Kay Klausing, "Practical Consequences of Viral Biology for the Orchid Hobbyist"

We welcome Mr. Kay Klausing this month, with an updated talk on "Practical Consequences of Viral Biology for the Orchid Hobbyist". It’s been many years since we last had Kay as a speaker and we look forward to hearing his current thoughts on virus control. He has tested his entire collection and will present the results and their implications, alongside other findings from the literature that may be useful to hobby growers.
Kay’s bio: I am a Molecular Biologist/Biochemistry (PhD in Molecular Genetics) originally from Germany. I moved to San Diego for my postdoctoral work at UCSD and continued to stay working for various biotech company including 15 years for Illumina.
As long as I can remember I had an interest in growing plants alongside keeping reptiles and amphibians. I have a large collection of orchids (>1000 plants), which I have been growing for 45 years, and also quite a few other types of plants (carnivorous plants, cycads, bromeliads, ferns, palms, succulents, pachypodiums etc.).
Indeed, one of the first things I bought after moving to the US (before I even owned car – in Southern California!) was an orchid at a local orchid show. I was on the board for San Diego County Orchid Society for many years including serving as president.
My interest in orchid viruses stems from the experimental work my master’s and PhD theses, which was done using a monkey virus (SV40) as model system to study eukaryotic DNA replication. So, I am also a Virologist and have been fascinated by the strategies these “DNA parasites” have evolved to enslave their hosts for the sole purpose of multiplying.

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