Going viral: the evolution of viruses and novel ways to fight them

Every breath of air carries tiny fragments of genetic material—clues to the wildlife around us. Airborne eDNA is opening a revolutionary way to monitor biodiversity, revealing species that are present without ever seeing them. This talk explores how we can harness airborne DNA to study ecosystems conservation and the future of environmental monitoring.

Viruses that circulate in wildlife are as diverse and interesting - and 99% of the time, they aren't going to cause the next pandemic. But we don't really know the full extent of viral diversity that exists in nature - especially not viruses that have occurred in the past! Ash gets RNA from formalin-fixed historical specimens, reconstructs the fragmented viral genomes present, and examines the evolutionary dynamics of viruses over time and space - kind of like molecular fossil hunting.

Triath's research explores a novel strategy to safeguard kidney transplants from an opportunistic virus by using the immune system. Rather than reducing immunosuppression—a risky approach —they aim to use immunotherapy to activate virus-specific T cells to fight infection. To enable this, they identified the unique molecular signatures of viral proteins recognized by T cells, sequencing them with mass spectrometry.