 I'm going to start out by assuming you have heard of coronavirus. Maybe you've also heard of influenza virus. If not, I don't really know where you've been hiding for the past year, but nonetheless today I hope to make you learn something new about these highly dangerous viruses. Now coming to both influenza and corona, the infected are lungs. Here inside every single infected cell, a battle breaks out. This is a battle between the virus and the host cell, and it's a battle for control over energy production, resources, and replication machinery. Now on one side, the virus needs to control all three to generate new viral particles for spreading within the lungs and between humans, and on the other side, the cell needs to stay healthy while fighting the virus and communicating to its neighbouring cells. This communication is key because this primes and trains the uninfected cells for potential upcoming battle. In my PC project, I studied the very battle for energy production. I do so by isolating healthy lung tissue from human donors and infecting it with virus in the lab. Here we've found that when we infected these cells, the way they generate energy changed dramatically. Usually, a healthy cell would take up sugar and break that down to CO2, water, and energy. Contrary to this, when infected with a virus, the cell takes up sugar, but instead of breaking it down to CO2 and water, it generates a compound called lactic acid. Intrigued by this, we set out to figure out what the meaning was, what did that mean for the battle. We found that increased amounts of lactic acid was highly beneficial for the virus, and it gave it a big advantage in the battle that's raging. We found that not only does virus manipulate the way we generate energy, or it does so much more than that, it limits our cells' ability to communicate. What does that mean you might be thinking? Well, it means, if you remember back, that our infected cells cannot communicate to uninfected cells, they cannot prepare for an upcoming battle. It means that the virus is in control, and the virus is winning the battle. Now we've found that this manipulation is driven by the virus, and it's doing so to gain that advantage. It's my hope, and it's my belief, that studying battles such as this one might one day lead us to identifying areas where we can aid our body in this battle, maybe turn in the tides of battle, and maybe, just maybe, one day defeat dangerous viruses such as influenza and corona once and for all. Thank you so much for listening.