This Week in Virology

TWiV 224: A wide receiver and a natural defense

March 17, 2013

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, Kathy, and Dickson discuss identification of a cell receptor for the coronavirus-EMC, and the role of interferon-epsilon in protecting the female reproductive tract.

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Download TWiV 224 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)
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Links for this episode:

Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 is CoV-EMC receptor (Nature)
Receptor for new coronavirus (Nature)
Broad reception for coronavirus (Nature)
SARS 10th anniversary (Science)
Interferon-epsilon protects female reproductive tract (Science)
Families fighting flu (YouTube)
Monitoring infections with online data (TWiM 41)
Natalie Portman was a scientist (NY Times)
Letters read on TWiV 224

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – 2013 Intel Science Talent Search awards
Alan – Krebs Cycle Rap (CDC)
Vincent – Jetpens (favorite one and two)
Dickson – Rabies death in organ recipients (CDC)

Listener Pick of the Week

Justin – The DNA Store
Jim – Massive Open Online Classrooms
Chris – Feedly

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 223: EEEV and the serpent

March 10, 2013

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy discuss new influenza virus NA inhibitors, detection of EEEV antibody and RNA in snakes, and replication of the coronavirus EMC in human airway epithelial cells.

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Download TWiV 223 (64 MB .mp3, 89 min)
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Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Finkbeiner test and Women in Science
Alan – New flu vaccine efficacy study (CDC)
Vincent – Threading the NEIDL video

Listener Pick of the Week

Steve – Prof. Joan Steitz on viral RNA
Ed – Archiving history of molecular biology: Press release, video, CSHL archives and videos

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 222: Jumpin’ Jack Flash, it’s a GAS GAS GAS

March 3, 2013

cyclic GAMP Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

The complete TWiV team discusses the amazing finding that cyclic GMP-AMP synthase is a cytosolic innate immune DNA sensor.

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Download TWiV 222 (70 MB .mp3, 97 min)
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Links for this episode:

Zhijian J. Chen (Wikipedia)
Sensing the dark side of DNA (Science)
cGAMP is an endogenous second messenger (Science)
cGAMP synthase is a DNA sensor (Science)
Pore-forming toxin (Wikipedia)
Letters read on TWiV 222

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Graphene batteries
Alan – How do we get cures? (YouTube)
Rich – Explosive breach of Condit Dam (Vimeo)
Vincent – 10 things you can do to support open access (Tree of Life)

Listener Pick of the Week

Mark – The real story of Stuxnet
John – D-connector virus

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 221: Bunya there, done that

February 24, 2013

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Dickson, and Kathy review two emerging bunyaviruses, SFTSV and SBV.

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Download TWiV 221 (66 MB .mp3, 91 min)
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Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Winners, 2012 Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge
Vincent – The Operator and Dr. Oz’s Problem

Listener Pick of the Week

Shane – OpenPCR
John – Python

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 220: Flu watches the clock while T7 gets a CAT scan

February 17, 2013

T7 random walk Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Rich, Alan, and Kathy discuss regulation of influenza virus replication by splicing, and the bacteriophage T7 random walk.

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Download TWiV 220 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)
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Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Journal of Virology Image Gallery
Rich – Phage T7 Genetics and Physiology and slab gels
Alan – PeerJ (press release)
Vincent – Virologia en Español

Listener Pick of the Week

Dave – Thingiverse pathogens and proteins

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 219: Fauci pharmacy

February 10, 2013

Anthony Fauci, MD Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Anthony S. Fauci

Vincent and Rich meet up with Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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Download TWiV 219 (46 MB .mp3, 64 min)
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Links for this episode:

Fauci history (J Clin Inves)
Transcript of this episode (thanks, Dr. Fernandez!)
Fauci Pharmacy
Anthony Fauci (Wikipedia)
Anthony Fauci: Unfinished business (Lens)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 218: Monkeys turning valves and pushing buttons

February 3, 2013

Bakugan Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Welkin Johnson

Vincent, Alan, and Welkin discuss how endogenous retroviruses in mice are held in check by the immune response.

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Download TWiV 218 (64 MB .mp3, 89 min)
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Links for this episode:

Kuan-Teh Jeang, 54
Resurrection of ERVs (Nature)
Toll-like receptors control ERVs (Immunity)
Retroviral danger from within (Immunity)
Ancient viruses wreak havoc (The Scientist)
Letters read on TWiV 218

Weekly Science Picks

Welkin – Viruses: Essential Agents of Life (review at STC)
Alan – Infinity Imagined
Vincent – Spaceship built for son

Listener Pick of the Week

Amanda – Written? Kitten!
Kevin – Protein synthesis: An epic (YouTube)
Daria – The Baltimore Scheme

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot

January 27, 2013

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.

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Download TWiV 217 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)
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Links for this episode:

FDA licensed flu vaccines
Seasonal influenza vaccine distributed
How flu vaccine strains are selected (one, two)
WHO report on flu vaccine strain selection (pdf)
Derek Smith on antigenic mapping
Salk’s 1945 influenza vaccine
TIV preparation: Fluzone, Agriflu, Fluvirin, Fluarix, Flulaval, Afluria (pdfs)
LAIV preparation (pdf)
Efficacy of flu vaccine 2012-13 (MMWR, virology blog)
Meta-analysis of flu vaccine efficacy (Lancet)
Two new flu vaccines FDA approved
Flublok
Flublok clinical trial
Pandemrix and narcolepsy (Yahoo, PLoS One, PLoS One)
CIDRAP analysis of flu vaccines
Letters read on TWiV 217

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Repoopulate (original article), Robogut (new clinical trial)
Alan – WTF, Evolution?
Dickson – The Beauty and Benefits of Science
Vincent – Supercomputing modeling of poliovirus

Listener Pick of the Week

Bjorn, Marshall, Meaghan – Glass sculptures of Luke Jerram

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 216: Processing VIRALGUUAACACCAGRNA

January 20, 2013

splicing Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy resume the virology 101 series with a discussion of RNA capping, splicing, and export.

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Download TWiV 216 (67 MB .mp3, 93 min)
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Links for this episode:

Slides for this episode (pdf)
Spliced Ad 2 late mRNAs (Cell)
An amazing sequence arrangement (Cell)
Adenovirus late mRNA undecanucleotide (Cell)
Aaron Shatkin, 72 (virology blog)
Schrödinger’s cat (Wikipedia)
Letters read on TWiV 216

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Linus Pauling’s explanation of science (YouTube)
Alan – Underwater experiments
Kathy – I’m a virus (YouTube)
Vincent – Stem cells (Bizarro Comics)

Listener Pick of the Week

Tom – The President’s Analyst
Danielle – Overly honest methods (HuffPost and ASBMB Today)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 215: Illuminating rabies and unwrapping a SARI

January 13, 2013

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy review the finding that rabies virus infection alters but does not kill neurons, and provide an update on the novel coronavirus in the Middle East.