This Week in Virology

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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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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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.

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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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 [email protected]

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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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 [email protected]

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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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 [email protected]

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.

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

Guests: Daniel Griffin and Chuck Knirsch

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Download TWiV 642 (96 MB .mp3, 160 min)
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Links for this episode

Travis County virtual Town Hall 41:39
SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine, preliminary results (NEJM) 52:46
Factors associated with COVID-19 death (Nature) 1:33:27
Letters read on TWiV 642 27:38, 1:41:45
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 641: COVID-19 with Dr. Anthony Fauci

July 17, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci joins TWiV to discuss SARS-CoV-2 transmission, testing, immunity, pathogenesis, vaccines, and preparedness.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Dr. Anthony Fauci

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Download TWiV 641 (22 MB .mp3, 36 min)
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Dr. Fauci was previously on TWiV 219

Kiki’s Comments for this episode

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 640: Test often, fast turnaround, with Michael Mina

July 16, 2020

Michael Mina joins TWiV to reveal why frequent and rapid SARS-CoV-2 testing is more important than accuracy, how a daily $1 rapid test could control the pandemic, and why group testing works.

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

Guests: Michael Mina

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Download TWiV 640 (63 MB .mp3, 104 min)
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Links for this episode

Michael Mina on Immune 26 2:46
White House bypasses CDC (NY Times) 5:06
Test sensitivity is secondary to frequency and turnaround time (medRxiv) 6:31
Group testing for SARS-CoV-2 (medRxiv) 39:29
Consider the cycle threshold value (Clin Inf Dis) 33:16
MERS-CoV spike nanoparticles protect mice from infection (Vaccine) 1:21:34
CoV spike protein nanoparticles induce neutralizing antibodies in mice (Vaccine) 1:22:30
Letters read on TWiV 640 1:00:49
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!
Kiki’s Comments

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 639: Virology Nobel Prizes with Erling Norrby part 2

July 14, 2020

Vincent and Erling resume their discussion of virology Nobel Prizes, focusing on awards for research on tumor viruses, bacteriophages, virus structure, reverse transcriptase, hepatitis B virus, HIV-1, human papillomaviruses and much more.