This Week in Virology

TWiV 650: Virology is infinite

August 6, 2020

In this mid-week episode of Earth’s Virology Podcast, we analyze SARS-CoV-2 transmission among youths at a summer camp, adaptation to mice by passage, the importance of T cells for recovery from COVID-19, and listener questions.

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

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Travis County indicators dashboard 3:07
SARS-CoV-2 transmission at an overnight camp (MMWR) 11:45
Adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 in mice (Science) 22:54, 24:53
Acute SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs DC and T cell responses (Imm) 40:28
Boulder, Columbia, Illinois rapid saliva tests 1:12:28
Letter drafts for $1 testing 1:55:18, 2:00:03
Letters read on TWiV 650 1:07:48
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:58:38

Kathy – BBC Witness History, Maurice Hilleman 9 minute audio (quotes by Paul Offit) “The fastest vaccine ever developed”And APOD Picture Rocks Sun Dagger

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 649: Ohio State viral

August 4, 2020

Vincent visits Ohio State University (March 2020) and speaks with Shan-Lu, David, Amanda, Mark, Matt, Chris, and Qiuhong about their careers and their work on retroviruses, hepatitis C virus, coronaviruses, paramyxoviruses, and environmental viruses.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Shan-Lu Liu, David Bisaro, Amanda Panfill, Mark Peeples, Matt Sullivan, Chris Walker, Qiuhong Wang

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Download TWiV 649 (63 MB .mp3, 105 min)
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New virus requires international control (Nature) 26:00
TIM-family proteins inhibit HIV-1 release (PNAS) 35:50
Designing a HCV vaccine (Curr Op Virol) 42:58
Attenuated vaccines for RSV in children (J Inf Dis) 57:25
Plant histone reader suppresses geminivirus infection (J Virol) 1:04:55
HTLV-associated malignancy (Curr Op Virol) 1:11:54
Coronaviruses in pigs (Curr Op Virol) 1:21:36
Marine DNA viral diversity pole to pole (Cell) 1:35:30
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 648: Life is for learning

August 2, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, followed by a review of the findings that children shed as much SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA from the respiratory tract as older patients, the lineage giving rise to SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in bats in China for decades, and answers to listener questions.

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

Guest: Daniel Griffin and Chuck Knirsch

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Download TWiV 648 (105 MB .mp3, 175 min)
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Roche trial of Actemra for COVID-19 fails (Reuters) 23:58
Postdoctoral position at RML 55:11
Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 at different ages (JAMA Ped) 57:27
Evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 (Nat Microbio) 1:10:08
Letters read on TWiV 648 29:07, 1:42:01
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 647: Testing is our way out of this crisis

July 30, 2020

In this mid-week TWiV, children under 10 do transmit SARS-CoV-2, why hydroxychloroquine does not work for treating COVID-19, scale-up of diagnostic testing, explanation of LAMP testing, and listener questions.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

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Download TWiV 647 (69 MB .mp3, 114 min)
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Children do transmit infection (Emerg Inf Dis) 9:06
NIH RADx initiative (NEJM) 16:25
Rockefeller Foundation testing plan 23:44
HCQ observational study (Int J Inf Dis) 27:04
Can’t kill HCQ (Science Based Medicine) 29:12
HCQ does not inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells (Nature) 32:46
HCQ does not inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in nonhuman primates (Nature) 31:13
Shut-down to stop SARS-CoV-2 (WaPo) 34:56
Racine firefighters doing LAMP (Wired) 38:59
LAMP (video, webinar, paper 1, paper 2) 40:24
Letter drafts for $1 testing 22:38
Letters read on TWiV 647 51:34
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:51:11

Kathy – Vertical Farms Fill a Tall Order by Dickson Despommier and APOD
Rich – Mars in 4K

Listener Pick

Christiane – ZSK – Ich habe Besseres zu tun (Official Video) Drosten
Jon – The Logic of Doomsday

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 646: Virocentricity II with Eugene Koonin

July 28, 2020

From the NIH campus (recorded February 2020) Vincent and Rich meet with Eugene Koonin to discuss his theories on the evolutionary origins of viruses.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Eugene Koonin

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Download TWiV 646 (70 MB .mp3, 116 min)
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Links for this episode

Virocentricity with Eugene Koonin (TWiV 275) 3:30
Origin of viruses (Nat Rev) 3:39
Multiple origins of capsid proteins from cells (PNAS) 15:08
Origins and evolution of global RNA virome (mBio) 52:45
Evolution of NCLDV of eukaryotes (Adv Virus Res) 1:19:05
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 645: Lions and tigers and zookeepers (oh my)

July 26, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, followed by a review of the State Department document on the Wuhan BSL-4 laboratory, the report on infection of tigers and lions in the Bronx Zoo, and, answers to listener questions.

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

Guest: Daniel Griffin

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Download TWiV 645 (98 MB .mp3, 163 min)
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Links for this episode

State Dept. memo on Wuhan BSL-4 lab (pdf) 47:12
Biosafety levels (Wikipedia) 1:05:42
Inside a BSL-4 (TWiV) 1:09:07
From people to panthers (bioRxiv) 1:11:25
Letters read on TWiV 645 33:17, 45:44, 47:15, 1:29:10
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 644: Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good

July 23, 2020

In this mid-week edition, identifying flawed research before it becomes dangerous, Michigan governor tells America to mask-up, Pfizer mRNA vaccine gets $1.95 billion from Warp Speed, preliminary phase I/II results of the ChAdOx1 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, answers to listener questions.

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

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Download TWiV 644 (69 MB .mp3, 115 min)
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Links for this episode

US COVID-19 cases (NY Times) 3:45
Identify flawed research before it is dangerous (NY Times) 5:07
Mask up, America! (NY Times) 16:34
$1.95 billion to Pfizer (NY Times) 19:44
Phase I trial of Pfizer mRNA vaccine (medRxiv) 52:08
Phase I/II trial of ChAdOx1 vaccine (Lancet) 24:15
Rockefeller Foundation testing plan 59:40
TWiV 640 on MedCram 58:30
Letter drafts for $1 testing 57:50, 1:23:16
Letters read on TWiV 644 1:01:07
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 643: Bernie Moss, the real Poxdoc

July 21, 2020

From the NIH campus (recorded February 2019) Vincent and Rich meet with Bernie Moss to hear about his training and his remarkable 50-year-plus career working on poxviruses.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Bernie Moss

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Download TWiV 643 (67 MB .mp3, 112 min)
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Link for this episode

Reflections on Bernie Moss’ career (JBC) 5:56

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 642: Bringin’ in 50 keys of spike mRNA

July 19, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical update on COVID-19, then we discuss phase I preliminary results of the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, factors associated with death in 17 million patients, and answer listener questions.