This Week in Virology

TWiV 743: Shape-shifting viruses

April 15, 2021

The TWiVsters explain how the shape of pleomorphic virus particles – spherical or filamentous – determines the probability of virus attachment and fusion, and resistance to selective pressure such as antibodies that block cell entry.

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

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Links for this episode

Pleomorphic virus particles and cell entry (Nat Micro) 3:14
Letters read on TWiV 743 1:11:21
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:44:48

Dickson – A tiny particle’s wobble could upend the laws of physics
Rich – COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2: Viruses, Vaccines & Variants Made Easy
Amy – Vaccine Anthems
Vincent – DarkNet Diaries Ep. 86

Listener Picks

Steve – Cover Your Freakin’ Face

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 742: De-fusing COVID-19

April 11, 2021

TWiV reviews a drug screen for inhibitors of syncytium formation, the fusing of cells caused by SARS-CoV-2, which reveals that the process is regulated by a calcium-activated ion channel and scramblase that is inhibited by the anti-parasite drug Niclosamide.

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

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Download TWiV 742 (65 MB .mp3, 108 min)
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Links for this episode

TMEM16 inhibitors block SARS-CoV-2 driven syncytium formation (Nature) 4:13
Letters read on TWiV 742 52:24
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:33:41

Brianne – COVID-19: a disaster five years in the making
Alan – The Tyranny of Merit
Rich – Racism Makes Me Question Everything. I Got the Vaccine Anyway
Kathy – The Transcontinental Burrito Tunnel
Vincent – Trudy Rey’s YouTube Channel

Listener Picks

Jeff – Rebecca Lee Smith on Left Right and Center
Ryan – Perfect Strangers (clip)

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 741: COVID-19 clinical update #57 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

April 10, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #57, Daniel Griffin covers children and MIS-C, school opening plans, transmission event with masks, fomite transmission, diagnostic test performance, AZ vaccine and blood clots, and long COVID and the effect of vaccines.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 741 (26 MB .mp3, 43 min)
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Children with MIS-C (JAMA) 5:35
Transmission with masks (Op For Inf Dis) 11:27
Accuracy of diagnostic tests (J Clin Micro) 17:10
Long COVID in hospitalized patients (BMJ) 27:23
Neurological and psychiatric outcomes of COVID-19 (medRxiv) 28:52
Letters read on TWiV 741 34:03
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 740: Complementation will get you everywhere

April 8, 2021

The Guardians of the TWiV-o-verse discuss the process of codon deoptimization for the production of experimental infectious attenuated viral vaccines, and how a respiratory syncytial virus with 619 base changes was rescued by genomes with very large internal deletions.

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

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Download TWiV 740 (58 MB .mp3, 97 min)
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NIDO 2021 Symposium 2:04
ASV hosts free COVID-19 Vaccine Education Town Halls (register here) 2:33
Research position in Spindler laboratory 3:43
Attenuation of poliovirus by codon deoptimization (Science) 8:00
Rescue of codon-deoptimized RSV by large deletions (PNAS) 6:12
Letters read on TWiV 740 57:08
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:20:38

Dickson – Let us now praise tiny ants
Brianne – Small-school science
Rich – Smallpox ‘virus squads’ and the mandatory vaccinations upheld by the Supreme Court
Kathy – The Transcontinental Burrito Tunnel
Vincent – Glass music by Robert Tiso

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 739: COVID-19 convalescent plasma with Arturo Casadevall

April 4, 2021

Arturo Casadevall joins TWiV to discuss the use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19, including a history of the process, how plasma is prepared and tested, why it is difficult to conduct randomized clinical trials, how this treatment has fared and his hopes for the future.

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

Guest: Arturo Casadevall

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Download TWiV 739 (68 MB .mp3, 113 min)
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Victory for Scientific Pragmatism (New Atlantis) 50:11
Convalescent plasma levels and risk of COVID-19 death (NEJM) 15:29, 23:08
COVID-19 convalescent plasma safety indicators (JCI)
COVID-19 convalescent plasma reduces mortality (medRxiv) 39:11
Pfizer mRNA vaccine in 12-15 year olds (Pfizer) 1:10:12
NIDO 2021 Symposium 1:07:11
ASV hosts free COVID-19 Vaccine Education Town Halls (register here) 1:07:33
Lab tech position in Kathy Spindler’s lab (on ASV jobs site) 1:09:16
Letters read on TWiV 739
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:42:35

Brianne – The Ocean’s Youngest Monsters Are Ready for Glamour Shots
Alan – 7 Billion Humans
Rich – 15 Fascinating Animal X-Rays From the Oregon Zoo
Vincent – Respiratory pathogen trends

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 738: COVID-19 clinical update #56 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

April 3, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #56, Daniel Griffin notes increasing hospitalization in children and young adults, Pfizer vaccine efficacy results in 12-15 year olds, rapid self administered nucleic acid and antigen tests, mRNA vaccine efficacy in real world conditions, and improvement of long COVID after vaccination.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 738 (21 MB .mp3, 35 min)
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Pfizer mRNA vaccine is 100% effective in 12-15 year olds (Pfizer) 5:32
Cue at-home PCR test receives FDA EUA (Cue) 8:11
DxTerity COVID-19 saliva nucleic acid at-home test (Amazon) 9:42
T-Detect T cell test (T-Detect) 10:09
GSK submits EUA for VIR-7831 (GSK) 17:26
Letters read on TWiV 738 25:54
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 737: SARS-CoV-2 in NYC wastewater

April 1, 2021

John, Monica, and Davida join TWiV to discuss development of a method to detect SARS-CoV-2 in raw sewage from all 14 of New York City’s treatment plants, and its use to determine the presence of the genome throughout the pandemic and detection of genome mutations from variants of concern.

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

Guest: John Dennehy, Davida Smyth, and Monica Trujillo

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Download TWiV 737 (69 MB .mp3, 115 min)
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Links for this episode

Protocol for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater (medRxiv) 23:34, 1:03:42
Mutations from VOC in NYC wastewater (medRxiv) 50:42, 1:03:50
WHO report on COVID-19 origins (pdf) 1:04:05
Effectiveness of mRNA vaccines at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection (MMWR) 1:28:07
Prothrombic thrombocytopenic disorder after AZ vaccine (Res Square) 1:32:56
NIDO 2021 Symposium 1:01:38
Postdoctoral position at Towson University
ASV hosts free COVID-19 Vaccine Education Town Halls (register here) 1:02:14
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:45:00

Dickson – 250,000 Dominoes
Brianne – Using RT-PCR in COVID-19 Testing
Rich – Beaded Lacewings Can Take Down Six Termites With A Single Fart
Kathy – Tracking the COVID code
Vincent – Administering vaccines to adults

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 736: Rhapsody in T with Alessandro Sette

March 28, 2021

Alessandro Sette joins TWiV to discuss the role of T cells in COVID-19, the finding that amino acid changes in SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern have a negligible impact on T cell reactivity in convalescent patients and vaccinees, and whether a next generation vaccine should include more viral proteins than spike.

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

Guest: Alessandro Sette

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Download TWiV 736 (73 MB .mp3, 122 min)
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Links for this episode

Little impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on T cell reactivity (bioRxiv) 6:28, 25:13
NIDO 2021 Symposium 1:12:02
Postdoctoral position at Towson University 1:15:08
ASV hosts free COVID-19 Vaccine Education Town Halls (register here) 1:12:38
Letters read on TWiV 736 1:30:06
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:46:29

Alan – The Disinformation Dozen report
Rich – No needle, but the damage was done
Kathy – Zinn art David Zinn
Vincent – Clueless Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Endorses PACE as “Prevailing View” Among Docs

Listener Picks

Justin – Finnish astrophotographer spends 12 years creating a Milky Way mosaic

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 735: COVID-19 clinical update #55 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

March 27, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #55, Daniel Griffin reviews recommendations for keeping transmission low in school settings, optimal testing strategies for schools and businesses, impact of vaccines on asymptomatic infections, vaccine safety in PASC patients, and early use of aspirin associated with decreased mortality.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 735 (24 MB .mp3, 40 min)
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Links for this episode

COVID-19 in primary and secondary schools (MMWR) 3:37
Low transmission in elementary schools (MMWR) 6:16
COVID-19 testing guidance (CDC) 7:45
COVID-19 vaccines and asymptomatic infections (Clin Inf Dis) 15:29
Vaccine safety in long COVID (medRxiv) 17:48
Phase 3 results of antibody cocktail (Regeneron) 22:56
Aspirin associated with decreased mortality (Anesth Analg) 24:40
Post-acute long COVID-19 syndrome (Nat Med) 26:31
Timing, duration, health impact of PASC (medRxiv) 27:30
Persistent neurologic and cognitive dysfunction in PASC (Ann Clin Trans Neurol) 30:07
Letters read on TWiV 735 32:36
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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

TWiV 734: Weiss hath no furin like a virus scorned

March 21, 2021

Susan Weiss returns to TWiV to discuss coronavirus entry into cells and the role of spike protein cleavage by proteases, why lab escaped hypotheses for SARS-CoV-2 are unlikely, and modulation of innate immune responses during infection.