This Week in Virology

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.

TWiV 103: Shots with LJ Tan

October 17, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and LJ Tan

Vincent and Alan discuss influenza vaccines with LJ Tan of the American Medical Association.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #103 (56 MB .mp3, 77 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

The American Medical Association
Prevent Influenza Now
Vaccine injury claim reaches Supreme Court
Supreme Court divided on vaccine case
No narcolepsy link to flu vaccine
Letters read on TWiV 103

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – BioGene, an iApp
Vincent – The Vertical Farm by Dickson Despommier

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

TWiV 102: Catch me if you can in Munich

October 10, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Andrew Baker, Karl-Klaus Conzelmann, Peter Palese, and Katharina Eisenächer

A conversation about the RNA sensor RIG-I, adenovirus gene therapy, a universal influenza vaccine, and rabies virus, recorded in Munich, Germany at the SFB455 symposium ‘Viral offense and immune defense’.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #102 (67 MB .mp3, 95 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

SFB455 Symposium scientific program
Letters read on TWiV 102
Virologists having fun (YouTube video)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Katharina – Deutsches Museum
Vincent – HHMI holiday lectures on science (thanks Judi!)

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

TWiV 101: Sizing up adenovirus

October 3, 2010

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, Dickson, and Hamish review the three-dimensional structure of adenovirus, and the role of adenovirus type 36 in obesity.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #101 (55 MB .mp3, 76 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Three-dimensional structure of adenovirus solved by x-ray crystallography and Cryo-EM
Movies of adenovirus
Commentary on adenovirus structure
Adenovirus picture book
Adenovirus type 36 and obesity in children and adolescents
Press release on adenovirus 36 and obesity
How much TWiV do you want? Take the survey
Pre-order The Vertical Farm by Dickson Despommier
Letters read on TWiV 101

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – National Geographic’s Best Environmental Photographs of 2010
Rich – Richard Feynman lecture: The pleasure of finding things out
Vincent – Summary of the First International XMRV Workshop (pdf)

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

TWiV 100: TWiV catches a big fish

September 26, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and David Baltimore

Vincent, Alan, and Rich celebrate the 100th episode of TWiV by talking about viruses with Nobel Laureate David Baltimore.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #100 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

David’s early papers on poliovirus and mengovirus RNA synthesis
Reverse transcriptase found by Baltimore and Temin (pdfs)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975
David fishing (Picasa web album)
The David Baltimore asteroid belt
Cedric’s essay The ‘Death’ of a Virus (pdf)
Letters read on TWiV 100

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – TimeTree
Rich – The neurons that shaped civilization
Vincent – Ahead of the Curve: David Baltimore’s Life in Science by Shane Crotty

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

TWiV 99: ICAAC Boston 2010

September 19, 2010

Host: Vincent Racaniello

On episode 99 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent tours the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Boston, speaking with exhibitors and visitors, including Professors Derek Smith, Michael Schmidt, Frederick Hayden, and Myra McClure.

Many thanks to Chris Condayan and Ray Ortega of the American Society for Microbiology for recording and editing this episode.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #99 (45 MB .mp3, 62 minutes)

Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

50th ICAAC
ICAAC daily press conference videos (including Prof. Myra McClure)
Antigenic cartography
Antimicrobial properties of copper
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

TWiV 98: Murine musings, electric shirts, and rabid pathologists

September 12, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review the finding of murine leukemia virus-related sequences in the blood of CFS patients and healthy donors, laboratory inventories for wild poliovirus containment, weaving high-performance viral batteries into fabric for the military, and a case of human rabies in Indiana.