This Week in Parasitism

Episodes

TWiP 87: Stumped by pinworm

April 21, 2015
Tagged as: antigenic variation, case study, parasite, parasitism, pinworm, T. brucei, trypanosome

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel review new insight into antigenic variation in trypanosomes, reveal the difficult solution to the last case study, and present another mystery for your solving.

Download TWiP #87 (55 MB .mp3, 77 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Pinworm (CDC)
Pinworm on TWiP #19
Dynamics of antigenic variation in T. brucei (Science)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiP 87

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 86: Worms Loa the immune response to mycobacteria

March 27, 2015
Tagged as: CD4 cell, filaria, flow cytometry, immune memory, immunity, immunology, loa loa, mycobacterium tuberculosis, parasite, parasitism, worm

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel discuss how filarial infection modulates the immune response to mycobacterial infection, and reveal a new case study.

Download TWiP #86 (90 MB .mp3, 125 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Filarial infection modulate immune response (J Immunol)
Memory T cells (Wikipedia)
Image: Loa loa microfilaria
Letters read on TWiP 86

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 85: Channeling tryps

March 14, 2015
Tagged as: ApoL1, channel, crawfish, endocytosis, paragonimiasis, parasite, parasitism, pH, trypanolytic factor, trypanosome

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel explain how trypanolytic factor forms membrane channels to lyse trypanosomes, and present a new case study.

Download TWiP #85 (79 MB .mp3, 110 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Human trypanolytic factor forms channels (PNAS)
Human paragonimiasis (MMWR)
Don’t eat raw crawfish
Daniel and Dickson in studio (jpg)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiP 85

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 84: Bigfoot

February 28, 2015
Tagged as: lymphatic filariasis, malaria, nanobody, P. vivax, parasite, parasitism, single domain antibody, symbiont, trypanolytic, trypanosome, Wuchereria bancroftii

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel consider the delivery of anti-trypanosome nanobodies to the tsetse fly via a bacterial symbiont, and present a new case study.

Download TWiP #84 (78 MB .mp3, 106 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Delivery of a functional nanobody to tsetse flies (Microb Cell Fact)
Nanobodies (Wikipedia)
V.B. Wigglesworth (Wikipedia)
VB Nimble, VB Quick
Knott test
Mazzotti reaction
Image credit
Letters read on TWiP 84

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 83: Hidden costs of infection

February 23, 2015
Tagged as: fitness cost, life span, longevity, malaria, parasite, parasitism, senescence, telomere

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel present a new case study, and discuss the effect of chronic malaria infection on wild warbler life span and telomere degradation.

Download TWiP #83 (69 MB .mp3, 96 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Effect of chronic malaria infection on wild warblers (Science)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiP 83

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 82: A NOD to helminths

February 7, 2015
Tagged as: auto-inflammatory, autoimmunity, Fasciola hepatica, helminth, immune suppression, insulitis, NOD mouse, parasite, parasitism, type 1 diabetes

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel solve last week’s case study, present a new one, and reveal how secreted proteins from a helminth prevent diabetes in mice.

Download TWiP #82 (72 MB .mp3, 100 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Babesiosis (CDC)
Babesiosis blood smear with Maltese cross (NEJM)
Helminth proteins prevent diabetes in mice (PLoS One)
Letters read on TWiP 82

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 81: Living in a wormy world

January 24, 2015
Tagged as: African buffalo, bovine tuberculosis, helminth, microbial infection, nematode, parasite, parasitism, worm

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent, Dickson, and Daniel provide the solution to last week’s case study, present a new one, and discuss how immune suppression by nematodes increases tuberculosis fatality in African buffalo.

Download TWiP #81 (72 MB .mp3, 100 minutes).

Links for this episode:

Consequences of living in a wormy world (Am Nat)
Opposite effects of antihelminthic treatment on microbial infection (Science)
Send your case study solutions to twip@microbe.tv
Daniel’s cufflinks (jpg)
Daniel’s TB bowtie (jpg)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiP 81

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@microbe.tv

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Episodes

TWiP 80: Daniel in the parasites’ den

January 8, 2015
Tagged as: bacterial vaginitis, bacterial vaginosis, metagenome, Mycoplasma girerdii, parasite, parasitism, Trichomonas, trichomoniasis

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Daniel Griffin

Vincent and Dickson welcome new TWiP host Daniel Griffin to discuss the association of a new Mycoplasma with trichomoniasis, and to introduce a new feature to the show, a case study.