In last week’s episode, we explored the mysterious world of multiple sclerosis (MS) and the ongoing quest to determine what causes this autoimmune disease. While it’s likely that no one single factor leads to the development of MS, the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has long been suspected to play a role in this and many other autoimmune diseases and has also been shown to be involved in several cancers. But why? How is this virus implicated in so many diseases? How does it infect us? What does it do once it’s in our bodies? Dr. Micah Luftig, Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University, helps to answer these questions and many more about this surprising virus. Not only does Dr. Luftig share his expert knowledge in all things EBV in this interview, he also sheds some light on what a career in academia is like and drops some great advice on how to feel out whether a research career might be right for you. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts!

• To learn more:
  Crawford, Dorothy H., Alan Rickinson, and Ingólfur Johannessen. Cancer virus: the story of Epstein-Barr virus. Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Bjornevik, Kjetil, et al. “Longitudinal analysis reveals high prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus associated with multiple sclerosis.” Science (2022).
• Lanz, Tobias V., et al. “Clonally expanded B cells in multiple sclerosis bind EBV EBNA1 and GlialCAM.” Nature (2022): 1-7.
• Price, Alexander M., and Micah A. Luftig. “To be or not IIb: a multi-step process for Epstein-Barr virus latency establishment and consequences for B cell tumorigenesis.” PLoS pathogens 11.3 (2015): e1004656.
• Stanfield, Brent A., and Micah A. Luftig. “Recent advances in understanding Epstein-Barr virus.” F1000Research 6 (2017).

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