This Week in Parasitism

Latest Episodes:

TWiP 68: Sex and the single trypanosome Mar 08, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello Dickson Despommier, and Sagi Shapira

Vincent, Dickson, and Sagi discuss evidence that the pathogen Trypanosoma brucei undergoes meiosis and sexual reproduction.

Links for this episode:

Meiosis and haploid gametes in T. brucei (Curr Biol)
Meiosis (Wikipedia)
Letters read on TWiP 68

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 67: They find each other delightful Feb 22, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson explain the genetic and molecular basis of drug resistance in Schistosoma mansonii.

Links for this episode:

Basis of resistance to oxamniquine (Science)
Oxamniquine (Wikipedia)
Letters read on TWiP 67

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 66: A nitrile warhead for Chagas disease Feb 08, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss reversible inhibitors of cruzipain as new drugs for treating Chagas disease.

Links for this episode:

Reversible cysteine protease inhibitors for Chagas (AAC)
New drug candidates for Chagas (ScienceDaily)
Pancake ice (YouTube)
Letters read on TWiP 66

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 65: The real world wide web Jan 13, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson consider the effects of climate change on parasitic diseases.

Links for this episode:

Climate change and infectious diseases (Science)
The more parasites the better? (Science)
Host and parasite control disease risk (PNAS)
Parasites dominate food web links (PNAS)
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Image credit: PLoS One
Letters read on TWiP 65

Dickson's Pick

Neglected by Shelly Xie (YouTube)

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 64: Three new ways to prevent malaria Dec 19, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review three novel approaches to antimalarial chemotherapy.

Links for this episode:

Targeting PI(4)K to eliminate malaria (Nature)
Antimicrobial peptides to target sporogonic stages of malaria (PLoS Path)
Small molecule blocks malaria invasion of mosquito (PLoS Path)
Photo credit
Letters read on TWiP 64

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 63: Plasmodium of the apes Nov 12, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss evidence that the malaria parasite originated in gorillas.

Links for this episode:

Great apes and zoonoses (Science)
Source of human malaria (PNAS)
Origin of human malaria parasite in gorillas (Nature)
Ape Plasmodium in Cameroon not infecting humans (PNAS)
No Plasmodium in greater spot-nosed monkey (Int J Parasit)
TWiP 13: Toxoplasmosis
Image credit
Letters read on TWiP 62

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 62: More bats out of hell Nov 01, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the high diversity of malaria parasites in West African bats, and a vaccine against hookworm.

Links for this episode:

High diversity of West African bat malaria parasites (PNAS)
Human hookworm vaccine (Vaccine)
Gongylonema infection in human (Am J Trop Med Hyg)
Letters read on TWiP 62

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 61: Some creep crept into the crypt and crapped Oct 15, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review examples of paleoparasitology, the detection of parasites in archaeological material.

Links for this episode:

T. rex had Trichomonas (PLoS One)
King Richard III had worms (CNN)
Discovery of toilets in Japan (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
Paleoparasitology in the Old World (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
Soils from Seoul (J Arachael Sci)
Ancient parasite infections in Old World (pdf)
Ascaris in coprolites (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
Human intestinal parasites in the past (Mem Inst Os Cruz)
Letters read on TWiP 61

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 60: Urine a game of cat and mouse Sep 25, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss how infection with Toxoplasma gondii causes mice to lose their aversion to cat urine, even after the parasites have been cleared.

Links for this episode:

T. gondii in mice causes loss of aversion to cat urine (PLoS One)
Cyclosporiasis update (CDC)
Letters read on TWiP 60

Listener Pick

Blaine - The Worm Within

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Subscribe (free)

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

TWiP 59: Apicomplexity Sep 09, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson update the multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasis, discuss the avian malaria parasite P. lophurae, and review protection against malaria by intravenous immunization with a nonreplicating sporozoite vaccine.

Links for this episode: