This Week in Virology

Latest Episodes:

TWiV 279: The missing LNC Apr 06, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy reveal how a retrovirus in the human genome keeps embryonic stem cells in a pluripotent state, from where they can differentiate into all cells of the body.

Links for this episode

Retrovirus needed for stem cell identity (Nat Struc Mol Biol)
HERV-H is a marker for pluripotency (Retrovirology)
Letters read on TWiV 279

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - HeathkitVincent - How to think about autism risk and Autism prevalenceKathy - Distortions

Listener Pick of the Week

Joseph - The real process of scienceMarion - ZometoolKevin - Audioimmunity and Emmunity

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

TWiV 278: Flushing HIV down the zinc Mar 30, 2014

Show notes

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy discuss disruption of the ccr5 gene in lymphocytes of patients infected with HIV-1.

Links for this episode

Gene editing of ccr5 in AIDS patients (NEJM)
HIV gets the zinc finger (TWiV 144)
Genome engineering with zinc finger nucleases (Genetics)
Photo credit: Watty's Wall Stuff
Mice lie, monkeys exaggerate t-shirt design (thanks, Christophe)
Letters read on TWiV 278

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Digital scale model of solar systemDickson - Font of knowledgeVincent - Measles outbreaks trends, and NYC measles (one, two)Kathy - Winner, funding basic science to revolutionize medicine

Listener Pick of the Week

Stephen & Jon - Watty's Wall StuffJohyne - Macro views of snowflakesRicardo & Stephen - Vaccine exemptionsBill - Books by John JanovyMarshall - Animation of DNA replicationSteve - Debunking influenza vaccine myths

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TWiV 277: My podcast Vinny Mar 23, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Glenn Rall, Ann Skalka, and Vincent Racaniello

Glenn and Ann meet up with Vincent to talk about his career in science and science communication.

Video of this episode - view at YouTube

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

TWiV 276: Ramblers go viral Mar 16, 2014

Show notes

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Susan Baker and Thomas Gallagher

Vincent meets up with Susan Baker and Tom Gallagher at Loyola University to talk about their work on coronaviruses.

Links for this episode

Papain-like viral proteases (Virus Res)
MERS-CoV papain-like protease (Virology)
Mouse model for MERS-CoV (PNAS)
Receptor and MERS-CoV infection (J Virol)
Letters read on TWiV 276
Video of this episode - view at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent - First demonstration of Macintosh, 1984

Listener Pick of the Week

Lance - The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

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

TWiV 275: Virocentricity with Eugene Koonin Mar 09, 2014

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Eugene Koonin

Vincent and Rich meet up with Eugene Koonin to talk about the central role of viruses in the evolution of all life.

Links for this episode

Virocentric view of evolution (Curr Op Virol)
Proposed order Megavirales (Arch Virol)
Pithovirus (PNAS)
Selfish virus-like elements (Virol J)
Pandoraviruses are derived Phycodnaviruses (Biol Direct)
Video of this episode - view below at YouTube

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

TWiV 274: Data dump Mar 02, 2014

Show notes

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

The TWiV team discusses recent cases of polio-like paralysis in California, and the virome of 14th century paleofeces.

Links for this episode

MERS-CoV in dromedary camels (EID)
Virologist Al Kapikian dies
Polio-like illness in CA (ProMedMail)
Acute flaccid paralysis
AFP in India (EID)
Enterovirus 68 (MMWR)
EV 68 CNS infection (Arch Path Lab Med)
Polio-free does not mean paralysis-free (The Hindu)
Viruses in 14th century coprolite (AEM)
Coprolite and paleofeces
Ancient poxvirus (EID)
Giant coprolite (WordADay)
Letters read on TWiV 274

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - The science of science communication Rich - Command and Control by Eric SchlosserDickson - Top 10 plant virusesVincent - Is the Nobel Prize good for science?Kathy - Time to rethink graduate and postdoc education (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

Jon - Lessons from a Kansas graveyardMike - Cross a fashion designer with a microbiologist

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

TWiV special: MERS-coronavirus in dromedary camels Feb 25, 2014

Show notes

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: W. Ian Lipkin and Thomas Briese

Vincent meets up with Ian and Thomas to discuss their finding that MERS-coronavirus has been circulating in dromedary camels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since at least 1992.

Links for this episode

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

TWiV 273: Lambda is not just a phage Feb 23, 2014

Show notes

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

The TWiVome dissect the finding that interferon lambda alleles predict the outcome of hepatitis C virus infection.

Links for this episode

Interferon lambda and HCV outcome (Cell Host Micr)
Laser capture microdissection (Wikipedia)
HCV dependent fluorescent reporter (Nat Biotech)
Bats and viruses (PLoS Path)
White nose syndrome (PLoS Path)
Mouse phenome database
Letters read on TWiV 273

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Think like a scientist (one, two); Science controversiesDickson - Visualization challenge 2013Vincent - Orphan Black Kathy - Alberta worm invasion project

Listener Pick of the Week

Timothy - How do vaccines cause autism?Anne - Luke Jerram's glass virusesJim - NLM Communications Engineering BranchSteve - Synapse by synapse Jacob - Tiny technology creates a buzz

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

TWiV 272: Give peas a chance Feb 16, 2014

Show notes

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

The TWiV team describes aphid control by using a viral capsid protein to deliver a spider toxin to plants, and a human endogenous retrovirus that enhances expression of a neuronal gene.

Links for this episode