This Week in Virology

TWiV 401: Vector victorious

August 7, 2016

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

Zika virus spreads in the USA, a Zika virus DNA vaccine goes into phase I trials, and how mosquito bites enhance virus replication and disease, from the friendly TWiFolk Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy.

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Beverly Griffin, 86 (1 2 3) 3:10
Zika virus in the US (CDC) 9:15
Zika virus spreading in Miami (CDC) 10:00
Zika virus in Florida (NY Times) 12:25
NIH begins phase I trial of Zika virus DNA vaccine (NIAID) 19:10
Mosquito salive enhances West Nile replication in mice (J Virol) 29:45
Mosquito bites enhance virus infection (Immunity) 27:50
Photo of A. aegyptii and mouse ears from Marieke Pingen
Letters read on TWiV 401 6:10, 1:06:45

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and nonfiction series from the world’s best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completel free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 25:30

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100. 0:50, 59:20

Weekly Science Picks 1:43:30

Alan – The Doubleclicks
Kathy – WHO ZIKV app and ZIKV Giant Microbe
Dickson – Photographer Rosamond Purcell
Vincent – Spillover: Zika, Ebola, and Beyond

Listener Picks

Ricardo – Portugal Four Days on Renewable Energy
Fatma – DeNovo: Predicting virus-host protein interactions
Stephen – How mosquitoes use six needles to suck your blood

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 400: Harold ‘400’ Varmus, a scientist for all seasons

July 31, 2016

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

Guest: Harold Varmus

The TWiV team is together in New York City for a conversation with Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus about his remarkable career in science.

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Varmus Laboratory
Varmus and Kandel on Charlie Rose (transcript)
Rescuing biomedical research
Letters read on TWiV 400 2:08:00

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 2:06:20

This episode was made possible by PLoS Pathogens – the leading Open Access journal to publish breakthroughs in understanding pathogens and their interactions with host organisms and each other. PLOS Pathogens fosters the open exchange of ideas across fields, publishing original research on viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and prions. For more information, check out www.plospathogens.org 0:50, 1:20:05

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – A year on Earth
Rich – TWiV #1: West Nile Virus
Dickson – Chasing storms, chasing beauty
Kathy – Bioartography and FASEB image and video competition
Vincent – The Art and Politics of Science by Harold Varmus (free download)

Listener Picks

Trudy – Scientific Studies on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 399: Zika la femme

July 24, 2016

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

The latest Zika virus news from the ConTWiVstadors, including a case of female to male transmission, risk of infection at the 2016 summer Olympics, a DNA vaccine, antibody-dependent enhancement by dengue antibodies, and sites of replication in the placenta.

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Links for this episode

Zika virus disease in the US (CDC) 5:45
Female to male Zika virus transmission (CDC) 7:30
Zika virus in female genital tract (Lancet) 9:00
Zika virus transmission in Utah (CDC and NYTimes) 14:45
Olympic Zika virus risk (CDC) 18:20
15 companies on Zika virus vaccines (WSJ) 24:25
Zika virus DNA vaccine in mice (Nature) 24:50
Zika virus disease in Colombia (NEJM) 35:40
Dengue virus antibody dependent enhancement of Zika virus (PNAS) 39:40
Zika virus antibodies enhance dengue virus disease (Science) 44:05
Zika virus in human placenta and developing brain (bioRxiv) 48:20
Zika virus targets different human placenta cells (Cell Host Microbe) 53:55
Letters read on TWiV 399 1:02:25

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE 1:02:25

Weekly Science Picks 1:31:35

Alan – CDC postmortem on Ebolavirus outbreak
Rich – Refutations to anti-vaccine memes (Twitter, Facebook)
Dickson – History of urbanization
Vincent – How to cut subject from background in Photoshop

Listener Picks

Marion – Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast
Jennie – Leatherback turtles in Costa Rica

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 398: Permission to be intuitive

July 17, 2016

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Sandy Weller

Vincent speaks with Sandy Weller about her career and her work on the mechanisms of synthesis, maturation, cleavage and packaging of viral DNA genomes.

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Links for this episode

Cell killing by avian leukosis virus (Sandy’s first paper, J Virol)
ND10 protein and herpes simplex virus replication (J Virol)
Recombination promoted by DNA viruses (Ann Rev Micro)
HSV-1 and DNA damage response (Fut Virol)

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 397: Trial by Error

July 10, 2016

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: David Tuller

Vincent speaks with David Tuller about flaws in the U.K’s $8 million PACE trial for chronic fatigue syndrome, and efforts to have the trial data released.

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Download TWiV 397 (67 MB .mp3, 93 min)
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This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 396: Influenza viruses with Peter Palese

July 3, 2016

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Peter Palese

Vincent speaks with Peter Palese about his illustrious career in virology, from early work on neuraminidases to universal influenza virus vaccines.

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Download TWiV 396 (54 MB .mp3, 74 min)
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This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 395: The cancer thief

June 26, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guest: Stephen J. Russell

From ASV 2016 at Virginia Tech, Vincent, Rich and Kathy speak with Stephen Russell about his career and his work on oncolytic virotherapy – using viruses to treat cancers.

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Download TWiV 395 (44 MB .mp3, 60 min)
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Links for this episode

Hokies go viral (TWiV 285)
MV NIS de Myelo (TWiV 298)
Remission of disseminated myeloma after MV treatment (Mayo Clin Proc)
miRNA detargeting (J Virol)

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Can you explain your science in 30 seconds? and How Far Can We Go?
Rich – Small asteroid Earth’s companion
Vincent – The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Listener Picks

Dylan – Microsculpture by Levon Biss (website)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

Photo by Matt Evans

Photo by Vincent Racaniello

TWiV 394: Cards in a hand

June 18, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Guest: Erica Ollmann Saphire

Vincent and Alan speak with Erica about her career and her work on understanding the functions of proteins of Ebolaviruses, Marburg virus, and other hemorrhagic fever viruses, at ASM Microbe 2016 in Boston, MA.

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Links for this episode

Structure of antibodies bound to Ebola virus glycoprotein (PNAS)
Structure of cross-reactive filovirus antibody (Cell)
Multiple functions of Ebola virus VP40 protein (Cell)
Letters read on TWiV 394

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE.

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Slime Lapse
Vincent – Virus Watch

Listener Picks

Patricia – NECSS, People Behind the Science, The Life Scientific
Peter – Iron Lung on eBay

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 393: Lovers and livers

June 12, 2016

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

The TWiVerati revisit possible sexual transmission of Zika virus, and reveal how a cell protein that allows hepatitis C virus replication in cell culture enhances vitamin E mediated protection against lipid peroxidation.

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Download TWiV 393 (68 MB .mp3, 94 min)
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Links for this episode

Late sexual transmission of Zika virus (Lancet) 8:10
Zika virus disease in US (CDC) 11:30
Zika virus lab accident (ABC News) 25:30
Mosquito eradication (virology blog) 20:35
Florida mosquito control (TWiV 111) 19:35
How tequila mosquito (TWiV 178) 23:55
SEC14L2 allows HCV replication in cell culture (Nature) 27:15
Lipid peroxidation (Wikipedia) 39:40
HCV replicase regulated by lipid peroxidation (Nat Med) 41:15
Letters read on TWiV 393 52:00

This episode is sponsored by CuriosityStream. Get two months free when you sign up at curiositystream.com/microbe and use the promo code MICROBE. 0:25, 48:40

Also brought to you by ASV 2016 5040

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:23:25

Alan – All About That Space
Rich – The Expanse by James S.A. Corey (SyFy or books)
Kathy – Five Pivotal Paragraphs in a Paper
Vincent – Agar Art Contest Winners

Listener Picks

Ted – Marshall Niremberg charts

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 392: Zika virus!

June 5, 2016

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Michael Diamond, Michaela Gack, Laura Kramer, and Charles Rice

Four virologists discuss our current understanding of Zika virus biology, pathogenesis, transmission, and prevention, in this special live episode recorded at the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, DC.