Florian Krammer is a virologist and vaccine developer. In his podcast viroLOGICAL he will talk about viruses on a weekly basis – from historical pandemics to current developments.
A Podcastwerkstatt Original – produced between New York and Vienna.
Photocredit: Medical University of Vienna/feelimage
This time it's a herpes virus that almost all of us carry: human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Florian Krammer explains why this large DNA virus with over 200 proteins is so hard to pin down, how it deposits its genome as an episome inside immune cells and stays hidden there for decades.
This time it's a virus that has circulated in humans for millennia: mumps virus. Florian Krammer explains why this paramyxovirus is related to measles and the dangerous Nipah virus, how the infection unfolds, and why it's usually mild but can cause serious complications including inflammation of the testicles, brain, or pancreas.
A summer update with four current stories from the world of virology. First stop is Switzerland, where thousands of cows fell ill from a newly discovered orthobunyavirus of the Simbu group, closely related to Schmallenberg virus but with little risk to humans.
The final part of the summer series on vacation viruses is one you can catch without going anywhere: West Nile virus. Florian Krammer explains why this flavivirus is closely related to Japanese and St. Louis encephalitis virus, how it mysteriously showed up in New York in 1999 - most likely via mosquitoes on a container ship and spread across the entire US within a few years.