This Week in Virology

TWiV 855: T time with Alessandro Sette

January 20, 2022

Alessandro Sette returns to TWiV to discuss the observation that SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induces T cells that are able to cross-recognize variants Alpha to Omicron.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

Guest: Alessandro Sette

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Download TWiV 855 (95 MB .mp3, 97 min)
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Travel Award Applications (ASV) 1:01:36
Impact of variants on T cells (Cell Rep Med) 16:38
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Letters read on TWiV 855 1:07:43

Weekly Picks 1:18:00

Brianne – 75 years of research on human diseases in 1 minute
Kathy – 10 second video of COVID-19 spread
Rich – Diffraction spike
Vincent – John’s Furniture Repair and Transcend Furniture Gallery

Listener Picks

Alison – FDA drug shortages
Ingrid – One woman’s mission to get vaccines to her rural Alabama town

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 854: Omicron is evasive

January 16, 2022

TWiV reviews findings that increased fitness of the Omicron variant is due to immune evasion, not an increase in intrinsic transmissibility, and determination of infectious viral load in patients infected with wild type, Delta and Omicron viruses reveals lack of correlation with RNA loads determined by RT-PCR, similar levels of shedding among Delta and Omicron, and greatly reduced shedding in vaccinated people.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Travel Award Applications (ASV) 3:20
Omicron transmission in Danish households (medRxiv) 15:34
Infectious viral load in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients (medRxiv) 1:02:37
Fred Murphy on TWiV 625 1:48:59
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:40:03

Dickson – Favorite Science Photos of 2021
Brianne – Viruses, Vaccines, and COVID-19 videos from American Museum of Natural History
Kathy – Klompas et al. “Current insights into respiratory virus transmission…”
Rich – Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey
Vincent – Ebola (1996) by David Molesky at The Incubator

Listener Picks

Randall – Robert Malone & Peter McCullough: A litany of untruths
Suellen – Omicron and the case of the hidden evolution – Understanding Evolution

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 853: COVID-19 clinical update #97 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

January 15, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #97, Daniel Griffin covers immunity after infection recognized by CDC, outcomes before and after Omicron, infectious viral load in Delta vs Omicron, PCR vs rapid antigen tests, booster interval shortened to 5 months, risk factors for severe outcomes in vaccinated, cross-reactive memory T cells, vaccine effectiveness vs MIS-C, and Rivaroxiban for thromboprophylaxis.

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Quarantine and isolation (CDC) 2:37
Outcomes before and after Omicron (medRxiv) 3:22
Infectious viral load in Delta vs Omicron infections (medRxiv) 8:55
PCR vs rapid antigen test (medRxiv) 15:29
Booster interval to 5 months (FDA) 22:31
Cross-reactive memory T cells (Nat Comm) 23:01
Risk factors for severe outcomes in vaccinated (MMWR) 25:56
Vaccine effectiveness vs MIS-C (MMWR) 27:24
Cross-reactive T cells to Omicron from vaccines (medRxiv) 29:12
Rivaroxiban for thromboprophylaxis (Lancet) 38:04
Internship at Parasites Without Borders (pdf) 42:15
Letters read on TWiV 853 43:07
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

TWiV 852: Tree man syndrome

January 13, 2022

A TWiV threesome explains the observation that humans with inherited T cell CD28 deficiency are susceptible to severe warts driven by human papilloma virus infection, but are otherwise healthy.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 852 (63 MB .mp3, 104 min)
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Links for this episode

Vaccine Town Hall (ASV)
Travel Award Applications (ASV) 2:11
CD28 deficiency and severe warts (Cell) 4:43
Vincent interviews Harald zur Hausen (virology blog)
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:23:43

Brianne – Every Pore on Your Face Is a Walled Garden
Rich – “On Warts” by Lewis Thomas (Pdf)
Vincent – Cells at Work Code Black 1

Listener Picks

Chris – Ria Lina on the Guilty Feminist podcast
Duncan – Meet the green kleptos of the animal kingdom

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 851: Questions are tricky

January 9, 2022

The TWiV team reviews the observation that infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant causes reduced reproduction and pathogenesis in mice and hamsters.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, Brianne Barker, and Amy Rosenfeld

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Links for this episode

Vaccine Town Hall (ASV) 6:46
Travel Award Applications (ASV) 7:01
Omicron infection in mice and hamsters (Res Square) 8:30
Letters read on TWiV 851 58:59
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:26:51

Dickson – Engineering the James Webb Space Telescope
Amy – T cells might be our bodies’ best shot against Omicron
Brianne – Where is Webb?
Rich – First U.S. vaccine mandate in 1809 launched 200 years of court battles
Vincent – The Secret of Life by Howard Markel

Listener Picks

Jen – Antidote
David – Rosie Revere, Engineer

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 850: COVID-19 clinical update #96 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

January 8, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #96, Daniel Griffin reviews Omicron in South Africa, rapid antigen tests, viral coinfections, isolation and quarantine, saliva preferred for Omicron, risk factors for severe disease in vaccinated, Paxlovid dosing, and long COVID.

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Links for this episode

Variant proportions (CDC) 4:07
Omicron in South Africa (JAMA) 8:24
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (Ann Int Med) 15:18
Diagnostics for COVID-19 (Lancet)
Comparison of rapid antigen tests (J Clin Med) 18:05
Rapid antigen tests to reduce isolation (medRxiv) 20:49
Frequency of viral confections (MMWR) 21:24
Isolation and quarantine (CDC) 13:12, 24:58
Saliva preferred for Omicron (medRxiv) 31:57
Risk factors for severe COVID in vaccinated (MMWR) 34:19
Paxlovid dosing (Pfizer) 40:37
Fatigue and cognitive impairment (Brain, Behavior, Immune) 44:11
Letters read on TWiV 850 47:04
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

TWiV 849: Arc of the epitope

January 7, 2022

TWiV kicks off 2022 with a review of the virology highlights of 2021, from three virologists, one immunologist, a science writer, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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COVID vaccines: TWiV 708, 715, 718, 844 23:04
Non-CoV papers: TWiV 763, 784, 819, 822, 740, 848 31:56
Immune correlates of protection: TWiV 791, 799, 835, 832, 841, 789 1:00:21
Fitness: TWiV 705, 836, 768, 757 1:08:22
Guests off beaten track: 723, 726, 732, 838, 773, 745 1:21:07
Lab leak nonsense: TWiV 762, 774 1:31:05
One Health/Viruses in Wildlife: TWiV 799, 722, 771, 809, 798, 759, 791, 847, 750, 821, 824, 804 1:35:25
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:47:58

Brianne – Don’t Look Up
Kathy – spaceweather.com
Rich – Video of a Green Flash (wiki)
Alan – Fungally-modified violins
Vincent – This Old Tony especially this segment

Listener Picks

Paul – Deep Mind and AlphaFold
Grant – SARS-CoV-2 reproduction cycle

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 847: On Dasher, on Dancer, on Corona and Lassa

January 2, 2022

For the final episode of 2021, TWiV reviews an experimental infectious attenuated Lassa fever vaccine based on a codon-deoptimized glycoprotein gene, and SARS-CoV-2 infection of free-ranging white-tailed deer.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 847 (61 MB .mp3, 102 min)
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Links for this episode

Codon-deoptimized Lassa fever vaccine (mBio) 3:52
Attenuation of dengue virus by codon deoptimization (TWiV 351) 11:52
Codon deoptimization of poliovirus and RS virus (TWiV 740) 11:54
Codon deoptimization of DNA viruses (TWiV 362 letters) 11:58
CEPI on TWiV 612 31:37
SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer (Nature) 39:59
Letters read on TWiV 847 1:02:00
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:27:39

Dickson – EO Wilson (Ants and The Conversation)
Brianne – The Best Fun Science Stories of 2021
Kathy – Using sound for data analysis; chemotactic bacteria and Moo loo story
Alan – Owls of the Easern Ice, by Jonathan Slaght
Vincent – TWiV 9: Fever! The discovery of Lassa virus and TWiV 548: Mice, shrews, and caterpillars

Listener Picks

Larry – Immunity
Jeff – Daily Hospital Surveillance Report

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 848: COVID-19 clinical update #95 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

January 1, 2022

In COVID-19 clinical update #95, Daniel Griffin discusses new CDC guidelines for isolation and quarantine, EUA for Molnupiravir, children and COVID, vaccine safety in 5-11 year olds, Omicron outbreaks in Nebraska and Denmark, Baylor’s COVID vaccine, and COVID-OUT for ivermectin.

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Download TWiV 848 (58 MB .mp3, 48 min)
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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

TWiV 846: Beta was stirring, and now in a mouse

December 26, 2021

TWiV explores the impact of the intestinal virome on seroconversion after rotavirus vaccination, and implications of the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 beta variant to infect wild-type laboratory mice.