This Week in Microbiology

Latest Episodes:

186: Crypto-metamorphosis Oct 05, 2018

Show notes

The TWiM team describe the involvement of a microbiome in snail metamorphosis, and using Listeria to kill tumors.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode

Infectious diseases after Florence (Med Inf Dis)
Cryptic niche switching in gastropod (Proc Roy Soc B)
Metamorphosis then no eating (NY Times)
Listeria promotes tumor rejection (PNAS)
Image credit
LADD pathway (jpg)
LADD (Aduro Biotech)
Crawling cells and comet tails (YouTube)
Letters read on TWiM 168

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

185: There's no moa Moa Sep 21, 2018

Show notes

The TWiM team considers the increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols, and how the study of DNA in ancient dung reveals the diet and parasite burden of extinct New Zealand birds.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Episode Links:

Hand sanitizer alert (Emerg Inf Dis)
Bacteria becoming hand sanitizer tolerant (NPR)
Increasing tolerance of Enterococcus to handwash alcohols (Sci Transl Med)
Coprolites and the Moa (PNAS)
After Hurricane Florence, Significant Worry Over Infectious Diseases

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

184: CRISPR-Cas immune systems Sep 07, 2018

Show notes

Sam Sternberg discusses his work on exploring and exploiting CRISPR-Cas immune systems, beginning as a graduate student with Jennifer Doudna, at a biotech start-up, and in his laboratory at Columbia University.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Sam Sternberg

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode

Sternberg Laboratory at Columbia
Mechanism of substrate selection by Cas9 (RNA)
DNA interrogation by Cas9 (Nature)
Conformational control of DNA target cleavage by Cas9 (Nature)
A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg
What if we could rewrite the human genome? (YouTube)
Sam Sternberg

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

183: Two symbioses Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

The TWiMpeeps discuss two symbioses: a parasitoid bacterium of a heterotrophic protist, and fungal parasites in cicadas.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode:

Parasitoid bacterium of protist (bioRxiv)
Fungal symbiont recruitment in cicadas (PNAS)
Fly by virus (TWiEVO 33)
The Atlantic "How to Tame a Zombie Fungus" by Ed Yong
Image credit
Letters read on TWiM 183

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

182: A micro story with macro implications Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

The TWiM hosts reveal how to test antimicrobial susceptibility in less than 30 minutes, and a carbonate-sensitive phytotransferrin in diatoms that controls iron uptake.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode:

Legionnaire's Disease with Michele Swanson
Antibiotic susceptibility in less than 30 min (PNAS)
S. saprophyticus growing in microfluidic chip (movie, PNAS)
Mother machine (Jun lab)
E. coli growth in mother machine (YouTube)
Diatom phytotransferrin (Nature)
CRISPR tool kit (Nat Commun)
A Crack in Creation by Doudna and Sternberg
CRISPR/Cas9 for undergrads (BMBE)
John Oliver on gene editing (YouTube)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiM 182

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

181: Dr. Warhol's Periodic Table of Microbes Jul 26, 2018

Show notes

Vincent speaks with John Warhol about state microbes, the Periodic Table of the Microbes, and why microbiology is cooler than astrophysics, but they have better TV shows.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: John Warhol

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

180: Microbecentricity with Mark O. Martin Jul 13, 2018

Show notes

Vincent speaks with Mark O. Martin about microbial centricity, teaching undergraduates microbiology, lux art, painting with glowing bacteria, tardigrades and much more at ASM Microbe 2018.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Mark O. Martin

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Get the entire ASM Podcast Network via our Microbeworld app.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

179: Viable but not culturable Jun 29, 2018

Show notes

The TwiModulators discuss aerosolization of bacteria and viruses in an ocean-atmosphere mesocosm, and how the common practice of decontaminating produce with chlorine produces viable but non-culturable pathogens.

Become a patron of TWiM.

Links for this episode:

Taxon-specific aerosolization of bacteria and viruses (Nat Commun)
Chlorine produces viable but non-culturable bacteria (mBio)
Chlorine washing fails bacteria test (Guardian)
Foodborne illness in US: Major pathogens (CDC)
Chlorine dilution calculator (Public Health Toronto)

Multistate foodborne outbreak investigations (CDC)

178: Corals are sexy with Christina Kellogg Jun 15, 2018

Show notes

The TWiM team travels to ASM Microbe 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia to speak with Christina Kellogg about her career and her research on coral microbial ecology.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Elio Schaechter and Michele Swanson

Guest: Christina Kellogg

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Become a Patron of TWiM!

Links for this episode:

Christina Kellogg on twitter
Coral microbial ecology
Coral reef ecosystem studies
Connectivity of vulnerable reefs

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

177: Microbial sibling conflict Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

The TWiM team discuss bacteriophage evolution in a dairy plant, and killing of less fit cells among social microbes.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Elio Schaechter.

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone, Android, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

A decade of phage evolution (Appl Env Micr)
Animation of phage infection (Vimeo)
Double agar assay for phage (Dairy Science)
Sibling conflict among social bacteria (mBio)

Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected