This Week in Virology

Latest Episodes:

TWiV 182: One flu over the ferrets' nest May 06, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Michael J. Imperiale

Michael joins the TWiV crew to discuss the recently published influenza H5N1 transmission paper and how it was viewed by the NSABB.

Links for this episode:

About the NSABB
The Kawaoka paper (Nature)
Mutant flu paper published (Ed Yong)
Osterholm letter (pdf)
US policy for dual research of concern (pdf)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 182

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - 18th century shipping mappedRich - Brave New World by Aldous HuxleyVincent - Air France 447 (Telegraph)

Listener Pick of the Week

Josh - Vaccines course by Dr. Paul Offit

TWiV 181: ORFan poxviruses and nIRFing prions Apr 29, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Rich, and Kathy discuss Cotia virus, a new poxvirus, Orf virus infections associated with handling goats and lamb, and the innate immune response to prions.

Links for this episode:

Cotia virus (J Virol)
Human Orf virus exposures (MMWR)
IRF3 protects agains prion infection (J Virol)
A mad cow in America (virology blog)
Human orf (pdf)
Space shuttle flies outside my window (YouTube)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 181

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - Astronomy Picture of the Day (especially this and this)Rich - Tom Lehrer Element Song (YouTube)Vincent - Albert B. Sabin Archives

Listener Pick of the Week

Mark - Netter's Infectious Diseases by Elaine C. Jong and Dennis L. StevensRichard - Germs, Genes & Civilization by David P. Clark

TWiV 180: Throwing IFIT at flu and holding a miR to HCV Apr 22, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review association of an interferon-induced protein with severe influenza, and stabilization of HCV RNA by a microRNA.

Links for this episode:

IFITM3 and severe influenza (Nature)
Genetics of flu susceptibiligy (EurekAlert!)
Stabilization of HCV RNA by Ago2-miR-122 (PNAS)
Clinical trial of anti-mIR-122
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 180

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Micro Empire (Vimeo)Rich - Census of marine lifeVincent - Pinterest

Listener Pick of the Week

Mark - The Secret Life of Plankton (YouTube)

TWiV 179: Was ist ein virus? Apr 15, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Gertrud Radu

Gertrud joins the TWiVoners to review how dengue virus infection of mosquitoes alters blood feeding behavior, and gene therapy as practiced by parasitoid wasps.

Links for this episode:

Renato Dulbecco, 1914-2012 (virology blog)
William Jarrett, 83 (thanks, Lynn Enquist)
Dengue virus infection of mosquitoes alters their behavior (PLoS Path)
Does dengue make mosquitoes thirstier for blood? (NY Times)
Polydnaviruses of braconid wasps (Science)
Making nice with viruses (Science)
Viral and wasp genes involved in symbiotic replication (J Virol)
Amazing parasitic wasp images
The Far Side cartoon on mosquitoes (gif)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 179

Weekly Science Picks

Gertrud - Bat on a plane! (MMWR)Alan - The Rings of Earth (YouTube)Rich - Giant Magellan telescopeVincent - Hepatitis C new drug pipeline

Listener Pick of the Week

Ricardo - Evolution: The Natural History of Animal SkeletonsPeter - Self-assembly line (YouTube)

TWiV 178: T-Sharp on how tequila mosquito Apr 08, 2012

Show notes

The TWiValians meet up with Tyler Sharp for a discussion on the Epidemic Intelligence Service and controlling dengue.

Links for this episode:

2010 dengue epidemic in Puerto Rico
Marshall Islands dengue outbreak (one and two)
Photo of Tyler by Loren Rodgers
TWiV shout-out by NPR and CIDRAP
NSABB reverses decision on H5N1 publication
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 178

Weekly Science Picks

Tyler - Co-infection with dengue and Leptospira (Emerging Inf Dis)Alan - The Winged Scourge (YouTube)Rich - Deepsea ChallengeVincent - Why did a US advisory board reverse its stance? (Ed Yong)

Listener Pick of the Week

Sasha - Microfluidic FutureAdam - The ConversationJim - ENIAC Programmers Project

TWiV 177: Live in Dublin Apr 01, 2012

Show notes

A discussion of avian influenza H5N1 transmission experiments in ferrets and novel bunyaviruses at the 2012 Spring Conference of the Society for General Microbiology in Dublin, Ireland.

Links for this episode:

Restricted data on H5N1 transmission (Science)
Novel bunyavirus in China (NEJM and TWiV 127)
Ten things about Schmallenberg virus (Microbiology Bytes)
NSABB reverses decision on H5N1 papers (virology blog)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 177

Weekly Science Picks

Connor - Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize 2012Vincent - Thoughts on academic scientists giving media interviews

TWiV 176: Ave, magi virorum! Mar 24, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Alan, and Rich answer listener email about MS, CFS, EBV, B cells, virii, influenza B, scientific papers, and more.

Links for this episode:

More than one way to skin a virus (comments)
Aerobie aeropress
Papers software
Vaccinia movies (one and two)
Lloyd Kozloff dies
BSL4 facilities
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 176

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Alan Alda's Flame Challenge (NY Times article, Science editorial)Alan - ChronoZoomVincent - Academic Publishing is Broken by Michael P. Taylor

Listener Pick of the Week

Joel - Fighting a dengue outbreak by Tyler M. Sharp (parts one and two)Sven-Urban - Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

TWiV 175: More than one way to skin a virus Mar 18, 2012

Show notes

Vincent, Alan, and Matt discuss herpes simplex encephalitis in children with innate immune deficiency, and the local response to microneedle-based influenza skin immunization.

Links for this episode:

Herpes encephalitis in children with TRIF deficiency (J Clin Inv)
Toll-like receptor and cytosolic pattern recognition receptors
Skin responses to influenza microneedle vaccine (mBio)
Microneedles
Fluzone intradermal influenza vaccine
QDot nanocrystal technology
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 175

Weekly Science Picks

Matt - Phage and the Origins of Molecular BiologyAlan - Digital Imagine InstituteVincent - iPad apps Goodreader and Notability

Listener Pick of the Week

Jane -Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth by Trevor Norton

TWiV 174: Dog runs and mooing miRs Mar 11, 2012

Show notes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich consider whether pet dogs might transmit human noroviruses, and an RNA virus microRNA that might be involved in oncogenesis.

Links for this episode:

Do pet dogs transmit human norovirus? (J Clin Virol)
RNA virus miRNA that mimics oncomiR (PNAS)
MicroRNA expression by an RNA virus (PNAS)
Lab safety stickers jpg (thanks, Jon!)
Amateur virologists (Zimmer, NY Times)
Genome at home (Wired)
Barbergators sing national anthem (YouTube)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 174

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - NOAA Buoy DataAlan - Autism's False Prophets by Paul OffitVincent - Media Mining

Listener Pick of the Week

Mark - How the West fueled the AIDS epidemicHenry - RegenesisRick - Biopunk: DIY scientists hack the software of life by Marcus Wohlsen

TWiV 173: Going to bat for flu research Mar 04, 2012

Show notes

The TWiVites discuss seroevidence for human infection with avian influenza H5N1, and the discovery of a new influenza virus in Guatemalan bats.

Links for this episode:

Seroevidence for human H5N1 infection (Science)
Mammalian-transmissible H5N1 (mBio)
New information about ferret-adapted H5N1 (NY Times, virology blog)
New influenza virus from fruit bats (PNAS)
Elsevier abandons open access assault (The Scientist)
Le virus le plus dangereux?
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 173

Weekly Science Picks

Ashlee – AskScience (Reddit)Michael - HealthMap (iPhone and Android app)Rich – H5N1 research discussion at ASMBiodefenseAlan – El Yunque National ForestVincent – The Journal of Global Health

Listener Pick of the Week

Judi – NSF visualization challenge

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 atmicrobeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

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