The Universe Within

What do Max Perutz, a space mission to the moon, and precision medicine have in common? Join me for a journey back in time to honor a Viennese son, a deep dive into why a space rocket is like the human body, and a time travel into the future of custom therapeutics. I will share with you why I came to Vienna, what we do in my research lab, and why it matters. You will be forced to confront numbers so large that they have to be compressed with mathematical notation, scales that are so vast that you may have an existential crisis, and complexity so enormous that you will be glad of your pint of ale.

Viruses are the most abundant biological entity on the plant, and they cause devastating diseases in humans. But we have protections: every cell in our body has an "innate" immune system that can fight back against viral infection. In this talk, I'll discuss how our cells use their innate immune system to resist viruses, how viruses fight back, and how studying this conflict between viruses and cells can reveal interesting new biology throughout the entire tree of life.