Stedman studies viruses from hellish environments like acidi...

Dr. Steve Mayfield is a professor at the University of California San Diego and the Director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology. Algae are amazing microorganisms, and Dr. Mayfield says that the more you know about algae, the more you like them.   Algae are extremely important to life on earth: they changed the atmosphere of the planet to contain oxygen and allow everything else to li...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on the front lines of the war against infectious diseases, and Anne Schuchat, M.D. has been the Deputy Director of CDC since 2015. She has been at the CDC since 1988 and has served in a variety of leadership roles, including stints as the acting director in 2017 and 2018. Dr. Schuchat has played key roles in a number of emergency responses by the C...

Kevin Doxzen is a science communications specialist at the Innovative Genomics Institute in Berkeley, CA, associated with Dr. Jennifer Doudna. The Institute specializes in gene editing using CRISPR/Cas. The CRISPR/Cas system evolved as a bacterial defense against virus attack, but it has been exploited primarily to manipulate the genomes of eukaryotes. CRISPR/Cas has already revolutionized gene ed...

Puerto Rico suffered a direct hit from the devastating hurricane Maria in September 2017, which destroyed the power grid and caused mass destruction across the island. Recovery has been slow, and Puerto Rican scientists have suffered from the after-effects in their research activities. Dr. Greetchen Diaz is the Director of Educational Programs at Ciencia Puerto Rico, Dr. Bejamin Bolaños is a profe...

Julie Maresca is an associate professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware. Concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world, and is a very unique dry, high pH environment with special chemical properties. Amazingly, there are microbial communities that live within concrete. Dr. Maresca talks about these trapped communities of microbes, whether th...

Carol Kumamoto is a professor of microbiology at Tufts University. She studies Candida albicans, the most common fungal pathogen of humans.   C. albicans is a normal commensal of the human body, and it typically does not cause any harm to people, but rather lives happily among the other microbes e.g. within the intestine. However when the host becomes immunocompromised, C. albicans will invade tis...

Cherise Rohr-Allegrini is the program director at the Immunization Partnership, whose goal is to improve vaccination rates in San Antonio and across Texas. Every year millions of people suffer and die from vaccine-preventable diseases. The Immunization Partnership strives to increase vaccination rates through education and advocacy. Dr. Rohr-Allegrini talks about how the success of vaccines has ir...

Ned Ruby is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who pioneered the study of a fascinating bacterial-squid symbiosis. The bacterium Vibrio fischeri colonizes the light organ of the squid Euprymna scolopes and produces light, which helps the squid avoid predation and provides the bacteria a protected place to thrive. Over the course of several decades, Dr. Ruby, along with Dr. Margaret M...

Sarkis Mazmanian is a professor at California Institute of Technology who studies how the gut microbiome influences the development and function of the nervous system, the "Gut-Brain Axis". Dr. Mazmanian has discovered that the microbiome influences the development of Parkinson's Disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain that affects moto...

Students at Southside High School (San Antonio) sent a microbiology experiment up to the International Space Station (ISS). The experiment was designed to look at growth and spore forming ability of the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in microgravity. B. dendrobatidis causes chytridiomycosis, a devastating disease that has been decimating amphibian populations around the globe. High school s...

Dr. Mary Ann Jabra-Rizk is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, where she studies the fungus Candida albicans and its interactions with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. C. albicans is a normal commensal fungus and S. aureus is also a common human commensal, but both are also opportunistic pathogens of humans. Fungi and bacteria are separated by several billion years of evoluti...

Dr. Steven Norris is a Professor at the University of Texas Health Houston, where he studies Borrelia burgdorferi , the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S. and it can lead to lifelong debilitating conditions, including arthritis and neurological symptoms. Dr. Norris has been studying B. burgdorferi for many years in his laboratory, a...

Dr. Andrew Alspaugh is a physician and Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Alspaugh is a mycologist, which means he studies fungi. Fungi typically cause serious and sometimes fatal disease in immunocompromised people. It is difficult to treat and prevent fungal diseases in these patients, due to their poorly functioning immune systems. Dr. Alspaugh is doing research on...

Allan Hall is the lead distiller at Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling, a "brewstillery" located in San Antonio that makes handcrafted beer and whiskey. Beer brewing is applied microbiology utilizing the fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ferment sugars that produce alcohol. Allan talks about the history of brewing and fermentation, the challenges of being an independent craft brewery, the science...

(Blood, That Is) and Transmit Diseases, Too!  Dr. Mary Ann McDowell is an Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Joao Pedra is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. McDowell studies the parasitic disease Leishmaniasis, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of a sandfly. Pedra studies Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis, which are bacterial d...

Travis Block Communicates Science: the Promise of Stem Cells Dr. Travis Block is senior scientist at StemBioSys, Inc., a biotech company working on stem cell biology, and also the president of San Antonio Science, an organization that promotes science awareness. Dr. Block talks about the promise of stem cell research in treating various diseases, including cancers and degenerative diseases, and th...

Dr. Anthony Griffiths and Dr. Ricardo Carrion are scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute who work on some of the most dangerous viruses in the world under Biological Safety Level 4 (BSL4) containment. BSL4 is the highest form of biological containment that is required for viruses that have a high level of lethality and for which there is no cure. The ebola virus caused a huge outbre...

Ron Nirenberg is the mayor of San Antonio, the seventh largest city in the U.S. San Antonio is one of the fastest growing cities, and bioscience is a major driver of the economy. Mayor Nirenberg talks about the importance of bioscience to the economy, and how the universities, military medicine, and private entities in San Antonio are critical components of the bioscience sector. He discusses with...

Dr. David Blehert is the Branch Chief of the Wildlife Disease Diagnostic Laboratories with the U.S. Geological Survey, and a world expert on White Nose Syndrome (WNS).  WNS is a fungal disease that is decimating American bat populations.  The fungus, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, infects hibernating bats and disrupts their hibernation, leading to high levels of mortality, close to 100% in some cav...

Dr. Jimmy Ballard is professor and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Ballard is an expert on Clostridia-related diseases, and specifically disease caused by C. difficile, or "Cdiff." Cdiff infections result from heavy antibiotic usage, and can cause serious and even fatal disease. One of the most successful treatments fo...

Dr. George Dimopoulos is a Professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Helen Lazear is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Dr. Dimopoulos studies mosquitoes, those pesky insects that annoy people by biting them and sucking their blood. But they also spread a number of diseases, including malaria and dengue virus. Dr. Dimopoulos is developing various clever wa...

Dr. Dan Riskin is the host of the Animal Planet show about parasitic infections, Monsters Inside Me, and he also hosts a nightly science show broadcast in Canada, The Daily Planet. Dr. Riskin studied vampire bats while earning his Ph. D., and to this day is still bat crazy. His career promoting science for general audiences and his entertaining and enthusiastic personality have led him to be a gue...

Jonathan Berman is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Health San Antonio, and also one of the organizers for the March for Science. The March for Science was an amazing global phenomenon that occurred on April 22, 2017, where people all over the world participated in local marches in support of science. He discusses the genesis of this movement, the politicization of science, how to...