The talks from the researchers in the field of infectious diseases. The podcast is hosted by South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID).
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The bacterium Vibrio fischeri colonizes the light organ of the bobtail squid, and this is one of the best characterized symbiotic relationships, thanks to the pioneering work of Dr. Ned Ruby and Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai (Caltech University). The symbiotic relationship between Ruby and his lab, who focus primarily on the bacteria, and McFall-Ngai and her lab, who focus primarily on the squid, has…
microTalk, recorded live at ASM Microbe 2025, examines the current trajectory and future direction of microbiology. Karl and guests address scientific leadership within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), structural changes in the society, and the role of microbiology in addressing complex scientific and societal challenges. Emphasis is placed on research, training, evolutionary thinking,…
Viroids are some of the most unusual biological infectious agents because they consist of only very small circular RNA molecules. They are too small to encode proteins, yet they are resilient and cause disease in a variety of agriculturally important plants, including cannabis, the sixth largest cash crop in the U.S. Dr. Zamir Punja is a Professor of Plant Biotechnology at Simon Frasier…
Archaea are one of the three domains of life on earth, but these organisms are much more mysterious and less understood than either Bacteria or Eukaryotes. Dr. Alex Bisson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Brandeis University. His laboratory studies Archaea, primarily focusing on Haloarchaea. Dr. Bisson discusses how Archaea are able to shape-shift from one cell shape to…
Guinea worm infections have been plaguing mankind throughout recorded history. The Carter Center took the lead in the guinea worm eradication effort in the 1980's, when there were over 3 million cases per year. Through concentrated effort, this disease is on the brink of extinction, with only 14 human cases in 2023! Adam Weiss, MPH, is the director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at the…
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are threatening modern society by making antibiotics obsolete. Dr. Nizet is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD, as well as the faculty lead for the UCSD Collaborative to Halt Antibiotic-Resistant Microbes (CHARM). His laboratory studies how the human immune system interacts with microbial pathogens, with particular focus on antibiotic…
Houston, we definitely do NOT have a problem…with interviewing Dr. Kate Rubins, NASA astronaut. Dr. Rubins is a virologist who has spent over 300 days in space, performing experiments aboard the International Space Station, where she was the first person to sequence DNA in space. We caught up with Dr. Rubins at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, where she discusses what it felt like the first…
Dr. Hyun Jung Kim, an Assistant Professor at Cleveland Clinic specializes in coaxing human cultured cells to differentiate and form tissues resembling the gastrointestinal tract, in order to study microbe-GI interactions. Dr. Kim discusses his surprising discovery of how common immortalized cultured cells can differentiate and form something that resembles a gut-on-a-chip, how these guts-on-a-chip…
Plague and anthrax are feared diseases due to high mortality rates following pulmonary exposure, and both are considered potential bioweapons. Dr. Virginia Miller, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and ASM President, studies plague, as well as other Gram negative bacteria. Dr. Theresa Koehler, emeritus professor at UTHealth Houston and ASM president-elect, is an expert…
Dr. John Coates, a professor at the University of California Berkeley specializes in environmental microbiology and how microbes can be utilized to resolve problems in industry. microTalk caught up with Dr. Coates at the ASMicrobe conference in Houston and discussed his research in applied and environmental microbiology. Dr. Coates discusses an unexpected discovery of how microbes drive the iodine…
