Our guest today is Dr Satish Pillai.
HIV is the causative agent behind the AIDS epidemic. Despite over four decades of research in this field, why is there no cure for it?
Satish has spent decades uncovering this exact question. He is a leading researcher in HIV cure research and global molecular surveillance of blood borne infections at UCSF and a Senior Investigator at Vitalant Research Institute.
He was also an Associate Investigator at the Blood System Research Institute (BSRI), the second largest blood banking company in USA. BSRI has helped develop a number of seminal viral infectious disease screening test- Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, Zika, West Nile, and HIV.
Additionally, he is an avid musician with a deep family history in music.
You can find more about Satish's musical and scientific journey on his ⁠website⁠: supersatish.com/home
Expect to learn:
00:00 Introduction to Dr. Satish Pillai
01:35 Serendipity in life
05:55 How Satish's family influenced his journey into science and music
08:01 Astronomy to Virology: Time matters
14:34 Why it's hard to create a cure for HIV?
16:00 How does the immune system know what's me vs not me?
17:45 Autoimmune disorders
23:02 Does a Virus have it's own intelligence?
28:54 Demographics: Who is Protected?
33:26 Satish's up & down PhD journey
37:25 Citations: Currency for the academic community
40:20 Research does not incentivize negative results
43:20 Importance of Science Communication
46:00 Preventing HIV: Steps one can take
56:13 Covid: What was unique & problematic about it?
01:01:35 Division during Covid & future of public health
01:06:35 Is science losing credibility with the public?
Thank you for listening and waiting for this to release!!