Where are the virologists?

Seeing is believing – how EM solved the problem of RNA splicing

We talk with Dr. Louise Chow whose electron microscopy studies of adenovirus transcription led to the discovery of RNA splicing. Dr. Chow was Senior Scientist at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Professor of Biochemistry and Oncology at the University of Rochester and then Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is currently Professor Emerita at University of Alabama.

Where are the virologists?

We talk with Dr. Robert Gallo who discovered interleukin-2 and the human retroviruses HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 as well as co-discovered HIV.  Dr. Gallo was Chief of the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology at the National Cancer Institute and then Director of the Institute of Human Virology and Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is currently the Director of the Health Virology Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine.

Lessons in virus attenuation

We talk with Dr. Stanley Plotkin who developed the rubella vaccine currently used world-wide.  Dr. Plotkin was Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor of Virology at the Wistar Institute and Director of Infectious Diseases and Senior Physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He was also Medical and Scientific Director at Pasteur Merieux.