Welcome to this episode of our podcast, where you can hear
our conversation with Rob Lavigne (@RobLavigne1).
Rob is a renowned expert in the field of bacteriophage
research. He is Professor in the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of the KU Leuven where he develops his research leading the Laboratory of Gene Technology. He has also held numerous leadership roles in international organizations, such as the ISVM ICTV and P.H.A.G.E.
During our discussion, Rob shares his latest research
findings on Pseudomonads aeruginosa bacteriophages and sheds light on the viral dark matter - the unknown function of many Open Reading Frames (ORFs) in phages.
He explains how his team discovered the Igy peptide, which was initially labeled as hypothetical protein but was found to inhibit bacterial DNA gyrase and replication. You will hear Rob walking us through the fascinating protein-protein interaction experiments that led to this discovery. (DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109567)
You will also hear about RNA sequencing and the importance of this work.
Please stay till the end because our conversation with Rob goes beyond his impressive research accomplishments. He also shares some personal insights on how to cope with research failures and avoid the trap of comparing oneself to others. His advice is very practical and we actually found it quite inspiring.
So thank you for joining us for this episode, Enjoy!
