We talk with Dr. Michael Emerman who studies how HIV adapted to humans from its origins as a primate retrovirus to gain insight into host antiviral restriction factors that could inform potential future antiretroviral therapies. Dr. Emerman is Professor Emeritus of Human Biology and Basic Sciences at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. 

We talk with Dr. Peter Hotez who has developed low-cost vaccines for many neglected tropical diseases and COVID19 as well as worked to promote vaccine access globally and defend vaccine use in the United States. Dr. Hotez is Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine. He is also University Professor of Biology at Baylor University and Senior Fellow in Disease and Humanity at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy.

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.

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.

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.