Tracking the viruses in and around us

Speakers: Markus Landthaler | Emanuel Wyler

Language: German

How molecular biologists are using mini-brains and high-throughput methods to study the viruses in our bodies and the biodiversity in wastewater.

Viruses are constantly on the move. Not only humans infect each other with them, viruses circulate in all animal species - from ants to elephants. They can be found everywhere in the environment, even bacteria are attacked by viruses. Thanks to the latest technologies, we can now understand and combat viruses much better. The progress is tremendous. Markus Landthaler and Emanuel Wyler from the Max Delbrück Center will first present how they use high-throughput sequencing to observe viruses in wastewater. After all, wastewater is not just smelly and murky, but a treasure trove of information about microbes! The second part of their presentation will talk about herpes simplex viruses. They "live" inside us all the time, and in some people, they can cause recurrent cold sores. While this is annoying, it almost always passes quickly. Much rarer, but all the more dangerous, are brain infections caused by herpes viruses. We show how we can study this disease in the laboratory using mini-brains, brain organoids.

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