This Week in Virology

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Life Sciences
**This Week in Virology**

TWiV is a weekly netcast about viruses – the kind that make you sick. Brought to you by four university professors and a science writer.

Latest Episodes:

TWiV 250: Wookie viruses Sep 15, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Robert Garcea

Vincent and Robert recorded this episode at the 53rd ICAAC in Denver, where they talked about polyomaviruses.

Links for this episode:

A cornucopia of human polyomaviruses (Nat Rev Micro)
Polyoma assembly factories in nucleus (PLoS Path)
Overprinting gene in Merkel cell polyomavirus (PNAS)
Human JCV as population marker (PLoS One)
Letters read on TWiV 250
Video of this episode (YouTube)

Weekly Science Picks

Robert - The Panic Virus by Seth MnookinVincent - Aliens chestburster behind the scenes

Listener Pick of the Week

Adam - Virology Fact of the DayChristophe - dr Karl

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

TWiV 249: An inordinate fondness for viruses Sep 09, 2013

Show notes

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan and Rich discuss an estimate of the number of different mammalian viruses on Earth.

Links for this episode:

Estimate of unknown viral diversity in mammals (mBio)
How many viruses on Earth? (virology blog)
Letters read on TWiV 249

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Extreme macrophotography Dickson - Baloney detection kitRich - Mutant silkworms spin colored silk (original article)Vincent - FlightRadar24

Listener Pick of the Week

Jenn - Ebola by William CloseJenn - Eleven Blue Men by Berton RouecheNissin -Profiles in Science

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

TWiV 248: TWiP infects TWiV Sep 01, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Dickson, and Rich reveal how experiments with a malaria parasite lead to the introduction of a mammalian retrovirus into birds.

Links for this episode:

Scientists cast doubt on MERS origin (NY Times)
Animal reservoirs of SARS coronavirus (Virus Res)
Jo Handelsman in the White House
Origins of REV (PLoS Biology)
Inadvertent transfer (virology blog)
Mongoose, pheasant, pox, retrovirus (PLoS Biol)
Evolutionary history of REVs
Amazing story (Ed Yong)
My wife's P. lophurae paper (Mol Bio Parasitol)
William Trager's SNV paper (Exp Biol Med)
EBV detection tests (Clin Diag Lab Immunol)
Letters read on TWiV 248

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson - Google SkyRich - Vanishing of the Bees (see also Bee Apocalypse Now)Vincent - Not Exactly Rocket Science

Listener Pick of the Week

Saira - Reproducibility Initiative

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

TWiV 247: Today's weather in virology Aug 26, 2013

Show notes

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

Special guest: Ian Lipkin

Ian joins Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy to describe how his laboratory is searching for the origin of MERS-coronavirus.

Links for this episode:

MERS-CoV in bats (EID)
Mystery virus (NY Times)
Part of MERS-CoV found in bat (virology blog()
T. perforatus
Frag virus (Virol J)
Even Nature got it wrong! (Nature)
Bats: Important reservoirs of emerging viruses (Clin Micro Rev)
Letters read on TWiV 247

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - Rainbows explained (Frazz)Alan - Challenge.gov Vincent - 23andmeRich - Spot the station

Listener Pick of the Week

Frank - Pacifier cleaning practices and risk of allergy development (Pediatrics)

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

TWiV 246: Pandora, pandemics, and privacy Aug 18, 2013

Show notes

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy discuss the huge Pandoravirus, virologists planning H7N9 gain of function experiments, and limited access to the HeLa cell genome sequence.

Links for this episode:

Pandoraviruses (Science)
Unlike anything seen before (virology blog)
H7N9 gain of function experiments planned (Nature, Science)
Virologists plan H7N9 gain of function experiments (virology blog)
Creating a deadly virus? Not!! (USA Today)
HeLa cell genome sequence (Nature)
NIH Director explains HeLa agreement (Nature)
HeLa deal (Nature)
Biospecimen policy (Nature)
Sequencing HeLa the right way (turbidplaque)
Skloot on HeLa deal (The Scientist)
HeLa deal (NY Times, USA Today)
Picture on Condit's wall (EID)
Letters read on TWiV 246
Video of this episode - view below or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - GeoGuesserAlan - From one, many (YouTube)Vincent - Dave Bhella: The Wildy Award Talk (Microbeworld video)Rich - 1981 primitive internet report (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

CN - How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker

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

TWiV 245: Writing Principles of Virology Aug 11, 2013

Show notes

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: S. Jane Flint, Lynn Enquist, Glenn Rall, and Ann Skalka

The authors of the popular textbook Principles of Virology discuss how the book was conceived and written.

Links for this episode:

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

TWiV 244: Back in the CVVR Aug 05, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Guests: Dan Barouch and Jeff Teigler

This episode of TWiV was recorded before an audience at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where Vincent and Alan spoke with Dan and Jeff about AIDS vaccines.

Links for this episode:

Human study of adenovirus 26 HIV-1 envelope vaccine (J Inf Dis)
Seroepidemiology of adenovirus serotypes (Vaccine)
SIV infection associated with expansion of gut virome (Cell, TWiV #204)
Global approach to HIV-1 vaccine development (Immunol Rev)
Innate cytokine responses to adenoviruses (J Virol)
microRNAs as mediators of viral evasion (Nat Immunol)
Letters read on TWiV 244

Weekly Science Picks

Jeff - Science in the News; How to succeed in science (part one and part two)Alan - Nanostructure flowersVincent - Scientific culture

Listener Pick of the Week

Basel - The sequester blues

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

TWiV 243: Live from ASV at Penn State Jul 28, 2013

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guests: Rebecca Dutch and Christiane Wobus

On this episode of TWiV, which was recorded before a large enthusiastic audience at the annual meeting of the American Society for Virology, Vincent, Rich, and Kathy speak with Rebecca and Christiane about their work on metapneumoviruses and noroviruses.

Links for this episode:

TWiV 143 with Stephanie Karst
American Society for Virology
Mouse model for human norovirus (mBio)
Paramyxovirus fusion (Viruses)
Photo credit: Matt Evans

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - Shuffling cards Vincent - Dave Bhella - Electron cryomicroscopyRich - Seven-year postdoc

Listener Pick of the Week

Judi - Reading for science literacy

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

TWiV 242: I want my MMTV Jul 20, 2013

Show notes

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

The complete TWiV team talks about how two different viruses shape the evolution of an essential housekeeping protein.

Links for this episode:

Dual virus-host arms race (PLoS Biology)
Dual virus-receptor duel (see comments - virology blog)
Ferritin and transferrin (Protein Data Bank)
Money for nothing (YouTube)
Letters read on TWiV 242

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson - Mantid imagesKathy - No email? (phd comics)Alan - The turbid plaque Vincent - AAM Faq: West Nile VirusRich - Science is awesome

Listener Pick of the Week

Luis - Public Health Image LibraryStephen - Hopkins closes graduate science-writing program

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

TWiV 241: The ferret looks ill Jul 14, 2013

Show notes

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich and Kathy review how human placental trophoblasts confer viral resistance via exosome-mediated delivery of microRNAs, and isolation of the first human influenza virus in 1933.

Links for this episode: