TWiV 21: Viruses of bacteria

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Max Gottesman

Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Max Gottesman discuss an unusual wasp-virus symbiosis, influenza transmission and absolute humidity, how mosquitoes survive Dengue virus infection, and viruses of bacteria.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #21 (38 MB .mp3,  55 minutes)

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  • Unusual wasp-virus symbiosis
  • Absolute humidity modulates influenza virus transmission, survival, and seasonality
  • How mosquitoes survive Dengue virus infection
  • Little Lambda, Who Made Thee?
  • Structure of HK97 procapsid

Science blog of the week: BioJobBlog by Cliff Mintz
Science podcast pick of the week: Distillations –  a weekly science podcast that brings you extracts from the past, present, and future of chemistry
Science book of the week: The Life of a Virus by Andrea Creager

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

TWiV 20: Hepatitis C virus

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Matt Evans

Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Matt Evans converse about TED, the Wakefield autism controversy, 99 rhinovirus sequences, Marburg in the USA, and hepatitis C virus.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #20 (46 MB .mp3, 66 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

  • A photographer catches Bill Gates’ mosquitoes
  • Joe DeRisi at TED
  • Dengue virus entry movie
  • Sequencing of 99 rhinovirus serotype genomes
  • Two views of the Wakefield autism controversy here and here
  • Marburg virus comes to the USA
  • Human occludin is a hepatitis C virus entry factor required for infection of mouse cells

Science blog of the week: Not exactly rocket science by Ed Yong
Science podcast pick of the week: Neuropod
Science book of the week: Phage and the Origins of Molecular Biology Edited by John Cairns, Guther S. Stent, and James D. Watson

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 19: Cap-snatching

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Vincent and Alan discuss cap-snatching by the hantavirus N protein and the influenza virus endonuclease, HIV-1 and Ebola virus antagonism of tetherin, and influenza pneumonia.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #19 (28 MB .mp3, 40 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Science blog of the week: Mystery Rays from Outer Space
Science podcast pick of the week: Emerging Infectious Diseases Podcast
Science book of the week: The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett

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

TWiV 18: Can a virus make you fat?

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier and Alan Dove

Vincent, Dick, and Alan discuss adenovirus type 36 and obesity, new influenza antiviral drugs, viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus of fish, and Ebola virus in pigs and pig farmers in the Phillipines.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #18 (35 MB .mp3, 50 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Science blog of the week: Rubor Dolor Calor Tumor
Science podcast pick of the week: Originz
Science book of the week: Biohazard by Ken Alibek

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

TWiV 17: Seminal discoveries in virology

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dick Despommier

Guest: Saul Silverstein

Vincent, Dick, and Saul talk about discoveries in virology that have had a major impact on the field.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #17 (37 MB .mp3,  57 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

  • Sem•i•nal (adjective): strongly influencing later developments.
  • Note: There are two HPV vaccines on the market: Gardasil (quadrivalent, types 6, 11, 16, 18) and Cervarix (bivalent, types 16 and 18).Gates Foundation donates to polio eradication effort.
  • Testing a bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine in India.
  • We played a clip from net@night episode 83.
  • I wrote about Jonathan Swift’s ‘Animalcules’ on virology blog.

Science blog of the week: Research Blogging
Science podcast pick of the week: Boston Museum of Science podcast
Science book of the week: The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas

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

TWiV 16: Virology in Saanen, HIV origins

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Jeremy Luban

Vincent and Jeremy, in Saanen, Switzerland, review the 19th Challenge in Virology meeting, and implications of a new HIV-1 sequence from 1960 for the origin of AIDS.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #16 (44 MB .mp3,  63 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

  • NY Times article on Offit vaccine book.
  • Nature paper on new 1960 HIV-1 sequence.
  • Massive polio immunization in Pakistan.
  • PLoS paper on T cell responses to HERVs in HIV-1 infection.

Science blog of the week: Eye on DNA by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Science podcast pick of the week: Persiflager’s Infectious Disease Podcast
Science book of the week: Microbe Hunters by by Paul de Kruif

TWiV is podcast of the week at net@night.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 15: Deer mice, Spanish flu, measles, antiviral resistance

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Dick, and Alan converse about hantavirus spread by large deer mice, why the 1918 influenza virus replicates in the lower respiratory tract, measles in Europe, and the growing resistance of  influenza virus to antivirals.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #15 (37 MB .mp3,  53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Science blog of the week: Molecule of the Day
Science podcast pick of the week: Meet the Scientist by Merry Buckley
Science book of the week: The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin – published 150 years ago.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 14: Common cold, H5N1 transmission, HIV denial, Ebola

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Vincent and Alan discuss a viral upper respiratory tract infection, transmission of H5N1 influenza virus, death of an HIV denialist, and the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #14 (37 MB .mp3, 53 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

  • PLoS Pathogens paper on transmission of H5N1 influenza virus.
  • Ebola outbreak in DRC reported by ProMedMail.
  • Death of HIV denialist.
  • BioCrowd, a network for bioscientists.
  • Molecules, the iPhone/iPod Touch app to display molecules.

Science blog of the week: ViroBlogy
Science podcast pick of the week: Astronomy Cast
Science book of the week: The Cutter Incident by Paul A. Offit, MD

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 13: Top 10 virology stories of 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Vincent and Alan talk about President-elect Obama’s choices for his science advisors, SARS sensationalism, a new enteric picornavirus, and the top 10 virology stories of 2008.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #13 (34 MB .mp3, 49 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

TWiV’s top 10 virology stories of 2008:

1. Nobel Prize in Medicine to Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and zur Hausen
2. AIDS elite controllers partly explained
3. Cancellation of PAVE HIV-1 vaccine trial
4. Gut homing receptor for HIV-1
5. New Ebola strain
6. New mosquito virus
7. How mosquitoes survive virus infection
8. Mouse model for Chikungunya
9. Genome sequences of 150 avian influenza virus strains
10.  Understanding the RS virus vaccine failure

Science blog of the week: Aetiology
Science podcast pick of the week: biobytes
Science book of the week: Principles of Virology, 3rd Edition by Flint, Enquist, Racaniello, and Skalka. Details on how to win a free copy here.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

Have a great 2009!

TWiV 12: Prions, lemur lentiviruses, RS virus vaccine, H5N1

Host: Vincent Racaniello (Wikipedia entry, and photo with Hilary Koprowski)

Guests: Alan Dove and Angela Rasmussen

Vincent, Alan, and Angela discuss Kuru, prions in milk, ancient lentiviruses found in the chromosomes of lemurs, a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine failure in the 1960s, and recent outbreaks of H5N1 influenza in chickens.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #12 (30.8 MB .mp3,  44 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

  • Episode transcript (pdf) – Thanks, Gertrude!
  • D. Carleton Gajdusek obituary in the NY Times. We forgot to mention that he won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on Kuru.
  • PLoS Pathogens article on prions in sheep milk.
  • PNAS article on endogenous lemur lentivirus
  • Nature Medicine article on the failed respiratory syncytial virus vaccine.
  • December 18 was the 100th anniversary of the discovery of poliovirus.

Science podcast pick of the week: Skepticality.
Science book of the week: Science Fictions: A Scientific Mystery, a Massive Cover-up and the Dark Legacy of Robert Gallo by John Crewdson.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

The Hosts of TWiV

Vincent Racaniello, Ph.D.


Brianne Barker, Ph.D.


Rich Condit, Ph.D.


Alan Dove, Ph.D.


Daniel Griffin, M.D.,
Ph.D., CTropMed CTH


Angela Mingarelli, DVM


Jolene Ramsey, Ph.D.


Kathy Spindler, Ph.D.


CLICK FOR MORE INFO

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