Look Who it Was Random video

Viruses: Infectious Medicine | Bertram Jacobs | TEDxASU

4,598 views · Published 23 May 2016 · 11:01 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2016 · Nonprofits & Activism

Watch on YouTube

Tiny robots that can be injected into people to combat diseases such as cancer and HIV sound like something out of a movie. But that’s exactly what scientists are doing, however instead of using tiny robots, scientists are using viruses. Dr. Bertram Jacobs, a virologist, sheds the notion that all viruses are “bad” and provides evidence showing how viruses have the potential to be our greatest ally in medicine.  

Dr. Jacobs is a Professor of Virology in the School of Life Sciences and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. The main interest of Dr. Jacobs’ lab is poxvirus:host interactions. His lab particularly focuses on the evasion of the innate immune interferon defenses by poxviruses. Disabling of the immune evasion genes in vaccinia virus has allowed the generation of highly attenuated strains of vaccinia virus as improved vaccine vectors for diseases such as HIV, as well as viruses to potentially treat cancer. Dr. Jacobs was awarded the Governor’s Innovator of the Year Award in Academia for his lab’s work in vaccine development.



This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

More from this channel