Audio Interviews
The Immunopaedia team interviews influential immunologists as often as possible. These leading researchers speak to us on a variety of subjects and we record them for posterity.
Güenter Fröeschl Interview
Dr Güenter Fröeschl is a medical doctor and specialist in infectious diseases and tropical medicine. He is a senior lecturer and researcher at the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, where he is heading the Teaching & Training Unit.
Dr Guenter Froeschl is also a board member of the CIHLMU Center for International Health and of the humanitarian organization Médecins du Monde, Germany. He has been employed by different humanitarian organizations for missions mostly on the African continent, dealing with health system strengthening, infectious disease management programs and working with refugee populations in different settings.
Listen now- Güenter Fröeschl Interview
Olivera J. Finn Interview
Dr. Finn obtained her PhD in 1980 and finished her postdoc in 1982, both at Stanford University, California, USA. She is a member of several associations including American Association of Immunologists, American Association for Cancer Research and Women in Cancer Research.
Dr. Finn’s research group is interested in understanding specific mechanisms involved in human anti-tumour immunity and cancer immuno-surveillance, as well as T-cell and antibody repertoires in cancer patients and healthy individuals at risk of cancer.
Dr. Finn is also the chair of the Gender Equality and Career Development Committee of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS), and in this interview, she explains the achievements of this committee.
Listen now- Olivera J. Finn Interview
Clara Gordezky Interview
Dr Clara Gorodezky is currently the Head of the Department of Immunology and Immunogenetics of the Instituto de Diagnóstico y Referencia Epidemiológicos of the General Direction of Epidemiology at The Secretary of Health in Mexico, since 1983. Moreover, she is the president of the Foundation Comparte Vida, a non-profit association that struggles against leukemia and hematological or genetic diseases.
Dr Gorodezky completed her undergraduate studies in Pharmaco-Biological and Chemistry Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She then pursued her Msc and PhD degrees in Immunology. Her first role was as an associate scientist at the Laboratory of Immunology of the Secretary of Health in Mexico City, where she pioneered the area of histocompatibility in Mexico, together with her mentor, Prof. Mario Salazar Mallén.
Dr Gorodezky spoke to Immunopaedia about bone marrow transplantation, the Mexican bone marrow registry and the Foundation Comparte Vida. She also shared her thoughts on the publish or perish culture, the future of research in Latin America and being a woman in Science.
Listen now- Clara Gordezky Interview
Susan K Pierce Interview
Dr. Susan K. Pierce is the chief of the Laboratory of Immunogenetics at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID-NIH) since 1999. Prior to joining NIAID, she was a member of the faculty at Northwestern University, where she held the Cook Chair in the Biological Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976.
She is also chief of the Lymphocyte Activation Section (LAS), whose main goal is to gain an understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the initiation of BCR signalling, the intracellular trafficking of the BCR, and the generation, maintenance, and activation of B-cell memory. Of her particular interest, is the regulation of these processes by B cell-activating and inhibitory co-receptors and during immune responses to infection.
Dr Pierce spoke to Immunopaedia about B cell signaling and B cell memory.
Listen now – Susan K Pierce Interview
Ido Amit Interview
Professor Ido Amit joined the Weizmann Institute in 2011, where he holds the Alan and Laraine Fischer Career Development Chair. Using concepts from functional genomics, molecular biology, computer science, physics, and biotechnology, Prof. Amit’s lab studies how humans encode complex regulatory functions in their genomes and how they affect blood development and immune homeostasis in health and disease.
Prof Amit spoke to Immunopaedia about Regulatory Functions.
Listen now – Ido Amit Interview
Reto Guler Interview
Dr Reto Guler serves as a Senior Research Officer at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) Cape Town and as a Lecturer in the Division of Immunology, University of Cape Town (UCT). Dr Guler’s research focuses on host-pathogen interactions and drug targets genes in macrophages particularly in relation to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Leishmania major.
Dr Guler spoke to Immunopaedia about MHC and antigen presentation.
Listen now – Reto Guler Interview
Eleanor Fish Interview
Dr. Eleanor Fish is the Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI) and Professor of Immunology at the University of Toronto. She has had a distinguished career characterized by first-rate science focused on the role of interferons in viral defense and clinical infections. Dr Fish performed innovative translational studies during the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003.
Dr Fish held a clinical trial in Guinea to investigate the therapeutic effectiveness of interferon treatment for Ebola virus disease. Dr Fish is a member of a WHO Working Group to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness of different vaccine and antiviral interventions against Ebola virus.
Dr Fish spoke to Immunopaedia about the immune response to Ebola.
Listen now – Eleanor Fish Interview
Richard Koup Interview
Dr Richard (Rick) Koup attended the University of Connecticut, USA where he earned a B.S. in biophysics and a M.S. in biochemistry in 1979. Two years later he received his M.D from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA. Dr Koup has served in a clinical fellowship in infectious diseases and a research fellowship in viral immunology.
Dr Koup now serves as the Senior Investigator at the NIH Immunology Laboratory (IML) where his group investigates novel aspects of the cellular immune response to pathogens to assist in the development of a vaccine against HIV and other human viral pathogens.
Dr Koup spoke to Immunopaedia about and tfh cells, B cells and Germinal centres.
Listen now – Richard Koup Interview
Heather Jaspan Interview
Dr Heather Jaspan is an Associate Member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at the University of Cape Town and an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Departments of Pediatrics and Global Health, Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Dr Jaspan studied HIV in South Africa and in 2008 trained in a Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Seattle Children’s Hospital. She spoke to Immunopaedia about infant immunity and how it differs from adult immunity in humans.
Listen now – Heather Jaspan Interview
Jeffery Dorfman Interview
Dr Jeffery Dorfman is the Group Leader at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Immunology at the University of Cape Town.
Dr Dorfman studied B cell memory to P. falciparum malaria at the Wellcome Trust Research Unit in Kilifi, Kenya. He spoke to Immunopaedia about the how the immune system responds to a malaria infection.
Listen now – Jeffery Dorfman Interview
Henry Mwandumba Interview
Dr Henry Mwandumba is based in Blantyre, Malawi as a Consultant Physician at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme. He is also a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow and the new President of Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS).
Dr Mwandumba spoke to Immunopaedia about TB Immunity in the lung.
Listen Now – Henry Mwandumba Interview
Wendy Burgers Interview
Dr Wendy Burgers is an Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Virology and a full member of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town.
Dr Burgers’ spoke to Immunopaedia about HIV immune evasion mechanisms and the development of a HIV vaccine.
Listen Now – Wendy Burgers Interview
Guido Ferrari Interview
Dr Guido Ferrari is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Research Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University.
Dr Ferrari’s research revolves around class I-mediated cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), gene expression in T cellular subsets upon infection with HIV-1. Dr Ferrari spoke to the Immunopaedia team about ADCC and antibody functions.
Listen Now – Guido Ferrari Interview
Georg Hollander Interview
Professor Georg Hollander is an experimental immunologist jointly based at the University of Oxford, England and University of Basel, Switzerland. His research focuses on understanding the development and function of the microenviroment of the thymus and how that can be translated in primary immunodeficiences. Georg spoke to the Immunopaedia team about the importance of tolerance in regulating immune responses.
Listen now – Georg Hollander Interview
Timothy Ray Brown Interview
Timothy Ray Brown, the “Berlin Patient”, is the only person to be cured of HIV. Timothy was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and later developed a form of leukemia. Due to a life-changing bone marrow transplant led by Dr Gero Hütter, Timothy received stem cells from a donor with a CCR5Δ32 mutation. This mutation inhibits the binding of HIV to CCR5, a receptor that is important for HIV entry into cells.
Timothy took time out to speak with the Immunopaedia team about his journey from being infected with HIV, how he was eventually cured and how his life has changed since then.
Listen Now – Timothy Ray Brown Interview