This Week in Virology

Latest Episodes:

TWiV 201: Rabid about viruses Sep 30, 2012

Show notes

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy answer reader email about rabies, xenotransplantation, poliovirus, Ph.D. programs, mosquitoes, and much more.

Links for this episode:

Mattias Schnell
Novel rhabdovirus from Africa (Plos Path)
Milwaukee protocol (Wikipedia)
How lethal is rabies virus? (virology blog)
Issues with polio eradication (J Gen Virol)
Vaccine-derived polioviruses (J Inf Dis)
Global pandemics with Hidde Ploegh (Vimeo)
Polio vs Bin Laden (Alan Dove)
Letters read on TWiV 201

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Wallace Online Rich - World Rabies DayKathy - Yo-yos in spaceDickson - The Art in ScienceVincent - The Podcasters Studio

Listener Pick of the Week

Wink - DuckDuckGoJosh - Introduction to Solid State Chemistry

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 200: Threading the NEIDL Sep 23, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Elke Mühlberger, Paul Duprex, and Ron Corley

Vincent, Alan, and Rich celebrate the 200th episode of TWiV by visiting the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories at Boston University Medical Center, where they meet with Elke, Paul, and Ron to talk about building and working in a BSL4 facility.

Links for this episode:

The NEIDL
NEIDL goes public (BU Today)
Biosafety levels (Wikipedia)
Select agents (Wikipedia)
NEIDL stalled (Boston Business J)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 200

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Dance your Ph.D.Rich - Angel of Death by Gareth WilliamsVincent - Why herpesvirus is good for you (Virgin lab)

Listener Pick of the Week

Luis - VBORNET maps

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV Special: A paradigm for pathogen de-discovery Sep 18, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and W. Ian Lipkin

Vincent and Ian review a multicenter blinded analysis which finds no association between chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and XMRV or polytropic murine leukemia virus.

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes, at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

Multicenter blinded analysis of CFS and XMRV/pMLV (mBio)
Press release on multicenter study (pdf)
Press conference webcast
TWiV on Facebook

TWiV 199: Of mice, ticks, and pigs Sep 16, 2012

Show notes

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy discuss recent outbreaks of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in Yosemite National Park and novel swine-origin influenza in the US midwest, and isolation of the Heartland virus from two patients in Missouri with severe febrile illness.

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes, at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

Hantavirus outbreak in Yosemite (ProMedMail)
Hantavirus in Yosemite (CDC)
CDC page on hantavirus
Summary of hantavirus outbreak (Avian Flu Diary)
Swine-origin influenza outbreak in midwest (MMWR)
Lyn Finelli interview on swine-origin H3N2 (Microbeworld)
Transmission of vH3N2 in ferrets (PNAS)
New phlebovirus from Missouri (NEJM)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 199

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Insane in the Chromatophores (Vimeo)Rich - Golden Goose AwardsKathy - Euler's Disk (YouTube)Vincent - Ignorance: How it Drives Science by Stuart Firestein

Listener Pick of the Week

Adam - Leigh Van Valen

TWiV 198: Pox has got a squeeze-box, seals are gonna sneeze all night Sep 02, 2012

Show notes

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy review fatal avian influenza virus in harbor seals, and poxvirus deployment of genomic accordions to counter antiviral defenses.

Links for this episode:

Avian influenza virus in harbor seals (mBio)
Poxvirus genomic accordions (mBio)
Red Queen hypothesis (Wikipedia)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 198

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Getting Better: 200 Years of Medicine Rich - Khan AcademyKathy - Vi Hart Vincent - Tweet Keeper

Listener Pick of the Week

Diane - The Way We Fall by Megan CreweStephen - Amateur Micrography

TWiV 197: Cloning HeLa cells with Professor Philip I Marcus Aug 26, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Philip I. Marcus

Vincent travels to the University of Connecticut to meet up with Professor Philip I. Marcus to discuss his development of the single cell cloning technique in the early 1950s.

Links for this episode:

Cloning with X-irradiated feeder cells (PNAS)
Philip I. Marcus in the lab (jpg)
Cloning with capillary tubes (jpg)
Cloning platform (jpg)
VRR holding 1950s glass plate of clones (jpg)
HeLa clones (jpg)
Cloning cylinder (jpg)
TWiV on Facebook
Coming soon: video of this episode

TWiV 196: An arena for snakes Aug 19, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Dickson Despommier, Kathy Spindler, Mark Stenglein, and Joseph DeRisi

The TWiVites meet with Mark Stenglein and Joseph DeRisi to discuss their discovery of a novel arenavirus in snakes with inclusion body disease.

Links for this episode:

Highly divergent arenaviruses in snakes (mBio)
Taryn's sick snake (NPR)
Assemblathon
Faculty position in virology, Columbia U.
Petridish.org
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 196

Weekly Science Picks

Mark - The Slow Mo Guys (Fly eats fly)Dickson - I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor by Shel SilversteinAlan - MMWR: First 30 years online Rich - Giant python in Everglades and California Academy of SciencesKathy - Darwin finch genome sequence Vincent - Microbiology at Mt. Sinai

Listener Pick of the Week

Renato - Security Now podcastRobin - The WeatherChad - Rare protozoan from sludge (ScienceDaily)

TWiV 195: They did it in the hot tub Aug 12, 2012

Show notes

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

The complete TWiV team meets with Ken Stedman to discuss the discovery in Boiling Spring Lake of a DNA virus with the capsid of an RNA virus.

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

Novel virus from an extreme environment (Biol Direct, virology blog)
Lassen Volcanic National Park
Tombusviridae, Circoviridae (ViralZone)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 195

Weekly Science Picks

Ken - The Edge of Life trailer and Facebook pageDickson - The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint by Edward TufteAlan - SEMs of insects and spiders via Steve Gschmeissner Rich - Curiosity Has Landed (Wiki mission summary)Vincent - Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

Lance - The Vaccine Confidence Project and Immune response video (YouTube)Anat - Beautiful Science

TWiV 194: Five postdocs in North America Aug 06, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Matthew Daugherty, Jondavid deJong, Helen Lazear, Stefan Oliver, and Cara Pager.

Vincent returns to Madison, Wisconsin and meets with postdocs to discuss their science and their careers.

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

TWiV 189: Five postdocs in Glasgow
ASM at the USA Science and Engineering Festival
ASV 2012 at Madison, WI
Photographs of ASV 2012
TWiV on Facebook

TWiV 193: Live at ASV in Madison Jul 29, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Carolyn Coyne, and Sara Sawyer

Vincent, Rich, Carolyn, and Sara recorded TWiV at the 31st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology in Madison, where they discussed genetic conflict between viral and human genes, and how the placenta protects the fetus against viral infection.

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode: