Virulent Vortex

As most of us know, keeping up with yearly shots is the best way to prevent infection with influenza. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Nicole Hood explains how we can use blood samples to figure out what flu viruses people have been exposed to in their past - and how we can use that information to better protect people against newly evolving viruses. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-po...

Few people would argue that mosquitoes are a nuisance. What’s worse, many mosquitoes vector dangerous infectious diseases. One way to prevent this is to kill mosquitoes with insecticides. But what is the best and most cost-effective way? In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, David Jimenez-Vallejo takes us on a ride through some basic mosquito behavior, and explains that figuring out where mosqui...

Diarrheal diseases are the leading cause of childhood mortality in low-resource settings. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Maria Garcia Quesada explains that these diseases can be caused by viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. As part of her own research, she focuses on Shigella, and tries to understand how to best design trials to test the efficacy of newly developed Shigella vaccines. I...

HIV remains a worldwide problem, partly because of its ability to hide inside the very immune cells that our bodies use to fight the virus. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Deanna Kulpa explains how HIV can persist in cells for a long time by slowing down immune cells’ metabolism, essentially speeding up their aging. She also explains how rejuvenating immune cells may be the key to unhide H...

You may not have heard of reoviruses, but chances are that you have been infected by them. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Meher Sethi explains how these viruses work together to transmit from host to host, and how this has made them one of the most successful viruses on our planet. Speaking of planets - she also tells us about her dreams to study viruses in outer space. Hosted on Ausha. S...

In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Matthew Collins tells us about dengue, an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. Controlling the disease has been difficult, but Collins explains how scientists are infecting mosquitoes with bacteria to stop them from spreading the virus. He also discusses how he and his colleagues are studying the specific immune responses against v...

Our world is divided, says Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, but there is one thing we all agree on: we hate mosquitoes. Not only do these insects give us itchy bites, they also excel in transmitting life-threatening pathogens. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Vazquez-Prokopec explains how his team went back to basics, showing how understanding some very simple mosquito behavior can help us better...

In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Dave Civitello discusses snails and schistosomes. Expecting that schistosomes from humans and cattle could hybridize and create super-parasites, Civitello found a much bigger problem. As he explains, cattle deposit huge amounts of feces into water bodies, where they fertilize algae, thereby providing food for snails and causing more transmission of parasites...

In this episode Lance Waller talks to Jaap de Roode about his new book Doctors by Nature, discussing the many ways in which animals use medicine and what we can learn from them. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What do pigs and chickens have to do with antibiotic resistance? In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Maya Nadimpalli explains how the overuse of antibiotics in the livestock and poultry industry selects for drug-resistant bacteria that can end up causing untreatable infections in humans in low-income settings. Reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics is key, but as Nadimpalli explains, impr...

From two stripes to one: many of us have felt the relief when our at-home COVID-19 test finally turned negative. While COVID-19 infections generally last days to weeks, some people can be infected for years. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Amber Coats explains how those long-lasting infections contribute to the evolution of new variants of concern, thereby causing new epidemic waves that r...

Using fertilizer to increase plant growth and crop production is common practice. But fertilizing to make snails grow? Not so much. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, LM Bradley explains why she is fertilizing water bodies to increase algal production and therefore aquatic snail growth. Teaser alert: the snails transmit schistosome parasites, and by fertilizing them, Bradley aims to understan...

If your dream is to discover a new scary virus, then this episode of the Virulent Vortex is for you. Anne Piantadosi is passionate about ticks and employs a technique called metagenomics to identify and discover new viruses that are vectored by these eight-legged creatures. As a medical doctor, she is also especially tuned into the symptoms that could indicate that her patients have tick-borne inf...

Severe diarrheal disease can be caused by many different pathogens, but doctors will often prescribe bacteria-killing antibiotics, even when the disease is caused by viruses. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Liz Rogawski McQuade explains that this unnecessary use of antibiotics is risky business. The antibiotics can select for drug-resistance in pathogenic bacteria that are lurking in the g...

What do Ebola and COVID-19 have in common? Both are caused by viruses, and both can be controlled using contact tracing and smart vaccination campaigns. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Natalie Dean explains how her studies of Ebola outbreaks in west Africa provided insights into ring vaccination and pandemic preparedness, with lessons for COVID-19 and future pandemics. She also discusses t...

Have you ever been scared of becoming a mushroom-spreading zombie? This scenario may sound familiar to viewers of the sci-fi show The Last of Us . While chances are low, fungal infections are in fact on the rise. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Ani Deshpande explains how global warming is increasing the risk of pathogens, including fungal pathogens that cause pneumonia and viruses that cau...

In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, host Jaap de Roode is interviewed by Lance Waller to discuss his research on malaria and butterfly disease. Crossing scales, de Roode’s work tries to understand how competition between malaria parasites within patients drives the spread of drug resistance at the population level. And viewing host-parasite interactions as part of larger ecosystems, he describ...

Patients with cystic fibrosis are especially vulnerable to infections with harmful bacteria, including staph and Pseudomonas. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Ashley Alexander explains that these bacteria often co-infect the same patient. She discusses her studies to find out how interactions between these bacteria can contribute to disease. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for...

While vaccines and drugs are key in the control of infectious diseases, healthy living conditions are crucial too. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Stephen Mugel explains how clean water, non-polluting cooking stoves and bed nets are key to controlling child health in rural and low-income areas. As he argues, giving children access to this infrastructure can go a long way in reducing diarrh...

Patients are rarely infected with a single pathogen, and understanding how pathogens interact with each other is key for controlling infectious disease. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Rachel Pearson discusses how HIV can make tuberculosis infections worse by destroying crucial immune cells. But there is a silver lining: if HIV infection is caught early enough, drug therapy can save enough...

While mosquitoes continue to take the spotlight as vectors of infectious disease, ticks are becoming increasingly important as transmitters of pathogens. In this episode, Steph Bellman talks about her studies of Heartland Virus in the state of Georgia. She describes why she called her thesis “the ticks, the virus, and the people” and explains what makes her tick on a daily basis. Hosted on Ausha....

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we sometimes forget that there have been, and will be, other pandemics. Many of these pandemics have involved flu. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Katia Koelle explains how pigs provide the ideal mixing vessels for bird flu viruses to create strains that are highly contagious. Vaccinating pigs or limiting contact between pigs and birds could help preve...

Ben Lopman has long studied how to optimize vaccination against rotavirus, which causes severe diarrheal disease in children. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, he explains how his work on rotavirus set him up well to understand the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic and helped him create epidemiological models to optimize social distancing and vaccination. As he discusses, lessons learned fr...

If you are interested in bugs, this episode of the Virulent Vortex is for you. Sandra Mendiola explains how beneficial bacterial bugs can stop insect bugs from spreading harmful bacterial bugs to squash plants. As a result, some bugs may help farmers and ensure we have enough pumpkins for Halloween.  Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

If you have ever had flu, it may feel like the flu virus is a perfect pathogen. Think again. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Anice Lowen explains that single flu viruses are actually pretty bad at infecting host cells. In fact, they are so bad at keeping their genetic material together that they need each other to complement their genes and reproduce. Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-...