Ep. 17a - Life, Cells and Retroviruses ft. Owen Dunkley

<p>As humans change the way we interact with animals and the environment, we are faced with increasingly common spillover events of infectious disease from animal to human. These events have led to human outbreaks of Tuberculosis, Influenza, Ebola, COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, among others. As there is no way of knowing what the next big outbreak will be, new platforms are needed to quickly develop customizable drugs against infection. Our guest this week believes he might know the kind of therapy we need.</p> <p>That guest is none other than the immensely knowledgeable <strong>Owen Dunkley</strong>, a broadly interested, driven and rational second-year Master's student in Experimental Medicine at McGill University.&nbsp;</p> <p>This is <em>Part 1 </em>of my two-part discussion with Owen, so check out <strong>Ep. 17b</strong> after this for a bonus discussion on Cancer and Crispr!&nbsp;</p> <p>This first episode (17a) can really be split into two parts, where in the first half we set things up with some key concepts in biology, which are relevant to the second half on Owen's research specifically. So we discuss what it's like working in a wetlab, a host of experimental techniques like growing human cancer <strong>cells </strong>and working will cell cultures in a dish as opposed to living animals, cancer <strong>cell </strong>proliferation, Henrietta Lacks' HELA <strong>cells</strong>, advancements in <strong>cell </strong>biology, the three domains of <strong>life</strong>, the differences between cancer, viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms, the greatest merger and acquisition in the history of multi<strong>cell</strong>ular <strong>life</strong>, mitochondrial transfers, the mechanisms of viral replication, the distinction between DNA, RNA and protein, the central dogma of molecular biology, RNA interference, the immune system, the evolution, mutation, mechanism and devastation of HIV/AIDS, <strong>retrovirus</strong>, shock and kill versus block and lock strategies for HIV treatment, the power of microRNAs to