Infectious Disease: What Can Evolution Do For Us? Forum

Microbial resistance & vaccine failure are global research & health care challenges underpinned by accelerated evolution in bacteria and viruses in response to their environments. A forthcoming TalkScience will look at the continuing impact of Darwin’s evolutionary theory in the arms race that is human vs. pathogen. What do you think about the following:

Virosphere Viruses are the most abundant & genetically diverse lifeforms known. So why don’t we know more their evolution? Can post-genomic informatics help us? Or should we be taking an ecological approach to help us predict new threats?

Resistance is Futile Is the fight against superbugs doomed to failure? Should antibiotics be considered a ‘non-renewable’ resource? Can a coordinated strategy of research into microbial resistance, new antibiotics, controlled use & other public health measures win the war?

Back to Basics HIV vaccine strategies continue to fail, so what’s the way forward? Does research need to focus more on understanding the immune responses to vaccine vectors? Or do we need a deeper understanding of the retroviral recognition & the adaptive immune response?

rEvolution What are the evolutionary selection pressures on pathogens? Can we exploit them? Should we be doing more population study research of the pathogens themselves as well as their hosts?

These topics & more will be part of a discussion at the third TalkScience event at the British Library on 10 Dec introduced by Dr Bill Hanage, an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist. This event has now happened. A podcast of the introductory talk is available.

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