Sep 22, 2020
Lili Wang, Ph.D., has worked
with viruses for 14 years and her latest focus is HIV. She's
studying the amazing mechanics of the virological synapses of HIV,
which allow the virus to transfer from infected to uninfected cell.
But for this podcast, her job is to help Richard with his virus
project, providing in-depth, enlightening answers to his
questions.
She discusses
Lili Wang, Ph.D. is a scientific
researcher and instructor in the Department of Medicine at the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. A member of the Benjamin
Chen Laboratory, she's made solid progress in HIV research and
continues her work in infectious disease microbiology.
In this discussion, her virology background helps Richard grapple
with his research questions with precise details of viral
mechanics. She describes the coordinated manner with which viral
cascades may work after cell entry and describes how evolution has
continually refined these processes.
She provides substantive
explanations for the trigger systems and how receptors work for
these different forms of entry viruses take. Especially interesting
is her description of the "not deliberate, but still not random"
nature of viral actions, a key moment in this interview and why
researchers grapple with how to categorize viruses in the alive/not
alive debate. She adds information about how
viruses might use sensing mechanisms and then pivots to more
categories, comparing the actions and coevolution of bacteria and
viruses and how plasmids and extracellular vesicles fit in this
picture of microorganisms.
Finally, she gives an overview of the tight combined forces of our
own microbiomes and viruses, bacteria, and phages, how the balance
of these organisms keep us healthy and can be considered part of
our very life: if they are disturbed or out of balance, we become
ill. Listen in for more about how
viruses work to make us who we are.
For more information about her
work, see her lab page and search for her in research aggregate
sites.
Available on Apple Podcasts:
apple.co/2Os0myK