This Week in Virology

TWiV 587: One bite is all it takes

February 16, 2020

Vincent and Rich return to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to speak with Dennis Bente, Shannan Rossi, Nikos Vasilakis, and Scott Weaver about their work on viruses transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guests: Dennis Bente, Shannan Rossi, Nikos Vasilakis, and Scott Weaver

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Download TWiV 587 (76 MB .mp3, 126 min)
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Links for this episode

Measles virus vectored chikungunya vaccine (J Inf Dis) 56:16
World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses 1:16:50
Insect-specific alphavirus vaccine vector (Nat Med)
Legacy of arbovirus hunters (Viruses) 1:33:40
Electron microscopy for novel arboviruses (Viruses) 1:25:44
Sylvatic dengue (Am J Trop Med Hyg) 1:37:30
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 586: Coronavirus update: wash your hands

February 9, 2020

In this week’s coverage of the coronavirus epidemic, the TWiV team discusses the fatality rate, China’s initial reaction to the outbreak, conspiracy theories, how long the virus remains infectious on surfaces, and evidence for virus in the intestinal tract.

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

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Download TWiV 586 (72 MB .mp3, 119 min)
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Links for this episode

China reacted too slowly to epidemic (NY Times) 15:40
Wuhan rounds up infected (NY Times) 17:07
2019-nCoV asymptomatic transmission report flawed (Science) 31:00, 34:13
Mucus reduces effectiveness of alcohol gels (mSphere) 48:35
SARS-CoV in feces (NEJM, Gastroenterology) 1:03:30
Inadequate plumbing and spread of SARS-CoV (WHO) 1:04:26
Persistence of virus on surfaces (one, two, three, four) 1:09:24
Letters read on TWiV 586 34:10, 35:21, 1:06:21
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:49:31

Brianne – Mutation, Adaptation, and Virus Genomes
Alan – The Comet
Rich – Finding Your Roots: Science Pioneers
Dickson – Let’s Fill Our Cities With Taller, Wooden Buildings
Vincent – Twenty-first century plague by Thomas Abraham

Listener Pick

Mark – Tracking CoV infections
Sophia – Legislative approaches to immunization

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 585: The coronavirus epidemic

February 2, 2020

The TWiVerers continue their coverage of the new coronavirus outbreak in China, as the number of cases increase dramatically and the virus begins person-to-person transmission in other countries.

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

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Download TWiV 585 (71 MB .mp3, 118 min)
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Weekly Science Picks 1:40:55

Brianne – Pandemic
Alan – Educated by Tara Westover
Rich – Star Trek: Picard
Dickson – Highest Resolution Image Ever Taken of Surface of the Sun
Kathy – Scientists make vampire bats ‘glow’ to simulate vaccine spread
Vincent – Virology Lectures 2020

Listener Pick

Edward – Virus snowflake designs
Anthony – Microbe Hunting Autism to Zika

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 584: Year of the coronavirus

January 26, 2020

Coronavirus expert Ralph Baric joins TWiV to explain the virology and epidemiology of the recent zoonotic outbreak spreading across China and overseas.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler

Guest: Ralph Baric

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Download TWiV 584 (64 MB .mp3, 106 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV 2020 1:21:45
WHO coronavirus sitreps 32:57
CIDRAP article on coronavirus vaccines 48:13
Phylogenetic analysis of 2019-nCoV 30:16
ACE2 is 2019-nCoV receptor (bioRxiv) 37:48
Visual explainer of Huanan market (SCMP) 53:17
Clinical features of 2019-nCoV patients (Lancet) 54:46
Familial cluster of pneumonia caused by 2019-nCoV (Lancet) 41:28
SARS-CoV 29 nt deletion reduces replication (Sci Rep) 59:20
NSABB 1:09:53
2019 TWiV World Tour t-shirt 1:26:13
Letters read on TWiV 584 1:23:27
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:28:03

Alan – Library plug-in for Firefox or Chrome
Rich – Sounds of the Solar Wind (Parker Solar Probe)
Dickson – Stunning wildlife photos
Kathy – Incomplete list of things that blow the minds of intro bio students
Vincent – Mosquito photographs by Alex Wild (and anti-pick)

Listener Pick

Justin – YadaYadaYada virus

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 583: Galveston virus hunters

January 19, 2020

Vincent and Rich travel to Galveston National Laboratory to speak with Jim LeDuc, Tom Ksiazek, and Bob Tesch about their long careers as virus hunters.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guests: Jim LeDuc, Tom Ksiazek, and Bob Tesh

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Download TWiV 583 (51 MB .mp3, 84 min)
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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 582: This little virus went to market

January 12, 2020

TWiV provides updates on the new coronavirus causing respiratory disease in China, the current influenza season, and the epidemic of African swine fever, including determination of the three-dimensional structure of the virus particle.

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

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Download TWiV 582 (71 MB .mp3, 118 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV 2020 2:24
NJ ready to remove religious vaccine exemptions (Patch) 10:27
New virus causing pneumonia in China (NY Times) 13:52
New China virus is coronavirus (NY Times, ProMedMail) 18:44
Weekly influenza cases (CDC) 29:10
Future of influenza vaccines (Vaccines) 49:49
Household influenza vaccine study (Int J Epidemiol) 53:05
African swine fever (USDA) 55:09
African swine fever infographics (one, two) 1:02:30
Race for African swine fever vaccine (Scientist) 1:27:19
3D structure of African swine fever virus (J Biol Chem) 1:12:36
Letters read on TWiV 582 4:01, 44:33, 1:31:14
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:45:38

Rich – Mayo Clinic – Ken Burns; Patient Care and Health Information
Dickson – Australia Fires; Insect ecology; Smoke and aerosols
Kathy – runcible
Vincent – Without a Vaccine, These Are Your Odds

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 581: Alimentary particles

January 5, 2020

For the first TWiV of 2020 we reveal that microbiome depletion with antibiotics alters the immune response to influenza vaccine, and how successive blood meals facilitate virus dissemination in mosquitoes and transmission potential.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 581 (55 MB .mp3, 91 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV 2020 4:41
Vaccines are safe and effective (Science) 11:18
Microbiome perturbation alters response to flu vaccine (Cell) 13:36
Successive blood meals aid virus dissemination in mosquitoes (Nat Micro) 32:31
Ten seminal virologists (virology blog) 1:09:14
Letters read on TWiV 581 1:00:55
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks

Brianne – Retrovirus cookie cutter! (and Phage, Adenovirus, Rabies virus, and Antibody
Alan – “Yah! Yah! Yah!” by Jack London, and the true story it’s based on
Dickson – Why whales are big but not bigger
Kathy – Dual Axis Illusion
Vincent – The Fall of the Faculty by Benjamin Ginsberg

Listener Pick

Suellen – Patient Zero podcast

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 580: Noncoding RNA with Chris Sullivan

December 29, 2019

From the University of Texas at Austin, Vincent and Rich speak with Chris Sullivan about his work on miRNAs encoded in the genomes of polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses, and how an RNA triphosphatase restricts hepatitis C virus replication.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Chris Sullivan

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Download TWiV 580 (58 MB .mp3, 96 min)
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Links for this episode

Sullivan lab 1:07
Virus-encoded miRNAs in papillomaviruses (PLoS Path) 27:14
Murine polyomavirus miRNA promotes viruria (J Virol) 49:42
DUSP11 helps XRN restrict hepatitis C virus (PNAS) 1:21:04
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 579: Reno viral

December 22, 2019

Vincent speaks with virologists at the University of Nevada at Reno about their careers and their work on herpesviruses, arboviruses, and the development of diagnostics for infectious diseases.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Dave AuCoin, Cyprian Rossetto, Claudia Rückert, and Subhash Verma

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Download TWiV 579 (61 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Links for this episode

PAN’s labyrinth (Viruses) 53:52
KSHV SOX protein DNAse activity (J Virol) 1:07:40
Vertical flow immunoassay for pathogen detection (Talanta) 32:35
Small RNA responses of mosquitoes (Insect Biochem Mol Biol) 1:22:23
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 578: Prometheus project

December 15, 2019

Vincent speaks with members of Prometheus, a team of academic and industrial scientists assembled to develop antibody-based therapeutics against infections caused by tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and rodent-borne hantaviruses, for which no approved vaccines or specific drugs are available.