Ted and Welkin inform the TWiV team how the evolution of ancient retroviruses can be inferred by their sequences in the genomes of modern mammals, and join in a discussion of virus dispersal during different methods for drying hands.
TWiV 385: Failure
- April 17, 2016
- Tagged as: Failure, ignorance, science, stuart firestein, viral, virology, virus, viruses
Stuart joins Vincent and Dickson to talk about his sequel to Ignorance, a book called Failure, which seeks to make science more appealing by revealing its faults.
Nischay and Ian join the TWiVions to discuss mass die-offs of tilapia by a novel orthomyxo-like virus, Ian’s editorial on the movie Vaxxed, and new vaccines to prevent dengue virus infections, including a human challenge model.
TWiV 383: A zillion Zika papers and a Brazilian
- April 3, 2016
- Tagged as: Aedes agepytii, Aedes albopictus, cryoEM, fetus, microcephaly, mosquito, mouse model, saliva, sexual transmission, urine, viral, virology, virus, viruses, Zika, Zika virus
Esper and the Merry TWiXters analyze the latest data on Zika virus and microcephaly in Brazil, and discuss publications on a mouse model for disease, infection of a fetus, mosquito vector competence, and the cryo-EM structure of the virus particle.
TWiV 382: Everyone’s a little bit viral
- March 27, 2016
- Tagged as: AIM, CHiP, computational biology, crispr, endogenous retroviruses, enhancer, erv, IFN, inflammasome, interferon, retrovirus, STAT1, transposable element, viral, virology, virus, viruses
Nels and Ed join the TWiV team to talk about their observation that regulation of the human interferon response depends on regulatory sequences that were co-opted millions of years ago from endogenous retroviruses.
Carl Zimmer joins the TWiV team to talk about his career in science writing, the real meaning of copy-paste, science publishing, the value of Twitter, preprint servers, his thoughts on science outreach, and much more.
TWiV 380: Viruses visible in le microscope photonique
- March 13, 2016
- Tagged as: amoeba, birth defects, capsid, central nervous system, congenital Zika syndrome, cowpea mosaic virus, CRISPR/Cas, cryoEM, genome packaging, Guillain-Barré syndrome, intrinsic defense, meningoencephalitis, microcephaly, MIMIVIRE, mimivirus, myelitis, viral, virology, viruria, virus, viruses, Zika virus
The TWiVeroos deliver the weekly Zika Report, then talk about a cryoEM structure of a plant virus that reveals how the RNA genome is packaged in the capsid, and MIMIVIRE, a CRISPR-like defense system in giant eukaryotic viruses.
Scott Tibbets joins the TWiVists to describe his work on the role of a herpesviral nocoding RNA in establishment of peripheral latency, and then we visit two last minute additions to the Zika virus literature.
Greg Smith joins the TWiVirate to reveal how his lab discovered a switch that controls herpesvirus neuroinvasion, and then we visit the week’s news about Zika virus.
The TWiVniks review the past week’s findings on Zika virus and microcephaly, and reveal a chicken protein that provides insight on the restriction of transmission of avian influenza viruses to humans.