This Week in Virology

TWiV 54: Professor Lynn Enquist, virology luminary

October 18, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Lynn Enquist

Vincent speaks with Lynn Enquist about his career in virology, moving from academia to industry and back. Along the way he did pioneering research on bacteriophage, participated in the birth of recombinant DNA technology, and studied herpesviruses.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #54 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Holliday junction
Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA
Restriction enzymes
Movies of herpesvirus movement in nerve cells
The ‘other‘ Enquist lab
Can you find the TWiV 54 hosts in this photo?

Weekly Science Picks
Lynn Francis Crick: Hunter of Life’s Secrets by Robert Olby
Vincent ViralZone

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

TWiV 53: The ends justify the means

October 11, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Dick, and Alan talk about Nobel prizes for telomere research, bacteriophages that protect aphids from wasps, salicylates and pandemic influenza mortality, and hand washing.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #53 (45 MB .mp3, 62 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Nobel Prizes for telomere research
Bacteriophages encode toxins that protect aphids from wasps
14 year old dies after receiving HPV vaccine
Salicylates and pandemic influenza mortality
Canadian microbiologist says hand washing is not proven to prevent influenza
Surgical mask vs N95 respirator for preventing influenza
Americans unsure about receiving pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine
DnaTube (thanks Jim!)
Laboratory Director certification (pdf – thanks Megan!)
Plant production of pharmaceuticals (pdf one and pdf two – thanks Ed!)

Weekly Science Picks
Alan scienceline
Dick Younger by Judith Sulzberger MD
Vincent FluView

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

TWiV 52: Scott Hammer, MD on AIDS vaccines

October 4, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Scott Hammer, MD

Vincent and Dr. Scott Hammer talk about different types of AIDS vaccines and how they are tested in clinical trials.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #52 (51 MB .mp3, 71 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

PAVE 100 trial cancelled
HIV vaccine shows promise for the first time
Description of the Thailand AIDS program
NEJM review on why AIDS vaccine is difficult (pdf)
Arguments for the AIDS vaccine trial in Thailand
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)

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

TWiV 51: ALVAC-HIV and AIDSVAX B/E

September 27, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Dick, and Alan (with a cameo appearance by Rich Condit) review the world’s largest Phase III study of a complex HIV vaccine candidate in Thailand, immunization of salmon against infectious salmon anemia virus, and an outbreak of blueberry shock virus in Michigan.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #51 (60 MB .mp3, 84 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

HIV vaccine shows promise for the first time – description of the program, FDA background document (pdf), NEJM review on why AIDS vaccine is difficult (pdf), and arguments for the trial
Chile immunizes salmon (USGS article on the virus, pdf)
Blueberry virus strikes Michigan research center (information on the disease and the virus)
Rotavirus seasonality (thanks Didier!)
Viruses and the tree of life at virology blog
Big brains have evolved twice (thanks Arsen!)

Weekly Science Picks
Alan Bat Rabies and Other Lyssavirus Infections
Dick Boosting Vaccines: The Power of Adjuvants (Scientific American; subscription required)
Vincent The Ig Nobel Prizes by Marc Abrahams

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

TWiV 50: XMRV

September 20, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Jason Rodriguez

Vincent and Jason review influenza 2009 H1N1 vaccine trials and protection against the virus conferred by the 1976 swine flu vaccine, then move on to a virus called XMRV and its possible role in prostate cancer.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #50 (54 MB .mp3, 74 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

One dose of influenza 2009 H1N1 vaccine without adjuvant is enough
Partially completed study on influenza 2009 H1N1 vaccine with MF59 adjuvant
1976 swine flu vaccine induces cross-reactive antibodies against influenza 2009 H1N1 strain
Explanation of hemagglutination-inhibition and microneutralization assays
FDA approves influenza 2009 H1N1 vaccine
XMRV is present in malignant prostatic epithelium and is associated with prostate cancer
Identification of a novel gammaretrovirus in prostate tumors
CDC page on Guillain-Barré syndrome

Weekly Science Picks
Jason Glass Microbiology
Vincent FluWeb Influenza Historical Resources Database

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

TWiV 49: Viral genomes

September 13, 2009

Hosts:Vincent Racaniello and Dick Despommier

Vincent and Dick continue Virology 101 with a discussion of the seven different types of viral genomes, and how to use the pathway to mRNA to understand viral replication.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #49 (45 MB .mp3, 62 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

TWiV 49 transcript (pdf)
Dick talks about hookworm on Radio Lab
Dick’s video page at BigThink
The seven types of viral genome
Animation of HIV replication (thanks axiomatically atypical!)
Changes in transcript abundance relating to colony collapse disorder in honey bee (thanks Judi!)

Weekly Science Picks

Dick Discovery Channel: Planet Green
Vincent Influenza videos at BigThink: one, two, three, four, five, six

Send your virology questions and comments [email protected].

TWiV 48: Outbreaks near you

September 6, 2009

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

Vincent, Dick, Alan and Rich revisit a vaccinia virus lab accident and viral vaccines produced in plants, then talk about an iPhone app to track infectious diseases, flying foxes, and an inhaled measles vaccine.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #48 (58 MB .mp3, 79 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Laboratory acquired vaccinia infection
Medicago (investor presentation, pdf) and Fraunhofer produce vaccines in plants
iPhone app Outbreaks near me
No culling of flying foxes in Australia
Inhaled powdered measles virus vaccine
Herpesvirus latency confers symbiotic protection from bacterial infection (thanks Juliet!)
Porcine circovirus vaccine
Swine flu vaccine and Guillain-Barré (thanks Tom!)
The Great Flu and blog post (thanks Swiss compass and Allison!)
Building semiconductors with DNA (thanks Duncan!)
Email on viral classification (thanks Rodney and Eliot!)

Weekly Science Picks

Rich Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
Dick Eliot Porter at the Carter Museum and bookstore at Amazon
Alan Dr. Clarke’s H1N1 rap at the HHS sponsored YouTube contest
Vincent Coast to Coast Bio Podcast

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

TWiV 47: Vertical vaccine farm

August 30, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dick Despommier

Vincent and Dick discuss influenza virus-like particle vaccines produced in insect and plant cells, rapid sharing of influenza research, and answer listener questions about cytomegalovirus, viral evolution and symbiosis and much more.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #47 (51 MB .mp3, 71 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

A Farm on Every Floor
Influenza virus-like particles in insect and plant cells
PLoS Currents: Influenza
Transmission of 2009 H1N1 influenza virus to turkeys [Thanks Debbie!]
Baxter produces Vero cell H1N1 vaccine [Thanks Peter!]
Boundaries of Darwinism podcast [Thanks David!]
Phages in human intestine: papers one, two, three [Thanks Terry!]
Post-exposure varicella vaccine [Thanks Patricia!]
Open science movement here, here, here, and here [Thanks Jim!]
Graduate programs in virology [Thanks Greggory and Blake!]
Post-exposure Marburg and Ebola vaccines [Thanks John!]
Vaccinia infection in the laboratory [Thanks Russ!]
Animations of bacteriophage T4 life cycle [Thanks Jim!]

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent Bionumbers
Dick Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas by Sylvia A. Earle, Linda K. Glover

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

TWiV 46: Virus entry into cells

August 23, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dick Despommier

Vincent and Dick continue virology 101 with a discussion of virus entry into cells, then answer reader email on colony collapse disorder and viruses that confer a benefit to their host.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #46 (35 MB .mp3, 50 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Illustrations of virus entry into cells
Nice reference for biological items (thanks Jim!)
Colony collapse disorder: PBS program, descriptive study, metagenomic study, genetic analysis (thanks Swiss compass!)
Potato virus Y and Alzheimer’s disease (thanks Jennifer!)
A virus in a fungus in a plant (thanks Jennifer!)

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent PLoS Pearls
Dick West Nile virus website at CDC

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

TWiV 45: Hendra and polio are back

August 16, 2009

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Jennifer Drahos

Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Jennifer Drahos tackle the Hendra virus disease outbreak in Australia, AIDS-like disease in wild chimps, return of polio type 2 in Nigeria, the influenza pandemic wave, and rabies in three countries.