This Week in Virology

TWiV 480: The PFU in your achoo

February 11, 2018

Scott Hensley joins the TWiVites to review the current influenza season and presence of the virus in exhaled breath of symptomatic cases.

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

Guest: Scott Hensley

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Links for this episode

Weekly influenza surveillance (CDC)
Influenza vaccination status (CDC)
H3N2 glycosylation site and eggs (PNAS)
Influenza virus in exhaled breath (PNAS)
Geometric Defects and Icosahedral Viruses (Viruses)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 480

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Flow Virometry
Rich – Falcon Heavy Launch links: Flight diagram; Launch including booster landing; Tesla in space; Tesla orbit; Reusable booster failures; Booster size
Dickson – Next generation of weapons
Alan – Ed Yong’s story on fixing gender imbalance in science reporting
Vincent – CD4 Hunter iOS Android

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 479: Trypsin the flight fantastic

February 4, 2018

The TWiVome explores induction of antiviral responses by repeating patterns of capsids, and a fungus in the mosquito gut that aids dengue virus replication.

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

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Download TWiV 479 (67 MB .mp3, 111 min)
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Links for this episode

Innate immune detection of capsid patterns (mBio)
Mosquito gut fungus aids dengue virus replication (eLife)
Nominate MicrobeTV for a Keck award
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 479

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Great Lakes, false color
Rich – Times 360 Lego factory tour
Dickson – 3D printed houses
Alan – The new terms for trust in journalism
Vincent – A Tale of Two Cultures and Why Science Blogging Still Matters

Listener Picks

Jolene – Immune Quest

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 478: A pox on your horse

January 28, 2018

The TWiV team explains how infectious horsepox virus – likely the ancestor of smallpox vaccines – was recovered from chemically synthesized DNA fragments.

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

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Download TWiV 478 (61 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – UM EEB photo contest
Rich – Dino-Lite digital microscope and digital microscope camera
Dickson – Sandford Photography
Alan – A list of female virologists
Vincent – Virology Lectures 2018

Listener Picks

Andrew – Interferome
Neva – The Untreatable by Gavin Francis

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 477: Raiders of the lost Arc

January 21, 2018

The TWiVodrome explains how a gag-like protein from a retrotransposon forms virus-like particles that carry mRNA within vesicles across the synapse.

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

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Download TWiV 477 (63 MB .mp3, 103 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV 2018: asv.org, asv2018.umd.edu
Arc virus-like particles transport RNA across the synapse (mammalian, Drosophila)
Chemical synapse (Wikipedia)
2 minute video on the neuron
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 477

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Ice cliffs form over the weekend
Rich – The Courage To Invent: A NASA Roboticist Tells Her Story (Ayanna Howard)
Dickson – 2017 Was One of the Hottest Years on Record
Alan – Experimenter gender and replicability
Vincent – Set Your Autocorrect to Change ‘Guys’ to ‘Folks’

Listener Picks

Asal – 100 million chickens with avian flu
Mark – Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 476: In ACOD1 we trust

January 14, 2018

Malate-Aspartate shuttle

Nels joins the TWiV team to talk about his work on genomic accordions in vaccinia virus, hepatitis B virus in a 439 year old mummy, and viral induction of energy synthesis by a long noncoding RNA.

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

Guest: Nels Elde

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Download TWiV 476 (63 MB .mp3, 105 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV 2018: asv.org, asv2018.umd.edu
TWiV is a must-listen (WaPo)
More on poxvirus accordions (bioRxiv)
HBV from a 439 year old mummy (PLoS Path)
lncRNA promotes viral replication by inducing metabolism (Science)
Making Data Visual
Letters read on TWiV 476

Weekly Science Picks

Nels – Everyday Evolution
Kathy – Paper-fold an ellipse
Rich – Oxford Nanopore Technologies: YouTube channel; General technology; DNA sequencing; Sequencing singularity
Dickson – Spiders that look like pelicans
Alan – Guessing pool for China Spacelab reentry
Vincent – How to take a picture of the stealth bomber over the rose bowl

Listener Picks

Gretchen – The Bearded Lady Project

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 475: Everything is viral

January 7, 2018

The TWiV Team. From left to right: Vincent, Dickson, Alan, Rich, Kathy.

In the first episode for 2018, the TWiV team reviews the amazing virology stories of 2017.

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

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Download TWiV 475 (67 MB .mp3, 110 min)
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Links for this episode

ASV 2018: asv.org, asv2018.umd.edu
Virology stories of 2017 – in no particular order
1. A virologist in space – TWiV 444
2. Cool things viruses do: Astrovirus capsids are enterotoxins TWiV 423; giant Klosneuviruses encode lots of stuff for translation TWiV 437; Giant Noumeaviruses quickly make the nucleus temporarily leaky TWiV 440
3. TWiV 438 Drs. TWiV go to Washington and the March for Science
4. Unexpected stuff: TWiV 451 Expectorate the unexpected; TWiV 470 Just a passing phage; TWiV 456 Be careful of canons; TWiV 455 Pork and genes; TWiV 432 gamete fusion protein from viruses
5. TWiV 443 On a leaf no one can hear you scream. The puppet master.
6. TWiV 448 Mavis the structure maven
7. Viruses are us: TWiV 472 Riddle of the skinks; TWiV 439 The purloined envelope; TWiV 434 Live long and pupate
8. Antiviral RNA: TWiV 433 Poops viruses and worms; TWiV 449 The sound of non-silencing; TWiV 450 Ben tenOever and RNA out
9. Viruses as tools: TWiV 461 Gotta trace them all
10. Flaviviruses: TWiV 473, 471, 468; 458; 454; 451; 432; 430; 429; 426
NSF survey of earned doctorates
Letters read on TWiV 475

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Voyager recording and book
Rich – David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (Maktao)
Dickson – Global Croplands Map
Alan – The Great Influenza one day at a time
Vincent – The Doomsday Machine by Daniel Ellsberg

Listener Picks

Mark – Science Moms
Brian – Science of HIV
Andy – Ask Me Anything
Steve – Critical Attitude in Medicine

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 474: Call me fish meal

December 31, 2017

The TWiVanguardians take on Bodo saltans virus, a leviathan which infects an abundant flagellated eukaryote in Earth’s waters.

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

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Download TWiV 474 (62 MB .mp3, 103 min)
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Become a patron of TWiV!

Links for this episode

ASV 2018: asv.org, asv2018.umd.edu
Support Microbe.tv
Anti-dengue antibody and disease (J Inf Dis)
Bodo saltans virus (biorXiv)
Kinetoplast DNA (Euk Cell)
Crossword puzzle for book contest (pdf)
Letters read on TWiV 474

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Every second
Dickson – Top 10 Science Images 2017
Alan – Shortwave Radiogram
Vincent – Science March on Instagram

Listener Picks

Islam – Class Crossword (Armored Penguin)
Peter – The Last of the Iron Lungs

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 473: Assessing a risk and infecting you twice

December 24, 2017

The Fellowship of the Virus discuss enhancement of dengue disease in humans: the contribution of antibody concentration and increased binding to Fc receptors.