Miscellaneous
Vaughn Cooper, PhD is an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist, and Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has co-founded and is Director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine, founded and directs the Microbial Genomics Sequencing (MiGS) Center, and is the Chair of the Council for Microbial Sciences for the American Society of Microbiology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he's used his expertise to help track and control outbreaks in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Health and Louisiana State University. On this episode, we discuss some of the evolutionary biology concepts that apply to SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as EvolvingSTEM, an initiative that Vaughn is passionate about which engages high schools students with topics in evolution and heredity by conducting a weeklong experiment with bacteria. To learn more about Vaughn, MiGS, EvolvingSTEM, and The Cooper Lab, check out these links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/vscooper Cooper Lab site: http://micropopbio.org/ EvolvingSTEM site: https://evolvingstem.org/ MiGS site: https://www.migscenter.com/ YouTube (great SARS-CoV-2 videos!): https://www.youtube.com/user/vscooper For more Folds & Curves, check out: https://www.foldsandcurves.com/