This Week in Virology

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TWiV 579: Reno viral Dec 22, 2019

Show notes

Vincent speaks with virologists at the University of Nevada at Reno about their careers and their work on herpesviruses, arboviruses, and the development of diagnostics for infectious diseases.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Dave AuCoin, Cyprian Rossetto, Claudia Rückert, and Subhash Verma

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PAN's labyrinth (Viruses)
KSHV SOX protein DNAse activity (J Virol)
Vertical flow immunoassay for pathogen detection (Talanta)
Small RNA responses of mosquitoes (Insect Biochem Mol Biol)
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 578: Prometheus project Dec 15, 2019

Show notes

Vincent speaks with members of Prometheus, a team of academic and industrial scientists assembled to develop antibody-based therapeutics against infections caused by tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and rodent-borne hantaviruses, for which no approved vaccines or specific drugs are available.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Kartik Chandran, Zachary Bornholdt, Steven Bradfute, John Dye, Matthias Forsell, Jason McLellan, Laura Walker, and Cecelia Vial.

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NIH U19 grant mechanism
$22 million Prometheus grant
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 577: Virologie structurale with Félix Rey Dec 08, 2019

Show notes

Vincent speaks with Félix Rey about his career and his work on solving structures of a variety of viruses and the insights learned about viral membrane fusion and antibody-mediated neutralization.

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Unité de Virologie Structurale
Tick-borne encephalitis glycoprotein structure (Nature)
HCV RNA polymerase structure (PNAS)
Flavivirus structural heterogeneity (Curr Op Viral)
Antibody responses to flaviviruses (EMBO Rep)
Covalently linked dengue envelope dimers (Nat Comm)
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 576: Big data in virology and public health Dec 01, 2019

Show notes

From the 22nd meeting of the European Society for Clinical Virology in Copenhagen, Vincent speaks with Thea, Heli, Kim, Caroline and Irma about big data and its increasing use in virology diagnostics, epidemiology, and public health.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Thea Kølsen Fischer, Kim Benschop, Caroline Brown, Heli Harvala, and Irma Salimovic-Besic

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22nd ESCV meeting
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 575: Endless giant virus forms most beautiful Nov 24, 2019

Show notes

From the Fourth Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Germany, Vincent, Rich, and Nels speak with Assaf, Stephen, and Alexandra about their careers and their work on giant viruses that infect ocean hosts: Emiliana huxleyi, Aureococcus anophagefferans, and a choanoflagellate.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Nels Elde

Guests: Assaf Vardi, Stephen Wilhelm, and Alexandra Worden

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4th Ringberg Symposium on Giant Virus Biology
In-plaque mass spectrometry imaging (Nature Micro)
Infection by brown tide virus, AaV (Front Micro)
Choano virus with a rhodopsin photosystem (PNAS)
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 574: How economics shapes science Nov 17, 2019

Show notes

From Georgia State, Vincent speaks with economics professor Paula Stephan about the ways science is supported in the US, how universities offload risks, the absence of risk-taking, and much more.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Paula Stephan

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How Economics Shapes Science
Coalition for Next Generation Life Science
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 573: Inventing viruses Nov 10, 2019

Show notes

William Summers joins the TWiV team to discuss some virology history, including the ever-changing concept of 'virus' and the contribution of phage research to the study of animal viruses.

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

Guest: William Summers

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Links for this episode

Bill's ASV 2019 talk (PPT download)
Inventing viruses (Ann Rev Virol)
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Restoration of Western Flyer Rich - Purification of phage T7 RNA polymerase Dickson - The Galaxy is Not Flat Bill - Efficacy of tetravalent dengue vaccine Vincent - Blowout by Rachel Maddow

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 572: Your EV-D68th nervous breakdown Nov 03, 2019

Show notes

Amy joins the TWiV team to review evidence that enterovirus D68 is an etiologic agent of childhood paralysis, and her finding that the ability of the virus to infect cells of the nervous system is not a recently acquired property.

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

Guest: Amy Rosenfeld

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Links for this episode

EV-D68 antibodies in humans before 2014 outbreak (Emerg Inf Dis)
Enterovirus antibodies in CSF of AFM patients (mBio)
Serology implicates enteroviruses in AFM (Nat Med)
EV-D68 neurotropism is not new (mBio)
Letters read on TWiV 572
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks

Amy - Enterovirus biology and pathogenesis and Acute Flaccid Myelitis Association Rich - Tesla Dickson - Nikon Small World 2019 Photo Competition Kathy - Term limits in academic leadership #1 and #2 Vincent - Coywolf: New hybrid carnivore

Listener Picks

Anonymous - Spill the Beans vaccinated shirts

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

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TWiV 571: Piwi koalas Oct 27, 2019

Show notes

The League of Extraordinary Virologists celebrate the eradication of wild poliovirus type 3, and consider the effectiveness of an influenza vaccine produced in insect cells, and how small RNAs are protecting the Koala germline from retroviral invasion.

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

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Links for this episode

Flublok (CDC)
Adjuvant study of flu vaccines (NIH)
Immunogenicity of quadrivalent Flublok (J Inf Dis)
Monoclonal antibody response to Flublok (J Virol)
Current flu vaccine recommendations (CDC)
Double dose flu vaccine immunogenicity (Hum Vac Immunother)
piRNA response on retroviral invasion of Koala genome (Cell)
piRNAs rise to rescue Koalas (Cell)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 571
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks

Brianne - The Machinery of Life by David Goodsell Alan - Pomological watercolors Dickson - Wildlife Photographer of the Year Kathy - DiversifyMicrobiology DiversifyImmunology and Marmot becomes fox food Vincent - Burnet A Life by Christopher Sexton

Listener Picks

Justin - Worm with three sexes

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 570: Aarhus viral Oct 20, 2019

Show notes

At Aarhus University in Denmark, Vincent speaks with Trine Mogensen, Søren Paludan, Ole Søgaard, and Madalina Carter-Timofte about their careers and their work on sensing herpesviral DNA, immunodeficiencies that predispose to severe viral infections, and the path to a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Trine Mogensen, Søren Paludan, Ole Søgaard, and Madalina Carter-Timofte

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Links for this episode