Volunteer: Nilda Vanesa
Vanesa is a Mexican Virologist doing a postdoc in the sunny south of France. She is working on the Trojan Horse model for Zika virus and HIV-1. She is particularly interested in the role of monocytes on viral invasion and dissemination. Years ago, she discovered her fascination on working with dangerous bugs. She then moved to The Netherlands to join Jolanda Smit’s group, where she studied the entry mechanism of dengue virus into macrophages under antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) conditions. Afterwards, she joined her current team in France to pursue her interests in viral pathogenesis. Vanesa loves Mexican food, reading, hiking, and eating pain d’épices.
FEMS Microbes is excited to present its latest thematic issue, focusing on bacterial-viral co-infections. Host and microbial factors are critically important for influencing the severity and outcome of infection. Interactions between microbes is an understudied yet important aspect to this process.