Viroids are some of the most unusual biological infectious agents because they consist of only very small circular RNA molecules. They are too small to encode proteins, yet they are resilient and cause disease in a variety of agriculturally important plants, including cannabis, the sixth largest cash crop in the U.S.

Dr. Zamir Punja is a Professor of Plant Biotechnology at Simon Frasier University, whose laboratory studies the cannabis viroid, which he refers to as the “COVID of cannabis”. Dr. Punja describes how viroids only infect plants, how a viroid stunts the growth and potency of cannabis plants, where viroids may have come from, why agricultural practices may enhance the spread of the cannabis viroid, how “beneficial” biological approaches may protect cannabis from infectious agents, and how the beautiful environment of Vancouver promotes good science.

Dr. Vince Young joined microTalk on this episode, which was supported by Gordo Sheepsay’s My Dope Microscope.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Zamir Punja, Ph.D. (Simon Frasier University)
• Vincent Young, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Michigan)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)

Archaea are one of the three domains of life on earth, but these organisms are much more mysterious and less understood than either Bacteria or Eukaryotes.

Dr. Alex Bisson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Brandeis University. His laboratory studies Archaea, primarily focusing on Haloarchaea. Dr. Bisson discusses how Archaea are able to shape-shift from one cell shape to another, how Haloarchaea are able to grow at extremely high salt concentrations, how Archaea cope with being “squishy”, how common polyploidy (multiple copies of chromosomes) is among Archaea, how Haloarchaea are able to desalinate soil to allow trees to grow, how Haloarchaea can lie dormant inside Himalayan Pink Salt, and how Boston is an intellectually stimulating place to do science.

Dr. Salvador Almagro-Moreno joined microTalk on this episode, which was supported by Gordo Sheepsey’s My Brave Little Autoclave.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Alexandre Bisson, Ph.D. (Brandeis University)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Salvador Almagro-Moreno (University of Central Florida)

Guinea worm infections have been plaguing mankind throughout recorded history. The Carter Center took the lead in the guinea worm eradication effort in the 1980’s, when there were over 3 million cases per year. Through concentrated effort, this disease is on the brink of extinction, with only 14 human cases in 2023!

Adam Weiss, MPH, is the director of the Guinea Worm Eradication Program at the Carter Center. microTalk caught up with Adam at the ASM Microbe conference in Atlanta in a live session to discuss the imminent extinction of guinea worm disease.

Weiss talks about how seeing the disease first-hand led to President Carter’s and Weiss’ passion for eradication, how behavior modification was key to guinea worm eradication, how a reservoir in dogs affects eradication efforts, and how being in the Peace Corps influenced his career path.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/yt7cDHZhThI

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Adam Weiss, M.P.H. (Carter Center)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA).
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA).

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are threatening modern society by making antibiotics obsolete. Dr. Nizet is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD, as well as the faculty lead for the UCSD Collaborative to Halt Antibiotic-Resistant Microbes (CHARM). His laboratory studies how the human immune system interacts with microbial pathogens, with particular focus on antibiotic resistant bacteria and how to treat them.

Dr. Nizet discusses how his training as a physician helps drive the research in his laboratory, how repurposing therapeutic drugs could help fight antimicrobial resistance, how taking advantage of host immune responses can enhance the treatment of infectious diseases, how the success of modern medicine is training some bacteria to become pathogenic, how nanobots made from algae can be used to treat difficult infections, and how the environment at UC San Diego contributed to the success of his lab.

This episode was supported by the do-it-yourself mail-order Gram stain kit.*

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Victor Nizet, M.D. (UC San Diego)
• Venus Stanton (UTSA)
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA)

* "Ads" heard on microTalk are for parody purposes only, there are no actual products for sale.

Houston, we definitely do NOT have a problem…with interviewing Dr. Kate Rubins, NASA astronaut. Dr. Rubins is a virologist who has spent over 300 days in space, performing experiments aboard the International Space Station, where she was the first person to sequence DNA in space.

We caught up with Dr. Rubins at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston, where she discusses what it felt like the first time she saw the earth from space, some of the difficulties in performing research without gravity, how to study the microbiome of the ISS, how the international inhabitants of the ISS communicate with each other, and the spur-of-the-moment event that led to her becoming an astronaut.

This episode was supported by Cestodium, a new weight-loss program.*

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Kate Rubins, Ph.D. (NASA)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA)

*The recorded ads heard on microTalk are for parody purposes only, there are no actual products for sale.

Dr. Hyun Jung Kim, an Assistant Professor at Cleveland Clinic specializes in coaxing human cultured cells to differentiate and form tissues resembling the gastrointestinal tract, in order to study microbe-GI interactions. 

Dr. Kim discusses his surprising discovery of how common immortalized cultured cells can differentiate and form something that resembles a gut-on-a-chip, how these guts-on-a-chip can be used to study diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer, how the addition of a microbiome to the gut-on-a-chip allows the bacteria to retain diversity unlike in a test tube, how the gut-on-a-chip could be valuable for personalized medicine, and the things he misses about Texas since moving from there.

This episode was supported by Eezy Breezy Poke, an elegant at-home vaccine service.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Hyun Jung Kim, Ph.D. (Cleveland Clinic)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA)

Plague and anthrax are feared diseases due to high mortality rates following pulmonary exposure, and both are considered potential bioweapons. 

Dr. Virginia Miller, professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and ASM President, studies plague, as well as other Gram negative bacteria. Dr. Theresa Koehler, emeritus professor at UTHealth Houston and ASM president-elect, is an expert in anthrax. 

microTalk caught up with Dr. Miller and Dr. Koehler at ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston to discuss these biothreat agents.

Dr. Miller discusses why she studies plague, the differences between bubonic and pneumonic plague, why Klebsiella pneumoniae poses a growing health threat, and what it was like being John Mekalanos’ first Ph.D. student.

Dr. Koehler discusses why anthrax is considered a potential bioweapon, why significant scientific progress was made following the anthrax attacks of 2001, why gardeners shouldn’t worry about catching anthrax, and her first failed experiment.  Both discuss their vision for ASM and the role it plays in microbiological research and society.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Virginia Miller, Ph.D. (UNC Chapel Hill)
• Theresa Koehler, Ph.D. (UT Health Houston)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA)

Dr. John Coates, a professor at the University of California Berkeley specializes in environmental microbiology and how microbes can be utilized to resolve problems in industry. 

microTalk caught up with Dr. Coates at the ASMicrobe conference in Houston and discussed his research in applied and environmental microbiology. 

Dr. Coates discusses an unexpected discovery of how microbes drive the iodine cycle on earth, how sequencing microbes in the oceans has been beneficial for identifying novel biochemical activities, how climate change has stimulated his research into the “bioeconomy”, why he’s optimistic that science can mitigate the effects of climate change, and how Berkeley is a remarkable place to do science.

This episode was supported by miniScope, the portable keychain microscope.

• Karl Klose, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• John Coates, Ph.D. (UCSD)
• Janakiram Seshu, Ph.D. (UTSA)
• Jesus Romo, Ph.D. (UTSA)