This Week in Virology

TWiV 113: Alan Rein on XMRV

December 26, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Alan Rein

Vincent, Alan, and Rich discuss the retrovirus XMRV with retrovirologist Alan Rein of the National Cancer Institute.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #113 (55 MB .mp3, 76 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

XMRV: A new virus is prostate cancer? (Cancer Research)
Detection of XMRV in normal and prostate tumor tissue (J Inf Dis)
Reach for a scorecard (commentary, J Inf Dis)
Retrovirology papers: one, two, three, four, commentary
Integration sites of XMRV in prostate tumor DNA (J Virol, PLoS One)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 113

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Word Lens
Alan – Tetenal Press Kit
Vincent – In the pipeline and Things I won’t work with by Derek Lowe

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

TWiV 112: Creating a killer poxvirus

December 19, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review the making of a virulent poxvirus by insertion of the gene encoding IL-4, and severe 2009 H1N1 influenza due to pathogenic immune complexes.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #112 (71 MB .mp3, 98 minutes). To download, right-click or control-click on the link, then select save as.

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Links for this episode:

Expression of IL-4 makes a killer poxvirus
Additional studies on poxvirus-IL-4 recombinants
Creation of killer poxvirus could have been predicted
Interleukin regulation of Th responses
Severe pandemic H1N1 disease due to immune complexes
Unusually high influenza mortality in 18-65 years old
The complement system
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 112

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – The Scientist’s Top 10 Innovations 2010
Alan – Avian Vocalizations Center
Vincent – Microbial soap from Cleaner Science (thanks, Nadia!)

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

TWiV 111: Live at Florida Gulf Coast University

December 12, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Ed Fussell, Andrea Leal, and Amy Sargent

The TWiV crew meets with members of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District at Florida Gulf Coast University to discuss dengue in Florida and how to control it.

Click the arrow to play, or right-click to download TWiV #111 (76 MB .mp3, 105 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Florida Keys Mosquito Control District
Prof. Sharon Isern
Florida Gulf Coast University
CDC report on dengue in the Florida Keys
Dengue in Miami
Mosquito release in the Caymans (Oxitec press release – pdf)
Concerns about mosquito release
TWiV on Facebook – photos of TWiV 111
Letters read on TWiV 111
Video of this episode – View above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – At the Bench, A Laboratory Navigator by Kathy Barker
Alan – DEEP Indonesia Underwater Photo Contest 2010 Winners
Vincent – HHMI resources for early-career scientists

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

TWiV at FGCU

TWiV 110: CSI virology

December 5, 2010

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson discuss bacteria that can utilize arsenic in place of phosphorus, the passing of Frank Fenner, polio outbreak in The Congo, solving criminal cases of HIV transmission, and classifying viruses by capsid structure.

Click the arrow to play, or right-click to download TWiV #110 (68 MB .mp3, 93 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Bacteria that utilize arsenic (Ed Yong’s view)
Frank Fenner passes away
Smallpox and its eradication – the ‘red book’ (pdf)
Polio outbreak in The Congo (virus isolation)
Solving criminal cases with HIV evolution (press release)
Definition of paraphyly
Order to the viral universe
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 110

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson – CDC’s West Nile virus case count for 2010
Rich – The red bees of Red Hook
Alan – Arsenic-based life at XKCD
Vincent – PLoS iPad app

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

TWiV 109: Virologia en México

November 28, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rosa Maria del Angel, and Ana Lorena Gutiérrez

Vincent visits Mexico City and speaks with Rosa Maria del Angel and Ana Lorena Gutiérrez about virology in Mexico, and their work on dengue and caliciviruses.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #109 (58 MB .mp3, 80 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Rosa’s PNAS paper on proteins that bind poliovirus RNA
Lorena’s papers on influence of proteins that bind poliovirus RNA on tropism and attenuation
CINVESTAV
TWiV on Facebook

Weekly Science Picks

Lorena – Caliciviruses by Hansman, Jiang, and Green
Vincent – Insights into dengue virus genome replication by Alcaraz-Estrada, Yocupicio, and del Angel

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

TWiV 108: Barking up the right Tre

November 21, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Saul Silverstein

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Saul review the evolution of HIV-1 specific recombinases, and down-regulation of a host microRNA by a viral noncoding RNA.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #108 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes). To download, right-click or control-click on the link, then select save as.

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Links for this episode:

HIV-1 proviral excision with an evolved recombinase
Evolution of HIV-1 specific recombinases – review article
Down-regulation of a host miRNA by a viral noncoding RNA
Paring miRNAs through pairing – commentary
GM mosquitoes wipe out dengue
Virology faculty position, University of Maryland
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 108

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Where cinema and biology meet
Alan – Qiagen iApp
Vincent – Ask a biologist

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

TWiV 107: Warning – this virus contains email

November 14, 2010

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about poliovirus, social media, dengue, influenza, evolution, gel filtration, and much more.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #107 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

tre recombinase: paper one and two
Universal influenza vaccines
Mitochondrial and chlorophast phage-type RNA polymerase in plants
Protein Data Bank
Letters read on TWiV 107

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Protein Synthesis: An epic on the cellular level
Dickson – The Patchwork Mouse by Joseph R. Hixson
Alan – Bill Hammack’s engineering videos
Vincent – Visual Science (thanks, Svetlana)

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

TWiV 106: Making viral DNA II

November 6, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Dickson, and Rich continue Virology 101 with a second installment of their discussion of how viruses with DNA genomes replicate their genetic information.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #106 (69 MB .mp3, 95 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Figures for this episode (pdf)
Letters read on TWiV 106
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Google Health
Dickson – The Neandertal genome
Vincent – Lab techniques videos (thanks, Erik!)

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

the 5prime end problem

TWiV 104: The colony-collapse blues

October 24, 2010

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

The entire TWiV family reviews the latest ideas about colony collapse disorder of honeybees, and resurgence of monkeypox in Africa.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #104 (70 MB .mp3, 97 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

The Harvey Lectures
Iridovirus and microsporidian linked to colony collapse disorder
CCD discussed previously on TWiV 64, 49, and 46
Why are they called iridoviruses?
Iridoviruses at ViralZone
Scientists and soldiers solve a bee mystery (NY Times, pdf)
Edgewood research center involvement in CCD
Resurgence of monkeypox in Africa (PNAS)
Orthopoxvirus in Ghana
Outbreak of monkeypox in US (MMWR)
Goodbye smallpox vaccination, hello monkeypox
Letters read on TWiV 104

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson – Four Fish by Paul Greenberg
Alan – Nikon Small World contest, 2010 winners
Rich – Encyclopedia of Life
Vincent – First all-digital science textbook will be free (thanks, @windsurfer)

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