This Week in Virology

Latest Episodes:

TWiV 289: Vinny and the capsids Jun 15, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vinny and the capsids answer listener questions about the definition of life, state vaccination laws, the basic science funding problem, viral ecology, inactivation of viruses by pressure, and much more.

Links for this episode

Varun's research poll
Letters read on TWiV 289

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - The Science of Good Cooking Vincent - The Shooter Report (pdf)Kathy - Daily overviewDickson - Girl rising

Listener Pick of the Week

Johnye - Ri channelRicardo - Open spin microscope (Nikon gallery, plans)Chris - The microbiome game

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

TWiV 288: ebircsnart esreveR Jun 08, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

The Twivsters discuss how reverse transcriptase encoded in the human genome might produce DNA copies of RNA viruses in infected cells.

Links for this episode

Should variola virus be destroyed? (poll at virology blog)
DNA complementary to non-retroviral RNA viruses (Sci Rep)
Integration of arenavirus DNA into cell genome (virology blog)
Infectious respiratory syncytial DNA (PNAS)
Tysabri and PML
JC and PML (J Imm Res)
Igor Koralnik laboratory
Jean-Luc Doumont (Kathy's pick, TWiV 268)
Bullet points kill (TED)
Letters read on TWiV 288

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Luvalamps Alan - ExperimentVincent - American Society for Virology on FacebookKathy - LEGO female scientistsDickson - The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman

Listener Pick of the Week

Basel - A Treatise on the small-pox and measles by Abu-Bakr Al-Razi

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

TWiV 287: A potentially pandemic podcast Jun 01, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Kathy Spindler, and Matt Frieman

Matt updates the TWiV team on MERS-coronavirus, and joins in a discussion of whether we should further regulate research on potentially pandemic pathogens.

Links for this episode

MERS stories at CIDRAP
MERS at CDC
MERS in the US (CDC)
MERS-CoV map
MERS-CoV infection after camel exposure (EID)
MERS-CoV in dromedaries from Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia (EID)
MERS-CoV antivirals (one, two, three, four)
Experiments with novel potential pathogens (PLoS Med)
Unacceptable risks (Bull Atom Sci)
TWiX Bingo (thanks, Mark!)
Letters read on TWiV 287

Weekly Science Picks

Matt - Forgive me, scientistsAlan - Do not linkVincent - bioRxivKathy - Snail photographsDickson - Solar roadways

Listener Pick of the Week

Daniel - Benz Biome concept car

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

TWiV 286: Boston TWiV party May 26, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Guests: Julie Pfeiffer and Paul Duprex

Vincent and Alan meet up with Julie and Paul at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, to talk about their work on the pathogenesis of poliovirus and measles virus.

Links for this episode

Threading the NEIDL (YouTube)
Transmission of measles virus from macaques (J Gen Virol)
Tropism of green measles virus in macaques (J Virol)
Intestinal microbiota promote enteric virus replication (Science)
Bacterial LPS enhances poliovirus stability (Cell Host Micr)
Video of this episode - view below or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent - ASM Live 2014Alan - I will not follow the herdPaul - Invisible ThreatJulie - The importance of stupidity in biological research

Listener Pick of the Week

Neil - WEHI movies and VIZBI

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

TWiV 285: Hokies go viral May 17, 2014

Show notes

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: XJ Meng and Sarah McDonald

Vincent meets up with XJ and Sarah at Virginia Tech to talk about their work on viruses of swine and rotaviruses.

Links for this episode

Hepatitis E virus (Int J Env Res Pub Health)
Porcine and human anelloviruses (J Virol)
Origin of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in US (mBio)
Distinguishing rotaviruses (J Virol)
Molecular epidemiology of rotaviruses (J Virol)
Core domains in rotavirus polymerase encapsidation (J Gen Virol)

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

TWiV 284: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes May 11, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

The TWiV team discusses how skin scarification promotes a nonspecific immune response, and whether remaining stocks of smallpox virus should be destroyed.

Links for this episode

Skin scarification protects against vaccinia virus disease (J Virol)
Smallpox research agenda (PLoS Path)
WHO report on variola research (pdf)
Review of smallpox research program for WHO (pdf)
How I record my lectures (virology blog)
Letters read on TWiV 284

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - EPCOTVincent - Medical BiotechnologyKathy - Alan Alda interview and Flame Challenge winnerDickson - NASA live from space

Listener Pick of the Week

Nicola - 50 cent microscope (be a beta tester)Jon - Camtasia Studio

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

TWiV 283: No Reston for the weary May 04, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guest: Jens H. Kuhn

Jens speaks with the TWiV team about filoviruses, including the recent Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea.

Links for this episode

Review of Zanamavir clinical trials (Brit Med J)
Ebola virus disease in Guinea (NEJM)
Filovirus nomenclature (virology blog)
Ebola virus disease, West Africa (ProMedMail)
How lethal are ebolaviruses? (virology blog)
Letters read on TWiV 283

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - AMNH digital special collectionsVincent - Viral entry into host cells (Stefan Pöhlmann PhD, Graham Simmons PhD, eds)Kathy - Papilloma song lyrics (pdf)Jens - The Logic of Chance by Eugene V. Koonin

Listener Pick of the Week

Joe - Poor showing of 2012 influenza vaccine (Nature)Phil - Emerging disease or emerging diagnosis? (YouTube)

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

TWiV 282: Tamiflu and tenure too Apr 27, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

The TWiV team reviews a meta-analysis of clinical trial reports on using Tamiflu for influenza, and suggestions on how to rescue US biomedical research from its systemic flaws.

Links for this episode

World Malaria Day
Review of oseltamivir clinical trials (Brit Med J)
Effectiveness of Tamiflu questioned (NHS choices)
Tamiflu campaign (Brit Med J)
Rescuing US biomedical research (PNAS)
Letters read on TWiV 282

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Northampton AirportVincent - Particle FeverKathy - Turn iPhone into microscopeRich - My favorite science gifs

Listener Pick of the Week

Nathan - The Ascent of Man (YouTube)

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

TWiV 281: The Salk legacy with Peter L. Salk Apr 21, 2014

Show notes

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Peter L. Salk

Vincent meets up with Peter L. Salk to talk about development of the first poliovaccine, eradication of poliomyelitis, and Jonas Salk's 100th birth anniversary.

Links for this episode

Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation
The Cutter Incident by Paul Offit
Splendid Solution by Jeffrey Kluger (review)
Coming soon: Video of this episode

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

TWiV 280: Post viral Apr 13, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

The TWiVmeisters answer listener email about the NEIDL, negative results, patenting MERS-coronavirus, human papillomavirus transmission, canine distemper virus, and much, much more.

Links for this episode