This Week in Virology

TWiV 97: California virology

September 5, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Peter Sarnow, and Bert Semler

During a trip to California, Vincent visited Peter Sarnow and Bert Semler and spoke with them about their work on internal ribosome entry, and the requirement for a cellular microRNA for hepatitis C virus replication.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #97 (66 MB .mp3, 91 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Eukaryotic mRNAs that might contain an IRES (PNAS)
Modulation of HCV RNA abundance by a liver-specific microRNA (Science)
Viral small RNAs (PLoS Pathogens)
Bridging IRES elements to the translation apparatus (Biochim Biophys Acta)
A nucleo-cytoplasmic SR protein functions in viral IRES mediated translation (EMBO J)
Nuclear vs cytoplasmic routes to IRES mediated translation (Trends in Microbiology)
Letter read on TWiV 97

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

TWiV 96: Making viral DNA

August 22, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit

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

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #96 (65 MB .mp3, 90 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Figures for this episode (pdf)
RNA silencing as a plant immune system (Trends in Genetics)
Photos of transgenic petunia (PLoS Biology)
Letters read on TWiV 96
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Breast milk sugars give infants a protective coat (NY Times and PNAS article)
Vincent – The Great American University by Jonathan R. Cole

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

TWiV 95: Does a virus shift in the woods?

August 15, 2010

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich consider the end of the influenza H1N1 pandemic, dengue in Florida, vaccinia virus infection in Brazilian monkeys, and viruses in the faecal microbiota.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #95 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

WHO declares end of influenza H1N1 pandemic
CDC’s FluView
WHO global monitoring of influenza
Locally acquired dengue in Key West, Florida (MMWR)
CDC page on dengue
Vaccinia virus infection in monkeys of the Brazilian Amazon
Dam site where animals were collected for vaccinia study (Google maps)
Rich’s article: Whence feral vaccinia?
Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their Mothers (Nature)
New Yorker article The Treatment (thanks, Jim!)
Letters read on TWiV 95

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Families Fighting Flu
Rich – Food, Inc.
Dickson – Fuel
Vincent – MIT Open Courseware
Michael – Waiting for Superman and Can Science Feed the World? (Nature)

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

TWiV 94: XMRV with Dr. Ila Singh

August 8, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Ila Singh

Vincent, Alan, and Rich speak with Ila Singh about the new human retrovirus XMRV, and how her laboratory is studying its association with prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #94 (56 MB .mp3, 77 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

CFIDS Association of America
Discovery of XMRV (PLoS Pathogens)
Detection of XMRV in CFS patients (Science)
Presence of XMRV in malignant prostate (PNAS)
Inhibition of XMRV by raltegravir (PLoS One)
Letters read on TWiV 94

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – The new Federal Register site (see also regulations.gov)
Rich – The Florida Museum of Nautural History Butterfly Rainforest
Vincent – JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments

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

TWiV 93: Our infectious inbox

August 1, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about lab procedures, prokaryotes, endogenous retroviruses, the iPad and teaching, prions, mimivirus, splitting water with viruses, and the polio outbreak in Tajikistan.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #93 (76 MB .mp3, 105 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
SIGA responds to BARDA request for smallpox antiviral
BARDA contract for filovirus vaccine
What is a Ph.D? (pdf)
HHMI resources for early career scientists
Pace article on abandoning prokaryote (Nature)
Three domains of life (Forterre article)
Mechanoenzymatic cleavage of Von Willebrand’s factor (Science)
Splitting water with viruses
WHO coverage on Tajikstan polio outbreak
Wild type polio infection in immunized Indian children (JID)
Letters read on TWiV 93

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Southern Fried Science
Rich – Tree of Life web project
Vincent – Dickson Despommier at Big Think

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

TWiV 92: Live at ASV in Bozeman

July 25, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Karla Kirkegaard, and Marilyn Roosinck

Vincent, Rich, Karla, and Marilyn recorded TWiV at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology in Bozeman, where they discussed plant viruses and how they make plants resistant to adverse conditions, and identification of dominant negative drug targets.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #92 (42 MB .mp3, 57 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Lifestyles of plant viruses
Using pyrosequencing to understand virus ecology
A virus in a fungus in a plant
Trans-dominant inhibition of RNA viral replication
Resistance is futile
Announcement of TWiV at ASV (pdf)
Photographs of TWiV at ASV
Letters read on TWiV 92

Weekly Science Picks

Marilyn – Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their mothers (Nature)
Rich – The Known Universe by the American Museum of Natural History
Vincent – The Red Queen by Matt Ridley (thanks, Jesper!)

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

TWiV 91: You’re an ERVous wreck

July 18, 2010

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan, Rich and Welkin discuss the nature, origin, and evolution of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), and the recent finding of endogenous filovirus genomes in mammals.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #91 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Welkin blogs at Small Things Considered
Constructing primate phylogenies from ancient retrovirus sequences (PNAS)
Filoviruses are ancient and integrated into mammalian genomes (BMC Evol Biol)
Synthetic cells: Momentous breakthrough or ethical morass? (To The Point)
Creation of a bacterial cell (Science)
Comments on the synthetic cell (Small Things Considered)
TWiV rap: T-Number Index by G-Unit (mp3) and Vincent (mp3) (thanks, Darrick and Scott!)
Letters read on TWiV 91

Weekly Science Picks

Welkin – Advice for a Young Investigator by Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Rich – How microbes define and defend us
Dickson – H1N1 virus lacks 1918 virus killer protein
Alan – The Xtal Set Society
Vincent – Antibodies and the quest for an AIDS vaccine

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

TWiV 90: Guano happens

July 11, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Eric F. Donaldson

Vincent, Alan, Rich and Eric discuss identification of viruses in Northeastern American bats, vaccinia virus infection after sexual contact with a military vaccinee, and identification of a new flavivirus from an Old World bat in Bangladesh.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #90 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Vaccinia virus infection after sexual contact with vaccinee
Smallpox vaccination overview
Smallpox vaccine lesions (jpg)
Smallpox hospital, Roosevelt Island, NY (photo 1, photo 2)
Isolation of a flavivirus from bats in Bangladesh (PLoS Pathogens)
Review on hepatitis G virus
Dickson has been teaching at Singularity University and fishing in Bozeman MT (jpg)
Letters read on TWiV 90

Weekly Science Picks

Eric – Year of Darwin by Sean Carroll
Rich – March of the Penguins
Alan – Standing-height desks
Vincent – DengueWatch (thanks Richard!)

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

TWiV 89: Where do viruses vacation?

July 4, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Vincent and Alan review recent findings on the association of the retrovirus XMRV with ME/CFS, reassortment of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in swine, and where influenza viruses travel in the off-season.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #89 (56 MB .mp3, 78 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Conflicting XMRV papers on hold
Leak of PNAS paper
CDC study on XMRV in CFS patients (Retrovirology) and Science update
Where influenza viruses travel in the off season (EurekaAlert! and PLoS Pathogens)
NPR article on Ebola siRNA treatment (thanks, Andreas!)
Priming mechanism for reovirus entry (thanks, Agyeman-Badu!)
Wired article on science PR (thanks, Dan!)
Letters read on TWiV 89

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Tree of Life graphic
Vincent – TEDx Oil Spill

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

TWiV 88: A bug fix, an AIDS treatment, and an undead retrovirus

June 27, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Marc Pelletier

Vincent, Alan, and Marc discuss using a virus for beetle control, RNA based gene therapy for AIDS, and reconstitution of a endogenous human retrovirus.

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc.