Enslaved Viruses: Bacteriophages, Infectious Disease and International Health, 1920–2006

Posted 22 July 2020 

Enslaved Viruses, funded by a Wellcome Trust University Award (Dr Claas Kirchhelle) studies the global history of infectious disease control and surveillance. Drawing on approaches from history and the biomedical sciences, it analyses the roots, spread, and blindspots of the global network of laboratories, culture collections, and research centres tasked with monitoring pathogens and cataloging the global microbiome. It also studies how the composition of resulting microbial collections reflects international power imbalances and how human interventions like mass antibiotic use have impacted our microbiome since around 1900.