Microbial Mondays

In the last years, especially when the first HPV vaccine came out in 2006, we have heard a lot of commotion around this HPV vaccine and HPV’s link to cancer. In today’s episode, we share the story of how scientists discovered the link between HPV and cancer, and how the HPV vaccine works.

Humans have been heading into space to explore beyond earth for decades already. But when we head beyond our own atmosphere, what happens to our immune system? In this episode, we dive into astro-immunology: a sub-field of immunology that focuses on how our immune system responds to spaceflight. Let's dive in! Key reference: Winer D.A. et al. Astroimmunology: the effects of spaceflight and its associated stressors on the immune system. Nat Rev Immunol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-025-01226-6

Have you ever wondered how our immune system finds the balance in attacking invading viruses and bacteria that try to enter our bodies, but not attacking our own body cells? The groundbreaking discoveries concerning this topic, called 'peripheral immune tolerance', by Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025! It tells us a lot about how the immune system functions in health and disease!In this episode, we dive into:the discoveries that led to winning this year's Nobel Prize, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi's journey to get to these discoveries,what impact these discoveries have had in the past, still have now, and will have in the future!This podcast episode was created based on the Popular Science Background and Scientific Background published on nobelprize.org . If you are interested in learning more, read here: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2025/press-release/

Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?In this episode of Microbial Mondays, we unpack the findings from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)’s recent report. We revisit key theories, from a natural spillover event involving bats or intermediate hosts, to the lab leak hypothesis—and discuss why neither can be dismissed outright.Join us as we explore what’s known, what’s missing, and why uncovering the virus’s origins matters for preventing future pandemics.More reading We covered this topic back in a blog series in 2021:Part 1: ​https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/lab-leaks-and-affinis-excrement-or-how-a-scientist-thinks​Part 2: https://www.microbialmondays.com/post/where-did-the-virus-come-from-part-iiRead the SAGO report: https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/independent-assessment-of-the-origins-of-sars-cov-2-from-the-scientific-advisory-group-for-the-origins-of-novel-pathogens