This episode explores the lived experiences of neurodivergent researchers in academia, from autism to ADHD. Through candid conversations with scientists at different career stages, we uncover both the challenges they face in traditional academic environments and the unique strengths they bring to scientific discovery. Our guests share practical str…

Listen to Dr Nir Drayman chat to Dr Mila Collados Rodriguez about his journey moving from Isreal to Chicago, to building his very own lab in California. Nir embraced the unexpected twists of life and found his passion for virology while working in systems biology labs. He speaks about the challenges of navigating career opportunities, spousal hirin…

Spanish virologist Nerea Irigoyen provides an inside look at her career with PhD students from the Castello Lab, Natasha Palmalux and Rozeena Arif. Nerea details her pioneering work using ribosomal profiling to uncover the complexities of viral gene expression, as well as her experiences transitioning to an independent group leader role. Irigoyen a…

Dr Angela Rasmussen travelled from the University of Saskatchewan to the CVR in September 2023, and sat down with Spyros Lytras and Kieran Lamb. Angela gives insight into dealing with toxic bosses, sustained research investments, empowering underrepresented groups of people, dealing with conflict and connecting with colleagues across disciplines th…

Prof Wendy Barclay OBE, winner of the 11th Annual Sir Michael Stoker Award, sat down with Stephen Devlin and Anna Sims on her visit the the CVR. Wendy gives insight into building a career in virology, navigating the challenges of science communication in the digital age, the importance of widening your network and asking for help.🔗 Links More about…

For #HPVAwarenessDay, Anna Kirk, a PhD Researcher in the Graham Lab, takes a deep dive into Human Papillomavirus in our recent Research Goes Viral podcast. Anna explains the viral life cycle of HPV, how disruption of this cycle can lead to cancer, and how we can protect ourselves. #OneLessWorry

Associate Professor Anice Lowen travelled all the way from Atlanta's Emory University to deliver the Richard M. Elliott Memorial Lecture at the recent Glasgow Virology Workshop. Anice completed her PhD at the CVR (then MRC Virology Unit) with Richard Elliott. We invited Anice along to chat with a couple of our PhD students, Stephen Devlin and Anna …

There is now strong evidence that the virus AAV2, alongside an underlying genetic predisposition, played a key role in cases of acute hepatitis in children, according to a new study published in Nature – the first detailed research investigation into the worldwide outbreak.In this podcast, host Stephen Devlin takes a deep dive into this new publica…

New research from Professor Daniel Streicker and colleagues has revealed that vampire bat culls may actually exacerbate rabies transmission, rather than reducing it.In this podcast, Anna Kirk chats to Daniel Streicker and Megan Griffiths about their research around vampire bats and rabies virus. Megan's PhD project was focused on the development of…

Listen to the 2022 Stoker Award Winner, Professor Christian Drosten talk about his coronavirus research, challenges of science communication and the song that a German punk band wrote about him!On Monday 9 January, we welcomed 2022 Sir Michael Stoker Award winner Professor Christian Drosten to the CVR.This annual award is awarded to a highly reputa…

Three of our incredible researchers, Stephen Devlin, Anna Sims and Spyros Lytras, recently sat down to discuss some prominent LGBTQIA+ virologists and microbiologists from history and why it's important to celebrate them today. This is a special edition of our Research Goes Viral podcast to celebrate LGBT+ History Month 2023. Learn more here: https…

Surveillance and treatment of Hepatitis C in a changing world - a Viral Insight with Emma Thomson by MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus ResearchBy MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

Have a listen to our special Viral Insight episode for #WorldHepatitisDay 2022! Meet Dr Joe Grove, a Senior Lecturer here at the CVR as he discusses his journey into science, the breakthroughs in hepatitis C virus (HCV) experimental systems which occurred during his career and the importance of involving people living with HCV in research.…

Listen to our latest podcast episode for Contagious Thinking in which Sarah Iannucci discusses all things Medical Visualisation. Sarah Iannucci recently completed a Masters of Science in Medical Visualisation and Anatomy, a degree offered jointly by The University of Glasgow and the famous Glasgow School of Art. The aim of the programme is to disse…

In this special edition podcast for world hepatitis day Anna Kirk interviews John McLauchlan, a Professor of Viral Hepatitis at the Centre for Virus Research. John is an expert in hepatitis C virus, a bloodborne virus which can often result in chronic infections. Globally there are an estimated 71 million of these chronic infections which can resul…

In this episode of the review we discuss Dr Kieran Dee’s exciting discovery that coinfections of rhinovirus and SARS-CoV-2 result in reduced replication of SARS-CoV-2. We discuss the potential for the real world impact of this, how it feels to get your research into news outlets such as the BBC and the future directions for this study.You can find …

It is almost one year since the first positive case of COVID-19 confirmed in Scotland, and in this episode we talked with Clinical Research Fellow James Shepherd about how COVID-19 was introduced in Scotland from mainland Europe (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00838-z). This work was a national effort involving multiple NHS and academic…

On the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic (Feb 2020), we welcomed a very special guest to Contagious Thinking, Associate Professor Dr Nuno Faria from the University of Oxford. In this episode, Nuno speaks with Vandana Ravindran and Elihu Aranday-Cortes, about his life in science and his interests in epidemiology and evolution of viruses circulating in hu…

In this special episode for our Spanish speaking listeners, Mila and Elihu are talking with Professor Pablo Murcia about how viruses can infect different species, his scientific career and future work. Pablo -who is a DVM- is trying to understand the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms that underpin viral host switching and viral emergence.…

In this episode, recorded in October 2019, we speak to Dr Jonathan Stoye - a Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute and Fellow of the Royal Society. In this episode we talk about Jonathan’s impressive research career path, from his first interest in the genetic interactions between retroviruses and their hosts. Jonathan also shares stor…

Prof Nic Stonehouse from the University of Leeds talks to us about her career and how the right mentorship led her to a professorship studying picornaviruses. She also tells us about the exciting projects currently being developed in her lab looking at the replication of foot-and-mouth disease virus and the develop of empty viral capsids as potenti…

Dr. Andreas Wack from the Crick institute talks to us about the role of host immunity in the response to influenza virus and why we mount differential immune responses to infection. He also tells us why all forms of research are important in this age of emerging infections and we can never be too prepared!…

Podcast S4 epDr Anna Cliffe from the University of Virgina (USA) talks about her career in science and research on herpes simplex latency and reactivation in neurons. You can find our previous content on at cvrblog.myportfolio.com, email us at [email protected] or tweet us @CVRblog. Featuring: Dr Anna Cliffe, Dr Vandana Ravindran and …

How do viral outbreaks arise? Can genomic epidemiology identify pathways of emergence of infectious diseases?In this episode of The Review we will answer these questions with Dr Kyriaki Nomikou, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Virus Research who gives us a snapshot of the results and implications of her recent publication (https://doi.or…

Can viruses steal our genetic signals to generate human-virus genes? Can these proteins alter the course of viral infection? In this episode of the review recorded via zoom we will answer these questions with Dr Léa Meyer a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Virus Research who gives us a snapshot of the results and implications of her recent…

Do bats deserve their bad rap when it comes to virus transmission? Do human viruses disproportionately originate from certain animal groups?In the this episode of 'The Review' we answer these questions with Nardus Mollentze, a research associate at the Centre for Virus Research who gives us a snapshot of the results and implications of his recent p…

By MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

By MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

By MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

By MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

By MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

Season 3 Episode 9: In this episode of Contagious Thinking Jack and Elena are talking with Dr Rachel Edgar about about her research investigating how the circadian clock of a host can affect viral infection, and how viruses can exploit our body clocks to aid their replication and spread. She also discusses her career so far, and gives advice to PhD…

Today on the Contagious Thinking podcast, Douglas and Elena are joined by Professor Rune Hartmann from Aarhus University who tells us about his work on understanding type III interferons, their role in immunity and viral infection and their evolution. He also describes some of his work with fruit flies and has some great advice for young scientists…

In this episode, ex-postdoc Dr Connor Bamford will be speaking with Dr Rachel Ulferts from the Francis Crick Institute in London after she came to Glasgow recently to present her fascinating work.Dr Ulferts is currently a postdoc in the lab of Dr Rupert Beale at the Crick where she works on influenza virus and a cell process known as autophagy - or…

HUSH-ing HIV - A Podcast with Professor Paul LehnerSeason 3 Episode 6: In this episode of Contagious Thinking Jack and Arthur are talking with Professor Paul Lehner about HIV and silencing of these viruses by the newly discovered HUSH complex. Paul talks about his career so far and his research on HIV. He further explains how he and colleagues disc…

In this special episode for our Spanish speakers listeners, Mila and Elihu are talking with Carolina Lopez about how viruses interact with the immune system during infection. As viruses copy their genomes, a large number of defective copies are made. Carolina studies the different forms of a virus, including those with regular and defective copies …

Season 3 Episode 4: This week Jack and Douglas are talking ticks with Professor Pat Nuttall, where we hear about how changing conditions are increasing the risk of tick-borne viruses and how these viruses benefit from the peculiar properties of tick saliva.You can find our previous content on arboviruses over at cvrblog.myportfolio.com, email us at…

In this episode we’re welcoming Professor Paul Griffiths, from the Royal Free hospital and University College London. Professor Griffiths - who is a clinician by training - came to the CVR in Glasgow earlier this year to give a seminar. Connor (an ex CVR-postdoc) caught up with Paul in this episode and discuss his favourite virus, human cytomegalov…

Professor Ann Palmenberg from the University of Wisconsin-Madison talking to us about her journey through academia as a virologist, her views on vaccines and women in science. As always, you can find our previous content at cvrblog.myportfolio.com/, email us at [email protected] or tweet us @CVRblogFeaturing: Ann Palmenberg, Connor Ba…

This is the third season of the refreshing virology podcast. In this episode, we’re starting off with Dr Juan Fontana, a structural biologist from the University of Leeds. Juan speaks with fellow postdoc Connor Bamford, about his career so far in Virology, how cryoEM works, and how he uses this technique to study deadly human viruses.As always, you…

In this final episode, we change gears, from innate immunity to virus biology and evolution. Today, postdocs Connor and Elihu talk with Dr. Robert Gifford, CVR’s resident evolutionary virologist and senior research fellow. Rob’s lab combines sequence data and software development to explore virus genomics and coevolution of viruses and their hosts.…

Season 2 Episode 7: Today Connor's following on the theme of innate immunity started by Greg and Adam in the last two episodes and is joined by Dr Marlene Dreux, Team Leader in immunovirology at the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (CIRI) in Lyon, France. Marlene combines cell biology, viruses and immunity to find out how our cell…

Season 2 Episode: 6I hope you enjoyed last week’s episode with Jack, Douglas and Greg Towers because now we’re continuing on that theme and speaking with Dr Adam Fletcher, a fellow innate/intrinsic immunity enthusiast, like Greg.Adam (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=cEzmpPEAAAAJ&hl=en), has led work on fantastic papers onto the detailed…

Season 2 Episode 5: Having heard about Dr Liz Wright's work with HIV and Cryo EM last week, this week Jack and Douglas take a deep dive into the HIV field with Professor Greg Towers. Having established a enduring interest in HIV virology at a young age, Prof. Towers and his lab - based at University College London - work on some of the fundamental …

Season 2 Episode 4: It’s hard to get anywhere in microbiology without a microscope, and the cutting edge right now is cryo-electron microscopy, where samples are frozen in clear ice, so they stay in their natural state when they’re viewed.In this week’s episode, Connor is joined by Dr Liz Wright from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who explain…

Season 2 Episode 3: This week we're discussing sepsis, a major complication of infection (from bacteria AND viruses) which can lead to multiple organ failure and death. Following on from the first two episodes in this series, influenza virus in one such infection that can lead to sepsis. The only treatments for sepsis are indirect drugs that target…

Season 2 Episode 2: Today we are discussing another virus everyone is familiar with, especially now the winter season is here, influenza. But today we are changing tack, and bringing some physics into the mix.Joining us (postdocs Shirin Ashraf and Connor Bamford) is Dr. Nicole Robb, from the University of Oxford. Dr. Robb is a virologist, who likes…

Season 2 Episode 1: Today we’re welcoming a very special guest to Contagious Thinking, Prof Yoshihiro Kawaoka, the 2018 Sir Michael Stoker Prize winner.The Stoker prize is an annual lecture awarded to an influential virologist, chosen by everyone who is not a group leader or PI at the CVR. Previous winners include David Baltimore, Beatrice Hahn and…

In the last episode of our current series Jack, Yasmin and Andrew are joined by renowned virologist and Nobel laureate Professor David Baltimore, the 2017 winner of the CVR's Sir Michael Stoker Award, to discuss his career. David and his lab have been involved in key developments in virology such as discovering reverse transcriptase (and therefore …

This week Connor, Jack and Andrew are joined by Professor Ian Goodfellow from the University of Cambridge to hear about his career so far in virology and his recent work in helping stop viruses in Africa including during the recent West African Ebola outbreak. If you like this podcast check out some of our previous content about viruses like ebola …