How much do we know about the origins of SARS-CoV-2?

On November 11, 2020, we hosted three members of Penn State’s Center for Disease Dynamics, all of whom all of them are deeply involved in ongoing international efforts to piece together a bigger picture of how and why new viruses like SARVS-CoV-2 emerge and spill over from other species to our own.

Related Links:

• “How We Know The Coronavirus Wasn’t Made In A Lab” (Science Insider video)
• Researchers identify evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2
• Boni Lab
• RISK Lab (Sagan Friant’s) 
• Peter Hudson’s Google Scholar page
• Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics

Guests: 

• Maciej Boni is an Associate Professor of Biology at Penn State. He analyzes the epidemiology and evolution of both human and avian influenza, and evaluates strategies to treat and prevent diseases, particularly in southern Vietnam. 
• Sagan Friant is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Penn State. Her works focuses on the evolutionary anthropology of human health, disease ecology, nutrition, socio-ecological systems, and bushmeat hunting, through field research in Nigeria. 
•  Peter Hudson is Willaman Professor of Biology at Penn State, and former director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. Much of Hudson’s work has implications for the control of wildlife diseases and emerging zoonotic disease across the globe.