This Week in Virology

TWiV 391: Whiter reefs, fresh breath

May 29, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

If you have always wanted to know what coral reefs and the human oral cavity have in common, listen as guests David Pride and Forest Rohwer talk about their work on the microbiomes and viromes of these two environments, and you’ll also understand why mucus is cool.

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Links for this episode

Lytic to temperate switching of viral communities (Nature)
Viromes in ancestral holobiont Hydra (PLoS One)
Phage in human oral cavity (J Oral Micro)
Human oral viruses are personal, consistent, gender specific (ISME)

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 – Vax Pack Hero
Rich – Helicopter autorotation
Vincent – Life in Our Phage World by Forest Rohwer, Merry Youle, Heather Maughan, Nao Hisakawa

Listener Picks

Matt – Experiment.com

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 390: Building a better mosquito trap

May 22, 2016

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

Guests: Ethan Jackson and Jonathan Carlson

Project Premonition, a Microsoft Research project that uses drones to capture mosquitoes and analyze them for pathogens, preprint servers, and three mouse models for Zika virus induced birth defects are the topics of this episode hosted by the TWiumvirate and theirs guests Ethan and Jonathan.

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Links for this episode

Project Premonition 8:20
Premonition feasibility study in Grenada 37:00
Zika virus causes microcephaly in mice (Cell Stem Cell) 1:33:25
Brazilian Zika virus causes defects in experimental models (Nature) 1:38:15
Zika virus causes placental damage and fetal demise in mice (Cell) 1:45:00
Letters read on TWiV 390 1:09:05

Image: An early prototype of the mosquito trap (image credit).

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, 1:02:00

Also brought to you by ASV 2016 1:56:00

Weekly Science Picks 1:57:25

Dickson – Germany nearly reached 100% renewable power
Alan – Vertical City documentary and Lumino City game
Rich – Errol Morris: ‘Demon in the Freezer’
Kathy – Entropic Time YouTube by A Capella Science (watch “the making of”)
Vincent – Agar Art contest finalists

Listener Picks

Jennie – SciFi reading (scroll down)

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 389: Alphabet hepatitis with Stan Lemon

May 15, 2016

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Stan Lemon

Vincent speaks with Stan Lemon about his career in virology, from early work on Epstein Barr virus, through making essential discoveries about hepatitis A virus, hepatitis C virus, and rhinoviruses.

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Links for this episode

Live in Edmonton, Eh? (TWiV 235)
Replication of EBV in epithelial cells (Nature)
Returning to Carolina after 14 years
Evolutionary origins of hepatitis A virus (TWiV 265)
cre in rhinovirus genome (RNA)
Naked viruses that aren’t always naked (Ann Rev Virol)
miR-122 and hepatitis C virus RNA (Cell Host Micr)

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 388: What could possibly go wrong?

May 8, 2016

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

Preprint servers, the structure of an antibody bound to Zika virus, blocking Zika virus replication in mosquitoes with Wolbachia, and killing carp in Australia with a herpesvirus are topics of this episode hosted by Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy.

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Links for this episode

biorXiv preprint server 8:55
Please review Vaccines and Your Child 37:00
Structure of antibody bound to Zika virus E protein (Cell Host Microbe) 50:45
Wolbachia blocks Zika virus in mosquitoes (Cell Host Microbe) 58:25
Zimmer on Wolbachia and Zika virus (NY Times) 59:45
Fauci on Zika virus vaccine (Science) 1:13:50
Carpageddon (The Conversation) 1:15:30
Letters read on TWiV 388 5:40

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Image: A single molecule of the Zika virus E glycoprotein (red) bound to a broadly neutralizing antibody (green). The fusion loop on the E protein, which is recognized by the antibody, is shown in yellow.

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

Weekly Science Picks 1:23:55

Dickson – EarthEnv
Alan – Research funding by lottery
Kathy – Eugenia Cheng Math and Baking
Vincent – Zika Diaries

Listener Picks

Stephen – Virus trading cards
William – Virus trading cards
Norma+Maurice – Virus trading cards
Tom – Virus trading cards

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 387: Quaxxed

May 1, 2016

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

Guest: Nina Martin

Nina Martin joins the TWiV team to talk about the movie Vaxxed, her bout with dengue fever, and the latest research on Zika virus.

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Links for this episode

Public Health United 7:30
Fifty Shades of Science (TEDx) 7:50
Parents convicted in death of toddler (Science Based Medicine) 51:25
CDC: Zika virus causes microcephaly (NEJM) 56:20
Dengue virus antibodies enhance Zika virus infection (biorXiv) 1:05:00
Zika virus in Brazilian nonhuman primates (biorXiv) 1:00:30
Zika virus IgM in CSF of microcephalic babies (Lancet) 1:10:20
Brain organoids for modeling Zika virus infection (Cell) 1:12:10
Letters read on TWiV 387 44:25

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, 53:10

Also brought to you by ASV 2016 1:18:50

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:21:25

Nina – Vaccines and Your Child by Paul Offit and Charlotte Moser
Dickson – The animals of Chernobyl
Alan – Five rules of lab safety
Kathy – 20 best science images of the year?
Vincent – Massive undersea crab swarm

Listener Picks

JP – Global map of wind
Todd – Doc Martin

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 386: The dolphins did it

April 24, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guests: Ted Diehl and Welkin Johnson

Ted and Welkin inform the TWiV team how the evolution of ancient retroviruses can be inferred by studying their sequences in the genomes of modern mammals, and join in a discussion of virus dispersal during different methods for drying hands.

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Links for this episode

More fun than a monkey full of viruses (TWiV 122)
Tracking ancient retrovirus evolution in mammals (eLife) 9:30
Virus dispersal during hand drying (J Appl Micro) 1:30:50
More than you wanted to know about hand drying (one, two, three, four, five, six) 1:35:50

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest, ASM Grant Writing Course, and ASV 2016

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:44:25

Welkin – Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (essay)
Ted – Accidental brilliance in science
Rich – Perpetual motion?
Kathy – R0 graphic and explanation
Vincent – NWS ditches all caps forecasts

Listener Picks

Basel – Gimli Glider and Mars Climate Orbiter
Ken – Vaccination comic book

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 385: Failure

April 17, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Guest: Stuart Firestein

Stuart joins Vincent and Dickson to talk about his sequel to Ignorance, a book called Failure, which seeks to make science more appealing by revealing its faults.

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Links for this episode

Stuart Firestein’s site
Ignorance with Stuart Firestein (TWiV Special)
The pursuit of ignorance (TED)
Ignorance by Stuart Firestein
Failure by Stuart Firestein

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASV 2016

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 384: Agent 003, a view to a fish kill

April 10, 2016

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

Guests: Nischay Mishra and Ian Lipkin

Nischay and Ian join the TWiVions to discuss mass die-offs of tilapia by a novel orthomyxo-like virus, Ian’s editorial on the movie Vaxxed, and new vaccines to prevent dengue virus infections, including a human challenge model.

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This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest, ASM Grant Writing Course, and ASV 2016 36:55, 1:03:40

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:30:20

Rich – Dune by Frank Herbert
Alan – Adult vaccination video contest
Dickson – Ski town greenhouse
Vincent – Preprint servers: Force awakens or revenge of undead?

Listener Picks

Ken – Golden Mole Awards for Accidental Brilliance (list, video)
Jim – Linear algebra course

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 383: A zillion Zika papers and a Brazilian

April 3, 2016

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

Guest: Esper Kallas

Esper and the Merry TWiXters analyze the latest data on Zika virus and microcephaly in Brazil, and discuss publications on a mouse model for disease, infection of a fetus, mosquito vector competence, and the cryo-EM structure of the virus particle.

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Links for this episode

Zika virus in the Americas (Science) 37:00
Co-circulation of dengue, Zika, chik in Brazil (Medicine) 47:10
Murine model for Zika virus infection (Am J Trop Med Hyg) 48:40
Zika virus susceptibility of A. aegypti and A. albopictus (PLoS NTD) 55:25
Infectious Zika virus from saliva (EuroSurveill) 52:05
Zika virus spread through saliva? (Braz Oral Res) 53:00
Five Zika virus reviews (one, two, three, four, five) 59:30
Zika virus and microcephaly, Brazil (MMWR)
Zika virus in urine (EuroSurveill) 1:26:50
Zika virus infection of fetus (NEJM) 1:01:20
Zika virus cryo-EM structure (Science) 1:07:10
Real-time sharing of Zika virus data (JAMA) 1:55:55
Image credit: Richard Kuhn
Letters read on TWiV 383 1:03:05

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASV 2016 4:10, 1:28:30

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:44:30

Esper – The Chaos by Gérard Nolst Trenité (pronunciation guide) and HIV pathogenesis course
Alan – Science Kombat
Dickson – Four steps to wiping out a mosquito
Vincent – Public lacks information on Zika virus
Kathy – Zika virus cryo-EM structure video

Listener Picks

Justin – Culture-independent discovery of Archaeal virus
Melinda – Zika virus open research portal and Your body battles series

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 382: Everyone’s a little bit viral

March 27, 2016

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

Guests: Nels Elde and Edward Chuong

Nels and Ed join the TWiV team to talk about their observation that regulation of the human interferon response depends on regulatory sequences that were co-opted millions of years ago from endogenous retroviruses.

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Links for this episode

Endogenous retroviruses and regulation of innate immunity (Science) 16:20
Placenta is viral (Nature) 8:35
An ERV that maintains pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells (TWiV 279) 1:10:10
Letters read on TWiV 382 1:17:15

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASV 2016 10:30, 1:14:45

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!