What Mechanisms Underlie the Interaction Between a Virus and its Host During an Infection?

Tomas Alarcon Schumacher

Traditionally, viruses have been viewed as little more than killing machines. In this video, TOMÁS ALARCÓN SCHUMACHER shows how certain viral infections can have a positive effect on their hosts’ evolutionary trajectories. Focusing on chronic infections in archaeal bacteria, Schumacher employs techniques including quantitative PCR, RNA sequencing and proteomics. Among his more striking findings are that the virus can completely reshape the metabolism of the host and that the outcome of an infection is heavily dependent on interaction between the infecting virus and viral like sequences already present in the host. Greater understanding of the mechanisms at work here could help us to look for new solutions for viral diseases through viral-viral interaction based therapies.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10951

Researcher

Tomás Alarcón Schumacher is a doctoral student at the International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology (IMPRS MarMic) in Bremen where he also completed his Masters of Science(2020). He has previously worked as a research and teaching assistant at the Pontifical University of Chilewhere he did his undergraduate degree. His research interests include viruses, molecular biology and metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses.

Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

At the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM), we are investigating microorganisms in the sea and other waters. What role do they play, what are their characteristics and how great is their biodiversity? What is the contribution of microorganisms to the global cycles of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and iron? What does this mean for our environment and our climate? These and many other questions will be answered by researchers from around the world, engineers, technicians and numerous others at the MPIMM. Their fields of expertise range from microbiology to microsensors, geochemistry to genome analysis and molecular ecology to modelling. The MPIMM was founded in 1992 and is part of the Max Planck Society (MPG). Since 2002, the MPIMM has been running the International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology ( MarMic ), a program for highly qualified master students and graduates of our institute and the Bremen Research Alliance partner Bremen University, Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research ( AWI ) and Jacobs University.