The study of evolution has experienced a tremendous revolution with the advances in current sequencing technologies enabling e.g. rapid whole genome sequencing.
Dr. Vaughn Cooper, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies evolution in microbes, has taken advantage of these technologies to delve into how microorganisms adapt and evolve in different environments. microTalk caught up with Dr. Cooper at the ASM Microbe conference in Houston and discussed microbial evolution with him.
Dr. Cooper discusses the power of next generation sequencing for the study of evolution, how mutation rates affect evolution, how providing hands-on evolution experiments to high school students can stimulate the next generation of scientists, how scientists need to work to combat public distrust of science, how antibiotic resistance evolves in the presence of immunodeficiency, and how his initial experience with baculoviruses hooked him into a lifelong study of evolution.
This episode was supported by Darbie’s pinworm detection kit, to combat nematodes in your bikini bottom.
Participants:042: Undone by Fungi: Mucormycosis with Ashraf Ibrahim
041: There’s a Germ in my Worm: Bacterial-driven Metamorphosis with Nick Shikuma
040: Public Health in the Time of Cholera: Enteric Disease Intervention with Christine Marie George
039: Let’s Veto Mosquitoes: Malaria with Gunnar Mair
038: Babbling Bacteria: A Discussion About Quorum Sensing with Marvin Whiteley
037: Coral Reefs in Crisis! A Discussion with Rebecca Vega-Thurber
036: Viruses from Heaven and Hell: A Discussion with Ken Stedman
035: Flip-flops and Surfboards made from Algae? Renewable algae-derived biomaterials with Steve Mayfield
034: Disease Expertise with the Big Cheese: CDC Deputy Director Anne Schuchat
033: Mr. CRISPR, Kevin Doxzen, Discusses the Revolutionary Gene Editing Technology
032: The Wrath of Maria: Puerto Rican Microbiologists Discuss Post-Hurricane Science
031: Content in Cement: Julie Maresca Discusses the Concrete Microbiome
030: Mycology Loquacity: Carol Kumamoto Gets Candid about Candida
029: Prevent What’s Preventable: Vaccine Preventable Diseases with Cherise Rohr-Allegrini
028: You Gotta Be Squidding Me! A Discussion with Ned Ruby
027: Do the Bugs in your Gut Cause Parkinson’s Disease? A Discussion with Sarkis Mazmanian
026: Bugs in Space! High School Students Send a Microbiology Experiment on the ISS
025: It’s a Fungal Jungle Out There! A Discussion with Mary Ann Jabra-Rizk
024: Time for Lyme: A Discussion with Dr. Steve Norris
023: There’s Another Fungus Among Us! With Dr. Andrew Alspaugh
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
DNA Today: A Genetics Podcast
Short Wave
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Unexplainable
All In The Mind