Explore every episode of the podcast Virulent Vortex

In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, host Jaap de Roode is interviewed by Lance Waller to discuss his research on malaria and butterfly disease. Crossing scales, de Roode’s work tries to understand how competition between malaria parasites within patients drives the spread of drug resistance at the population level. And viewing host-parasite interactions as part of larger ecosystems, he describes how monarch butterflies can use toxic plants as herbal medicine. 

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Patients with cystic fibrosis are especially vulnerable to infections with harmful bacteria, including staph and Pseudomonas. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Ashley Alexander explains that these bacteria often co-infect the same patient. She discusses her studies to find out how interactions between these bacteria can contribute to disease.

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While vaccines and drugs are key in the control of infectious diseases, healthy living conditions are crucial too. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Stephen Mugel explains how clean water, non-polluting cooking stoves and bed nets are key to controlling child health in rural and low-income areas. As he argues, giving children access to this infrastructure can go a long way in reducing diarrheal disease, malaria and lower respiratory infections.

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Patients are rarely infected with a single pathogen, and understanding how pathogens interact with each other is key for controlling infectious disease. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Rachel Pearson discusses how HIV can make tuberculosis infections worse by destroying crucial immune cells. But there is a silver lining: if HIV infection is caught early enough, drug therapy can save enough immune cells to prevent severe disease

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While mosquitoes continue to take the spotlight as vectors of infectious disease, ticks are becoming increasingly important as transmitters of pathogens. In this episode, Steph Bellman talks about her studies of Heartland Virus in the state of Georgia. She describes why she called her thesis “the ticks, the virus, and the people” and explains what makes her tick on a daily basis.

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Living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we sometimes forget that there have been, and will be, other pandemics. Many of these pandemics have involved flu. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Katia Koelle explains how pigs provide the ideal mixing vessels for bird flu viruses to create strains that are highly contagious. Vaccinating pigs or limiting contact between pigs and birds could help prevent the next pandemic. 

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Ben Lopman has long studied how to optimize vaccination against rotavirus, which causes severe diarrheal disease in children. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, he explains how his work on rotavirus set him up well to understand the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic and helped him create epidemiological models to optimize social distancing and vaccination. As he discusses, lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic should help us thwart future global outbreaks. 

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If you are interested in bugs, this episode of the Virulent Vortex is for you. Sandra Mendiola explains how beneficial bacterial bugs can stop insect bugs from spreading harmful bacterial bugs to squash plants. As a result, some bugs may help farmers and ensure we have enough pumpkins for Halloween. 

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If you have ever had flu, it may feel like the flu virus is a perfect pathogen. Think again. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Anice Lowen explains that single flu viruses are actually pretty bad at infecting host cells. In fact, they are so bad at keeping their genetic material together that they need each other to complement their genes and reproduce.

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When COVID-19 turned into a deadly pandemic in 2020, no effective treatments were available. In this episode of the Virulent Vortex, Mirko Paiardini describes how he demonstrated that the drug baricitinib can be used to prevent life-threatening inflammation. The drug is now widely used to save lives of COVID-19 patients

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In this opening episode of the Virulent Vortex Podcast, Lance Waller proclaims his love for maps, explains what it means to study infectious diseases across scales, and describes how maps can help save people from pathogens. He also explains why this new podcast is called the Virulent Vortex. 

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