Adolfo: The Virus Hunter

Adolfo is on a mission with millions of lives at stake.

Episode Transcript

DR. GARCIA-SASTRE (00:02):
This one came from Colombia.
This one came from China.
This one came from Burgos, myhometown in Spain.
It relaxes me a lot to go fromtime to time.
Go with my butterfly catcher,pick up a couple of beetles, a
couple of butterflies,especially those that I don't
know.
"Oh! What beautiful colors, whatbeautiful shapes!" And then I

(00:25):
mount them, classify them, andput them into boxes.
My kids, for example, hate mebecause I kill butterflies.
How can I kill butterflies, theyare so beautiful and so nice?
But I still find it quiterelaxing.

PRODUCER (00:40):
So what's easier to catch

DR. GARCIA-SASTRE (00:43):
Oh, a virus is more difficult to catch!
These ones you see them and youpick them up.
A virus you don't see, they arevery sneaky.
My name is Adolfo Garcia-Sastre.
I'm a professor of microbiologyhere at the Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai.
And I'm also Director of theGlobal Health and Emerging

(01:05):
Pathogens Institute.
Flu every year kills an averageof 500,000 people worldwide.
Here in the United States, anaverage of 35,000 people.
So we have been working now ontrying to generate an improved
influenza virus vaccine thatwill prevent influenza virus
infection, not only forinfluenza viruses that are

(01:26):
circulating this year, but alsofor the influenza viruses that
will be circulating 10 yearsfrom now, including potential
new pandemic viruses.
When I was a young person, Ididn't have at this time
influenza in my mind, ormedicine in my mind or making an
impact on public health.
Basically what I like isunderstanding how life works.

(01:49):
I could have been happy workingwith a very strange ant in the
Amazon that has a very strangeshape and try to find out why
they have this shape.
But I actually like that I wentinto flu because I'm fulfilling
my own desire to discover.
And the fulfilling of thesedesires can be translated into

(02:09):
something that is going to be ofbenefit to everybody.
This is a mad virus.
So it's like a serial killer,meaning that influenza in
general doesn't want to killpeople.
The influenza virus, the onlything it wants is to make copies
of itself and propagate.

(02:32):
But from time to time you getthe mad virus which doesn't care
so much about propagating andbecomes more of an efficient
killer.
Basically what we want is tounderstand the mind of a
criminal serial killer virus inorder to be able to stop them.

PRODUCER (02:52):
Would it be correct to call you the Sherlock Holmes of
this effort?

DR. GARCIA-SASTRE (02:56):
I love Sherlock Holmes.
He was smarter than me! When I'mvery much immersed in my work, I
start to become obsessed with aparticular idea and it comes to

(03:17):
my mind like a flash.
These things happen to me whenI'm running or when I'm in the
shower or when I'm watching amovie or whatever, and then I
become completely obsessed.
You're thinking all the time inyour mind,"Did I miss
something?" And,"Is thissomething that is—a connection
that I think could be important?
Something important?
And how to figure out whetherthis connection is important?"

(03:38):
One of the best thrills was whenwe, for the first time, were
able to recover influenza virusfrom plasmid DNA.
This colleague of mine, hecalled me up at two o'clock in
the morning to my home and said,"Adolfo, I have it.""Is it
working?""Yes, it is working."And that was a very thrilling

(04:00):
thing.
And this technology now is usedeverywhere to study influenza
viruses.
So it was a great discovery, andthis compensates for all the
work that is usually verytedious that we do when we are
working in the lab.
When I will know that we havedone it, that we have a

(04:23):
universal vaccine—when we do thestudies, the final studies, and
it will take a long time stillfor that.
Hopefully in my lifetime, butperhaps not, perhaps not.
That's something that we can'tknow for sure.
If it's a failure for whateverreason, I'm sure that we can
learn from the failure and findout how to make it better.

(04:48):
What do I do next after theuniversal flu vaccine?
[laughs] I'm sure there will beanother thing that will take my
attention.
What these things will be, Idon't know.
But I'm sure part o f it willalso be the thrill of discovery
and finding new things.