Molecular arms race at the virus-host interface

Viruses are at the threshold of the inanimate and the animate and represent the transitional phase in evolution, when chemistry morphed in to self-sustaining life on earth. For this reason, viruses are the most abundant biological entity on earth, found in all ecosystems infecting every type of living organism from the simplest single cell organism like archaea to the most complex organisms such as humans. Highly infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza have influenced our social and cultural history so significantly that entire populations of humans have been wiped out in the past due to the inability to fight against viral pandemics. Viruses also affect the biosphere in ways that are relevant to human survival such as cycling of elements like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Despite the negative effects that some viruses have on human health, our understanding of viruses and the ability to engineer them have been instrumental in developing tools to probe fundamental biological processes and combat diseases in myriad ways that were never possible before.

Speaker: Dr. Eshwar Ramanan