This Week in Virology

TWiV 763: Cap-snatch fever

June 3, 2021

TWiV explains how cap-snatching, the priming of viral mRNA synthesis with fragments of host mRNAs, can lead to the synthesis of novel viral proteins.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

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Links for this episode

Cap-snatching makes new ORFs (Cell) 1:56
Cap-snatching leads to novel proteins (Cell) 9:40
Letters read on TWiV 763 1:02:10
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:31:33

Kathy – Flat pasta that turns into shapes here and here
Rich – Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart (wiki)
Vincent – Martin Beck police mysteries

Listener Picks

Greg – Stewart Lee on Loch Ness monster

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 762: SARS-CoV-2 origins with Robert Garry

May 30, 2021

Robert Garry joins TWiV to explain how the molecular biology of SARS-CoV-2 shows that it came from Nature and not a lab, including the receptor binding domain, the furin cleavage site, and the two lineages circulating in Wuhan wildlife markets.

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

Guest: Robert Garry

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Download TWiV 762 (68 MB .mp3, 114 min)
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Links for this episode

The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 (Nature) 8:56
Two early genome lineages in Wuhan markets (virological.org) 38:18
Insights from spike proteins of bat sarbecoviruses (virological.org) 1:06:06
Letters read on TWiV 762 1:15:02
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 48:43, 1:36:35

Dickson – 143 Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena
Brianne – The Arcane Research that Prepared Us for COVID-19
Rich – Hidden Brain podcast
Alan – A scientific theory of gist communication
Vincent – Divisive COVID ‘lab leak’ debate prompts dire warnings from researchers

Listener Picks

Jon – Moderna Science Day

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 761: COVID-19 clinical update #64 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

May 29, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #64, Daniel Griffin covers new guidance from NY on day camps, mitigation and infection rates in schools, testing to sustain in person instruction, Moderna mRNA vaccine highly effective in adolescents, longer storage of Pfizer vaccine, FDA EUA for sotrovimab, and persistent illness in UK children.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 761 (25 MB .mp3, 41 min)
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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 760: SARS-CoV-2 origins with Peter Daszak, Thea Kølsen Fischer, Marion Koopmans

May 27, 2021

Peter Daszak, Thea Kølsen Fischer, and Marion Koopmans, members of the WHO team investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2 join TWiV to explain the work done by the committee during phase one, their conclusions, and the extent of work that remains to be done in phase two.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guests: Peter Daszak, Thea Kølsen Fischer, and Marion Koopmans

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Links for this episode

Peter on TWiV 615, 623
Thea on TWiV 576
Marion on TWiV 413, 548
WHO report on origins of SARS-CoV-2 2:23
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:17:55

Kathy – My Octopus Teacher
Rich – John Wyndam classic Sci Fi: The Chrysalids, The Day of the Triffids
Vincent – SARS-CoV-2 Phylogeny and Spatiotemporal Spread (paper)

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 759: Pork dogs and an evolutionary pickle

May 23, 2021

TWiV examines spillovers of porcine and canine coronaviruses into humans in Haiti and Malaysia, and how antigenic evolution of measles virus is constrained by multiple co-dominant epitopes on the viral glycoproteins.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Amy Rosenfeld

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Download TWiV 759 (80 MB .mp3, 134 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV vaccine town halls 3:32
Porcine deltacoronavirus in Haitian children (medRxiv) 4:21
Canine coronavirus from Malaysian pneumonia patient (Clin Inf Dis) 30:16
Co-dominant epitopes in measles virus (Cell Reports Medicine) 44:19
No shift, measles (TWiV 340) 46:02
The Cancer Thief (TWiV 395) 1:09:23
Letters read on TWiV 759 1:21:14
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:44:02

Dickson – Ants: workers of the world
Amy – Let The Record Show by Sarah Schulman
Rich – QAnon resembles the games I design
Alan – Librivox
Vincent – Stratechery

Listener Picks

Fernando – The 60-year old scientific screwup that helped COVID kill

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 758: COVID-19 clinical update #63 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

May 22, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #63, Daniel Griffin reviews cases at child care facilities, estimates of mRNA vaccine effectiveness, risk of reinfection in university students, enhanced antibody generation with extended interval of mRNA vaccination, no benefit of convalescent plasma in hospitalized patients, and risk of clinical sequelae after acute infection.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 758 (25 MB .mp3, 41 min)
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Links for this episode

COVID-19 in child care facilities (MMWR) 8:36
mRNA vaccine effectiveness (MMWR) 11:55
Excelsior pass (NYS) 17:43
Risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in university students (CID) 19:25
Enhanced antibody production with longer mRNA vaccine interval (medRxiv) 22:12
Convalescent plasma trial in hospitalized patients (Lancet) 24:27
Phase 3 data on REGEN-COV (PR Newswire) 29:30
Clinical sequelae after acute COVID-19 (BMJ) 34:53
Letters read on TWiV 758 38:53
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 757: Supershedders and super vaccines

May 20, 2021

TWiV reveals that 2% of SARS-CoV-2−positive individuals carry 90% of the virus circulating in a college campus, and a nanoparticle vaccine that induces cross-reactive immunity against multiple pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses.

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

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Download TWiV 757 (58 MB .mp3, 96 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV vaccine town halls 2:14
2% of SARS-CoV-2 positives carry most viral RNA (PNAS) 16:29
Pan-coronavirus nanoparticle vaccine (Nature) 33:07
Why HIV-1 particles have few spikes (PLoS Path) 41:33, 1:09:25
Letters read on TWiV 757 10:50, 1:17:07, 1:58:18
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:47:47

Brianne – Darwin’s Arch Collapses
Kathy – The woman who discovered the first coronavirus
Rich – “Richard Feynman: The pleasure of finding things out”
Vincent – CORONA Project

Listener Picks

JH – Fungus kills cicadas
Alan – Liftoff by Eric Berger

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 756: Precluding problematic polio prophylaxis

May 16, 2021

TWiV returns to the 2012 brouhaha over transmission experiments with avian H5N1 influenza virus, re-examines the claim of SARS-CoV-2 RNA integration into human DNA, and reviews the engineering and testing of a genetically stable version of the attenuated type 2 Sabin poliovirus vaccine.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Amy Rosenfeld

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Download TWiV 756 (80 MB .mp3, 134 min)
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Weekly Picks 1:50:53

Dickson – Five Deeps
Amy – Premonition by Michael Lewis
Alan – The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr
Rich – The Way Ferrofluid Floats Above a Superconductor Is Unreal
Vincent – Threading the NEIDL

Listener Picks

Iradis – SN15 Launch and Landing
Blue Pilgrim – Howland Garden Tools

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 755: COVID-19 clinical update #62 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

May 15, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #62, Daniel Griffin covers outdoor transmission of the virus, safe use of NSAIDS, expansion of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to include 12-15 year olds, post-disease Mucormycosis, and hydroxychloroquine treatment associated with increased mortality.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 755 (25 MB .mp3, 41 min)
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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 754: Tuesday two: SARS-CoV-2 and TLR2

May 13, 2021

TWiV discusses the finding that the envelope (E) protein of SARS-CoV-2 is sensed by toll-like receptor 2 on cells, leading to the production of inflammatory cytokines that cause damage to cells and tissues in COVID-19.