This Week in Virology

TWiV 654: TWiVering with excitement

August 16, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19 and the convalescent plasma trial, then we answer listener questions about the Russian vaccine, choir practice, face masks (wear them!), Mina testing, transmission, and much more.

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

Guests: Daniel Griffin and Chuck Knirsch

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Download TWiV 654 (93 MB .mp3, 156 min)
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Links for this episode

Daniel’s recommendations for COVID-19 testing (pdf) 25:16
Effects of convalescent plasma on COVID-19 (medRxiv) 26:05
ESCV virtual meeting on COVID-19 45:23
The Russian Vaccine (In The Pipeline) 1:02:20
Russia’s vaccine approval (Science) 1:02:09
Letters read on TWiV 654 32:25, 47:31
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 653: Back to school with COVID-19

August 14, 2020

Alfonso, Ken, Mary and Janet join TWiV to explain their modeling of school reopening strategies during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guests: Alfonso Landeros, Ken Lange, Mary E. Sehl, and Janet Sinsheimer

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Download TWiV 653 (34 MB .mp3, 56 min)
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Links for this episode

School reopening strategies (medRxiv) 1:46
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 652: The rules of contagion with Adam Kucharski

August 13, 2020

Epidemiologist Adam Kucharski joins TWiV to discuss SARS-CoV-2, including R0, incubation period, herd immunity, asymptomatic infection, superspreaders, children as drivers of pandemics, and how this one will end.

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

Guest: Adam Kucharski

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Download TWiV 652 (69 MB .mp3, 114 min)
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Links for this episode

The Rules of Contagion (Amazon affiliate link) 2:16
Overdispersion in SARS-CoV-2 transmission (Wellcome Open Res) 40:13
Sorrento Therapeutics test 1:08:59
In vitro diagnostics EUAs (FDA) 1:10:40
Letters read on TWiV 652 1:07:41
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 651: FDA rules with Denise Esposito

August 9, 2020

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, then former FDA Chief of Staff to the Commissioner Denise Esposito joins us to explain the challenges in approving vaccines, antiviral drugs, and diagnostic tests during a pandemic, followed by answers to listener questions.

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

Guests: Daniel Griffin and Denise Esposito

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Download TWiV 651 (98 MB .mp3, 164 min)
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Links for this episode

Template for at-home, OTC diagnostic tests (FDA) 1:33:37
Postdoctoral position in Prasad laboratory (pdf) 1:39:40
Rapidtests.org 1:40:46
Masks are cool, Miasma t-shirts (CafePress) 1:41:28
Letters read on TWiV 651 23:52, 1:44:49
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

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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Download TWiV 650 (73 MB .mp3, 122 min)
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Links for this episode

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 [email protected]

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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Links for this episode

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 [email protected]

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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Links for this episode

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 [email protected]

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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Links for this episode

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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.