This Week in Virology

TWiV 151: Dear TWiVers

October 2, 2011

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review questions and comments from TWiV listeners.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 151 (49 MB .mp3, 81 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Aurora Australis from space
Vincent – Science360 Radio
Rich – Ghost Productions (demo and website)

Listener Pick of the Week

Sophie – Bacteria by Jonathan Coulton

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 150: Contaminated

September 25, 2011

pXMRV Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Dickson Despommier

Vincent, Dickson, and Rich meant to do an all-email episode, but first they review results of the Blood XMRV Scientific Research Working Group, and partial retraction of the paper associating XMRV with chronic fatigue syndrome.

With this episode TWiV is three years old.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 150 (56 MB .mp3, 93 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Partial retraction (Science)
Failure to confirm (Science)
False positive (Science)
Why a partial retraction? (Retraction Watch)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 150

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson – The Tree of Life
Vincent – When do you fact-check article content with sources? (take as directed)
Rich – io9

Listener Pick of the Week

Luis – NIH videocasting and podcasting

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 149: Live at ICAAC in the Windy City

September 18, 2011

twiv at icaac Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Mark Pallansch, and Trine Tsouderos

Vincent, Rich, Mark, and Trine discuss science and medicine in journalism and the eradication of poliovirus at the 51st Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 149 (62 MB .mp3, 86 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

ICAAC 2011
Recent Chicago Tribune articles by Trine
Polio eradication initiative
CDC 101: Zombie Apocalypse
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 149
Video of this episode below

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Parachute use to prevent death (Brit Med J)
Vincent – Ian Lipkin’s Op-Ed on Contagion and a review of the movie (both NY Times)

Listener Pick of the Week

Michael – Bacteria billboard for Contagion (YouTube)

This episdode of TWiV is sponsored by Wiley-Blackwell, the leading scientific publisher of books, scholarly journals, major reference works and databases.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 148: Retreating into Harvard virology

September 11, 2011

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Philip Kranzusch, David Knipe, and Priscilla Yang

Vincent, Philip, David, and Priscilla recorded this episode before an audience at the Harvard Virology Program Annual Retreat, where they discussed negative strand RNA viruses, a vaccine against herpes simplex virus type 2, lipidomics of viral infection, and science communication.

The Keynote Speaker at the Harvard Virology retreat is usually an individual, but this year the honor went to TWiV as an example of science communication to the public. Many thanks to members of the Virology Program for a terrific retreat!

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 148 (56 MB .mp3, 77 minutes).

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Weekly Science Picks

Philip – AntWeb
David – Herpes-like viruses in corals (PNAS and LiveScience)
Priscilla – Science museums (Boston, Durham)
Vincent – Contagion

Listener Pick of the Week

Jenny – Emerman’s review of Planet of Viruses (PLoS Biology)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

Artwork by Silvia Piccinotti, G4

harvard virology retreat

TWiV 147: Debugging dengue

September 4, 2011

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

The complete TWiV gang discusses the use of Wolbachia to control mosquito-borne infections.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 147 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

miRNAs and colonization by Wolbachia (PNAS)
Wolbachia blocks dengue, invades caged mosquitos (Nature)
Establishment of Wolbachia in Aedes populations (Nature)
Ed Yong on dengue control by Wolbachia
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 147

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Sid the science kid
Dickson – Through the alimentary canal with gun and camera by George S. Chappell
Vincent – Rule of 6ix
Rich – Reality check

Listener Pick of the Week

Liam – Scitable

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 146: Draco’s potion

August 28, 2011

draco Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Abbie Smith

Vincent, Rich, and Abbie review a broad spectrum antiviral protein, and selective pressure applied by a failed HIV-1 vaccine.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 146 (78 MB .mp3, 107 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

Broad spectrum antiviral (PLoS One)
Selection by failed HIV-1 vaccine (Nature Medicine)
HIV vaccine impacts virus (EurekAlert!)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 146

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent – Hypothetical Risk: Cambridge City Council’s Hearings on Recombinant DNA Research
Rich – Z Corporation 3-D printer (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

Jim – Do-it-yourself DNA extraction (Citizen Scientist Quarterly)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 145: The inVinceable TWiV

August 16, 2011

twort Hosts: Alan Dove and Rich Condit

Alan and Rich tackle the discovery of bacteriophages, and treating influenza by calming the cytokine storm.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 145 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes).

Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

Twort on the nature of ultra-microscopic viruses (Lancet)
Who discovered bacteriophage? (pdf, Bact Rev)
Calming cytokine storm to treat influenza (PNAS)
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 145

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – AT&T Tech Channel
Rich – Smallpox and its eradication (pdf)

Listener Pick of the Week

Asif – Science Photo Library

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 144: HIV gets the (zinc) finger

July 31, 2011

zinc finger nuclease Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Rich, and Alan discuss live blogging of scientific meetings, the current outbreak of Hendra virus is Australia, and using zinc finger nucleases to make HIV-resistant CD4 cells.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 144 (75 MB .mp3, 104 minutes).

Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

Live blogging scientific meetings (virology blog)
Cross reactive Hendra antibodies in dog (article one and two and three)
Dog owner replies
Map of Hendra virus outbreak 2011
Summaries of current Hendra virus outbreak (one and two)
Recombinant Hendra glycoprotein vaccine protects ferrets (Vaccine)
Making HIV resistant CD4 cells with zinc finger nucleases (PLoS Pathogens)
Surveyor nuclease assay
NCIS ‘Toxic’ summary
TWiV on Facebook
Letters read on TWiV 144

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Bugscope
Rich – Vaccine adverse events: Causal or coincidental? (Lancet)
Vincent – West Nile Story by Dickson Despommier (Kindle edition)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected].

TWiV 143: Live at ASV in Minneapolis

July 24, 2011

asv minneapolis Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Julie Overbaugh, and Stacey Schultz-Cherry

Vincent, Rich, Julie and Stacey recorded TWiV at the 30th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology in Minneapolis, where they discussed the role of neutralizing antibodies in protection against HIV-1 infection, and astroviruses, agents of gastroenteritis.