Microbial Mondays

How HPV causes cancer, and how we can stop it in its tracks

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.

Microbes in space!

In the last episode of Microbial Mondays, we covered what happens to our immune systems during space flight… but what about the microbes we bring with us? This month, join us in exploring how flying into space can impact microbial life from earth! Main publication discussed: Wilson et al., Space flight alters bacterial gene expression and virulence and reveals a role for global regulator Hfq, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104 (41) 16299-16304, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0707155104 (2007).

Your Immune System in Space

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

Permafrost Pandora’s Box

The summer of 2016 was warm in Siberia. So warm that the permafrost melted more than usual… releasing a dangerous microbe out onto the surface. In this episode, we dive into this historical example of an old microbe emerging from the permafrost, talk about how microbes can survive in the deep cold… and idee should be worried about what else might emerge.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025 explained!

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/