Neeraja Sankaran — A Tale of Two Viruses

Perspectives on Science

In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Neeraja Sankaran, author of A Tale of Two Viruses: Parallels in the Research Trajectories of Tumor and Bacterial Viruses. In her book, Neeraja Sankaran compares the research trajectories of two groups of viruses: cancer-causing viruses and bacteriophages, which infect and live at the expense of bacteria. She discusses how their respective discoveries—in 1911 by Peyton Rous and 1916 by Felix d'Herelle—changed our understanding of what viruses are, how they operate, and what they are capable of doing in animal and human bodies. Dr. Sankaran discusses the ways in which the phenomenal development of biomedical imaging and identification technologies in the middle decades of the 20th century allowed for our current understanding of what viruses are and how they are able to infect host cells. She ends her discussion with a poignant and timely call to recognize that stigmas of all kinds—whether against certain groups of people, or against viruses themselves as potential agents of disease—have often hindered the development of science and medicine, and that the worst effects of global epidemics (e.g., the AIDS epidemic, as well as COVID-19) may have been mitigated had the stigma surrounding those infected, and the viruses themselves, not existed. Neeraja Sankaran is Senior Research Scholar at the Descartes Centre of Utrecht University. She is a historian of science and medicine interested in the recent and near-contemporary history of the biomedical sciences, and has worked on the history of virus research, molecular biology, immunology, and origins of life research. To cite this podcast, please use footnote: Neeraja Sankaran, interview, Perspectives, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, August 30, 2021, www.chstm.org/video/122.