[conspire] Café Scientifique, Feb 16: Bacteriophages

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

I love bacteriophages, viruses that destroy bacteria. They look like little lunar landers. They wind their body up like a spring so they can inject their genome into a bacterium. (Viruses have no metabolism and therefore no movement outside a cell, so this is an interesting adaptation.)

Plus, each of us have a billion of them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage

Les and I were talking at cabal about this (online) talk happening tomorrow:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-cafe-scientifique-bacteriophages-in-human-health-and-disease-registration-528645802827

Paul Bollyky, MD, PhD | February 16, 2023
Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases,
Stanford University School of Medicine

5:00-6:00 PM PT Presentation
6:00-6:30 PM PT Q&A

Description of the Talk

Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are a frontier in human health. Phages are some of the best studied organisms on earth with critical roles in biotechnology. They are also highly abundant in our bodies, outnumbering both our own cells and the bacteria that produce them. However, we are just beginning to understand the roles that phages play in our own biology. Here, we will explore the fascinating biology of bacteriophages and their interactions with both their human and bacterial hosts. We will highlight recent data from our lab and others implicating bacteriophages in human disease. We will also discuss efforts to use bacteriophages to promote human health.

About the Speaker

Paul Bollyky is an Associate Professor and infectious disease physician at Stanford University. He received his D.Phil at the University of Oxford, and his MD at Harvard Medical School. He then completed his residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital followed by his fellowship training in Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Washington in Seattle. His lab studies trans-kingdom interactions between bacteriophages, bacteria, and their human hosts, and is interested in understanding how these interactions contribute to health and disease and in using bacteriophages to treat chronic infections.

-- 
  Deirdre Saoirse Moen
  deirdre at deirdre.net