Viruses: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Most of us have had COVID over the last few years, but what was it like being a virologist and working on SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic? I'll explain what we had to do to get the lab set up to work with the virus in Cardiff, the UK-wide research efforts we were involved with, as well as some of the non-scientific work we took on relating to advising governments and organisations. I'll also cover the scientific legacy from the huge amounts of research that were carried out during COVID, and how this has opened up exciting new scientific avenues to explore in the future.

Viruses are often perceived as nasty little agents that makes us tired, sniffly and feverish just when we don’t want them too. In this talk, we’ll hear about the exciting ways in which viruses may be re-trained for our benefit by preventing them from causing illness, and instead targeting them towards cancer cells. We’ll hear how adenoviruses can be ‘tamed’ from mild infectious agents into exciting novel therapies that can destroy tumours without damaging our healthy body cells.

Come and hear about this exciting collaboration between Cardiff researchers, Tenovus Cancer Care and Exitus Escape Rooms which led to the creation of an innovative virus-themed escape room - an electricity failure in the lab cleanroom requires you to solve puzzles and gain access to change the backup battery in just 60 minutes before retrained cancer-fighting viruses start to deteriorate. There’ll even be the opportunity to get hands on and try out some of the activities yourself!

Human Cytomegalovirus is a type of Herpes virus (probably not the one you’re thinking of!) that has infected over half of our UK population. It can cause serious health problems for immunocompromised people and is a leading cause of congenital abnormalities, effecting 1-2.5% of all live births. So, if this virus is so widespread, how come you’ve likely never heard of it? In this talk we’ll learn about all things HCMV… from how it spreads, to how it can trick our immune system and stay with us for life!