What is your deal, Angie?
I’m a virologist who studies how the interactions between a virus and its host determine infection and disease. I am mainly interested in zoonotic viruses capable of crossing species barriers to cause epidemics and pandemics, because they pose such a significant threat to global health. My primary objective as a scientist is preventing these viruses from killing people and animals. We can only do that if we truly understand how these pathogens do that and we can only understand that by studying them using evidence-based, data-driven approaches.
I’m also an American and so I have a new secondary objective, given the fascist shitshow currently taking over the US federal government: preventing authoritarians from helping these viruses kill millions more people and animals. The current administration is taking away vaccines and essential medicines, withdrawing foreign food and medical aid, implementing catastrophic public health and economic policies at home and abroad, ending most virology research (and many other critical biomedical research initiatives too), and gutting American capacity for scientific innovation and leadership. I will not quietly allow my profession, which is important and exists to make our lives healthier and longer, to be sacrificed so that fascists can destroy American democracy. So I’m going to speak up about it here.
Brief credentials: I have a BA from Smith College, slung T cells at an immunotherapy startup for a few years after I graduated, got my PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Columbia University in 2009 studying rhinovirus, did my postdoc at the University of Washington studying hepatitis C virus, and had faculty positions at UW in the Department of Microbiology, the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and (currently) the University of Saskatchewan studying highly pathogenic emerging viruses like Ebola, bird flu, coronaviruses, and assorted other infectious threats. I have expertise in experimental virology, systems biology and computational methods (AI/machine learning/predictive modeling), One Health (the idea that human, animal, and environmental health are inextricably linked), biosafety, biosecurity, and biodefense research, vaccine and countermeasure development, and public health policy. I’m involved in various editorial or advisory roles for npj Viruses, Cell Reports, and mSphere. I am the co-Editor-in-Chief of Vaccine. My lab is currently supported by funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the US National Science Foundation. Previously my research was supported by the NIH (NIAID and NIDA), the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA), and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). I also do a lot of writing, media commentary, advising, science communication, and public health advocacy work.
Why subscribe?
I feel strongly that people should have an understanding of the science that we are all at risk of losing. This newsletter is intended to put the unfolding horrors in the context of accurate scientific information, as well as illustrate exactly what we stand to lose. All content will be available for free to all subscribers, but paid subscriptions are available to readers who want to support emerging virus research.
How will paid subscriptions support emerging virus research?
Over the years, people have asked me how they can support scientific research. The reality of doing high impact research is that it costs money, which there’s about to be a lot less of across the board globally. Nobody is getting hit harder by the attacks on science and the economic consequences of American policies than our trainees and early career colleagues: the students, postdocs, staff, and faculty who are facing a funding situation that threatens to end careers before they really begin.
Even small amounts of funding can make a big difference for the scientists of the future. I am here today because I had opportunities to go to virology conferences and meet with collaborators, where I both learned about and shared cutting-edge research. I developed professional networks with leaders in my field and established and defined my own research program. I also had funding to carry out pilot projects, some of which led to big discoveries and became a fundamental component of my own independent research program. I want my team to have the same opportunities.
Therefore, 75% of paid subscriptions will go toward funding my lab’s work, prioritizing travel, research supplies, and salary support for trainees (students and postdocs). I’ll provide an annual update about the scientists who have been supported, as how subscriber support has advanced their virology research. The remaining 25% will keep the newsletter administratively afloat.
Cut through the latest bullshit about public health
Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox, so you’ll hear from me a few times per week about viruses, hosts, authoritarian grifter bullshit, or all of the above. I’ll try to be more engaging and witty than annoying and repetitive. Oh, also, I swear sometimes. It’s not the most professional behavior but I believe in calling things what they are and sometimes nothing besides “asshole” is accurate. If you want to read my dry and scientific, profanity-free writing, I’d be delighted if you checked out my publications!
