This Week in Virology

TWiV 9: Fever! The discovery of Lassa virus

November 22, 2008

Fever! Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dick recall the discovery of Lassa virus in Africa in 1969. A non-fictional account of the story, ‘Fever’, written by John G. Fuller and published in 1974, inspired Vincent to become a virologist. Part of the story took place at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital (now Columbia University Medical Center), where both Vincent and Dick are employed. Dick remembers many of the key players in this medical drama.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #9 (19 MB .mp3, 41 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Click here to view to cover of ‘Fever!’
Buy a used copy of ‘Fever!’ at Amazon.

Science podcast pick of the week: The Naked Scientists (iTunes link).

Send your virology questions to [email protected]

TWiV 8: HIV resistance, Google flu, measles in Gibraltar, viral batteries

November 14, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dick converse about warfare preventing immunization of 120,000 children in Afghanistan, bone marrow transplant curing AIDS patient, Google tracking flu, measles outbreak in Gibraltar, using viruses to make batteries, and small mosquitoes and Dengue.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #8 (16.9 MB .mp3, 36 minutes)

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Article on using viruses to make batteries (PubMed: Virus-enabled synthesis and assembly of nanowires for lithium ion battery electrodes).

Science podcast pick of the week: NY Times Science Times (iTunes link).

Let us know what are your favorite science podcasts: [email protected]

TWiV 7: Viruses in video games

November 7, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Guest: Aidan Racaniello

Vincent, Dick, and Aidan discuss how viral infections play prominent roles in notable video games. Three games are discussed: World of Warcraft, Pandemic II, and Bioshock.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #7 (23.1 MB .mp3)

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An article on how World of Warcraft became a model for the transmission of virus infections was published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. The title of the article is “The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics.”
After we did the netcast we learned of a game for the iPhone called ‘Virus’. In this game your body is infected with a virus, and you must clear the infection by controlling white blood cells. The game is at the iTunes App store.

Science podcast pick of the week: MicrobiologyBytes.

TWiV is now part of Sciencepodcasters.

Episode transcript (pdf)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 6: Latest outbreaks of polio, west Nile and eastern equine encephalitis, Hendra, and norovirus

October 29, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss recent outbreaks of polio, west Nile and eastern equine encephalitis, Hendra, and norovirus.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #6 (19.8 MB .mp3)

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Links for this episode:

Dickson was at Pop!Tech last week.
Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.
US Geological Survey Disease Maps.
CDC page on Hendra and Nipah viruses.
The flying fox (Google image search).
Vincent’s virology course.
Vincent’s texbook is Principles of Virology, third edition, ASM Press (available December 2008).
Episode transcript (pdf)

Science podcast pick of the week: Brain Science Podcast.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 5: Herpesviruses

October 23, 2008

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Special guest: Saul Silverstein

Vincent and Saul discuss infection, latency, and reactivation by members of the herpesvirus family of viruses.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #5 (22.9 MB .mp3)

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Dickson Despommier is away this week at Pop!Tech.
CDC pages on herpes and zoster (shingles).
Episode transcript (download pdf)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 4: Rabies

October 18, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review the biology and pathogenesis of rabies virus.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #4 (16.7 MB .mp3)

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Links for this episode:

CDC page on rabies
Dick’s Ecology 101 course
Ecotone defined
Negri bodies defined (down on the page)
Episode transcript (download pdf)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 3: Dengue

October 2, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review the biology and pathogenesis of dengue virus.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #3 (19.6 MB .mp3 file)

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Links for this episode:

Article on the mortgage crisis and West Nile virus in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Environment-oriented review of Dengue.
Dengue page at the World Health Organization.
Episode transcript (download pdf)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 2: Polio is not dead

September 26, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the biology and pathogenesis of poliovirus infection and the plan to eradicate the virus from the planet.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #2 (22.9 MB .mp3 file)

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Links for this episode:

polioeradication.org for the latest information on the global state of polio.
Abstract of the Science article on engineering a new polio vaccine: “Virus attenuation by genome-scale changes in codon pair bias”.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 1: West Nile Virus

September 24, 2008

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson launch a new science podcast with a description of the emergence and spread of West Nile virus in the United States.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #1 (41.8 MB .mp3 file)

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Links for this episode:

Buy “West Nile Story” by Dickson Despommier.
ProMed Mail. The global reporting system for outbreaks of emerging infectious disease.
PubMed. A service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 14 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950s.
West Nile page at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Great maps of where the virus has been found.
Episode transcript (download pdf)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]