Today, Dr. Sam Díaz-Muñoz, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, as well as a Faculty Member of the Genome Center at the University of California Davis, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how their group, and a growing community of researchers, investigates the social lives of viruses: the many ways that viruses interact and the ways that interactions shape infections and viral evolution.
Today, Dr. Jolene Ramsey, of the Biology Department of Texas A&M University and Affiliate of the Center for Phage Technology, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss how bacteriophages release themselves from host cells, her efforts to teach students to work with the primary literature, and her own path to the microbial sciences.
Today, Dr. Adam Lauring of the University of Michigan joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the job of a physician-scientist, RNA viruses, the tricks that influenza uses to create epidemics and pandemics, and the science behind flu vaccines.
Today, Dr. Cynthia Silveira of the Department of Biology at Miami University joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss her research team’s efforts to explore how bacterial viruses interact with their host cells from coral reefs to other planets! In addition, Dr. Silveira will discuss her microbiological path and a course she teaches on virology.
Today, Dr. Tracie Delgado of the Biology Department at Seattle Pacific University joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss her undergraduate research team’s explorations of how some herpesviruses can cause cancer . . . and how to use the host cell’s metabolism to fight those viruses!
Today, Dr. Carolina Martinez Gutierrez of the Department of Earth Science at the University of California Santa Barbara joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss her research team’s efforts to unravel how ancient microbes thrived in the early oceans of Earth’s history . . . and to sing the praises of marine microbiology!
Today Dr. Ken Stedman, Professor of Biology at Portland State University, tells us about the strange and wonderful viruses of heat loving extremophilic archaea—truly viruses from Hell!
It’s interesting to think about the microbes in and on us—some of which are vital to our well being—and how we came to possess them. Mark introduces Dr. Anne Estes of Towson University, who will discuss this very topic as it applies to dung beetles.
Mark discusses some “shock and awe” concepts about the microbial world that he introduces to his microbiology students, and asks three important questions about microbiology and microbiologists with guest Dr. Mya Breitbart of the University of South Florida.
