Oct 12, 2020
“Nothing replicates with nucleic acid and evolves through
natural selection and is not alive, so I think it’s time for
viruses to join the pantheon of life,” says Dr. White, bringing a
fresh perspective to the topic of whether viruses should be
considered living or nonliving.
Press play to learn why he says viruses are “perfect” parasites,
and to explore the following:
- How viruses get sick
- Who's winning the battle against multidrug-resistant organisms, and the critical role viruses play
- What allows a virus to transfer genetic information without replicating itself
- In what way phages have exhibited protective mechanisms for the host and interact with the host immune response
Dr. Richard Allen White III is a virologist and the owner of Raw
Molecular Systems (RMS), LLC. His current work is focused on
diagnostics and biotherapeutics to combat COVID-19, as well as
repurposing bacteriophage to tackle multidrug resistance.
He provides unique insight on a handful of compelling questions
about viruses, which leads to a discussion of how viruses take over
the host’s macrophages and trigger cell-to-cell infection, a phage
Vibrio that’s triggered by a quorum-sensing molecule, viral
modification and what it means,
virus and host cell interactions,
viral evolution and how a virus changes over time, viral
tropism, current treatments for the rabies virus, how viruses hold
the key to wiping out the growing threat of multidrug-resistant
organisms, and more.
Tune in, and learn about Dr. White’s company by visiting
https://www.rawmolecularsystems.com/.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK