Microbial Mondays
Microbes are constantly changing the world around us, in all sorts of seen & unseen ways. From outbreaks of the bubonic plague to outbreaks of SARS, from the yeast used in ancient beers to the yeast in your sourdough starter: microbes shape human experiences, history, & society. Join us in exploring this big microbial world! Microbial Mondays' hosts are scientists who share a passion for science communication. Alex Cloherty holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Amsterdam, & Merel Sijbranda is completing her PhD in Immunology at the Karolinska Institute. Theme music by Jacky Deng.
Episodes
Picture a field of wheat blowing in the wind. It looks serene, and the wheat looks healthy - especially because the wheat farmer has sprayed a triazole fungicide to stop mold from damaging the crop.
Spraying antifungals is pretty much standard. It happens every season, all over the world.
But at the same time, we want to avoid a future where overuse of antifungal agents in one area of life, like farming, could mean that the dr...
Genetics and food exposure in early life can impact if you develop allergies or not. But those aren't the only factors at play!
This month we are continuing on the topic of allergies, and this time we will explore how our microbiome and exposure to microbes can impact our risk of developing allergies.
We talk about how a diverse microbiome can reduce your risk of allergies and why, and what happens when your microbiome is less well-...
Picture this: it’s a clear, bright morning in spring. You’re walking through the park with a friend, and the warm breeze floats delightfully over your skin, bringing with it the fragrant scent of local flowers in bloom, and the dewy smell of fresh grass. You smile, feeling a wave of contentment.
“Don’t you love this time of year?” you ask your friend.
He sneezes. “I hate it! It’s allergy sea...
In the last years, especially when the first HPV vaccine came out in 2006, we have heard a lot of commotion around this HPV vaccine and HPV’s link to cancer.
In today’s episode, we share the story of how scientists discovered the link between HPV and cancer, and how the HPV vaccine works.
In the last episode of Microbial Mondays, we covered what happens to our immune systems during space flight… but what about the microbes we bring with us?
This month, join us in exploring how flying into space can impact microbial life from earth!
Main publication discussed:
Wilson et al., Space flight alters bacterial gene expression and virulence and reveals a role for global regulator Hfq, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104...
Humans have been heading into space to explore beyond earth for decades already. But when we head beyond our own atmosphere, what happens to our immune system?
In this episode, we dive into astro-immunology: a sub-field of immunology that focuses on how our immune system responds to spaceflight.
Let's dive in!
Key reference:
Winer D.A. et al. Astroimmunology: the effects of spaceflight and its associated stressors on the ...
The summer of 2016 was warm in Siberia. So warm that the permafrost melted more than usual… releasing a dangerous microbe out onto the surface.
In this episode, we dive into this historical example of an old microbe emerging from the permafrost, talk about how microbes can survive in the deep cold… and idee should be worried about what else might emerge.
Have you ever wondered how our immune system finds the balance in attacking invading viruses and bacteria that try to enter our bodies, but not attacking our own body cells?
The groundbreaking discoveries concerning this topic, called 'peripheral immune tolerance', by Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2025! It tells us a lot about how the immune system functio...
Welcome to our Halloween special!
Once your heart stops, what happens to all of the microbes that call your body home?
Tonight, we explore the silent cities left behind when we die. Scientists call this the necrobiome: the community of microbes that thrive on and around decomposing bodies.
In this episode we explore how microbes take over our bodies after death, the impact that decomposing bodies can have on the environment around t...
Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?
In this episode of Microbial Mondays, we unpack the findings from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)’s recent report. We revisit key theories, from a natural spillover event involving bats or intermediate hosts, to the lab leak hypothesis—and discuss why neither can be dismissed outright.
Join us as we explore what’s known, what’s...
Hippocrates said, “let food be they medicine.” Was he right?
In this episode, Alex and Merel dive into this question from an immunological point of view. Join is for a balanced take on the links between diet, health, and the immune system, in which we explore the evidence on if different diets can impact the functioning of our immune system — and if so, how.
A hint? Our gut microbes may play a role 🦠
This episode...
Have you ever wondered how the immune system differs in men versus women?
For instance, did you know that:
- Men get more viral, bacterial, parasitic and fungal infections, for example HIV and tuberculosis
- Women are more prone to develop autoimmune diseases. For example, for an autoimmune disease called lupus, 9 out of 10 patients are women
- Women have stronger antibody responses to vaccination, and antibody responses to seasonal inf...
How can microbes help us to “survive the next century without a wrenching global catastrophe’?
This episode is inspired by a book called The Wizard & The Prophet, by Charles C Mann. It’s all about two different ways that scientists tend to view the challenge that humanity must face in order to survive — and maybe even thrive — on earth in the future.
In this episode, we take a microbial view. First...
Microbes are living things, like us - they live on and in and around us. As well as learning more and more how we co-live with them, scientists have now also figured out how to use microbes as tools.
In this episode, Alex and Merel explain one way in which microbes - in particular yeast, a type of fungus - can be used as a tool for medicine. We break down a scientific study in which scientists experimented with using yeast as ...
Have you ever come across a stick insect? They look exactly like tree branches, blending in perfectly with their surroundings as a strategy for survival. By hiding in plain sight, they avoid detection by predators.
Just like stick insects survive by blending in with their surroundings, viruses and bacteria can do the same to avoid our immune systems and survive in our bodies. But when microbes mimic us, they may inadvertently mess ...
Have you ever wondered why you need some vaccinations more often than others?
Listen in to Merel and Alex to find out how vaccines train the different specialized cells of your immune system to fight viruses... And how viruses are constantly fighting back.
Welcome to the Microbial Mondays podcast! In this first episode, your hosts Merel Sijbranda and Alex Cloherty introduce themselves, let you know what you can expect from this podcast, and then dive into the science by explaining the focuses of our own PhD projects.
Listen in to find out about the work we did (Alex) or are doing (Merel) to better understand how your immune cells - which all have different jobs - band together to def...
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