This Week in Virology

TWiV 372: Latent viral tendencies

January 17, 2016

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

The TWiV-osphere introduces influenza D virus, virus-like particles encoded in the wasp genome which protect its eggs from caterpillar immunity, and a cytomegalovirus protein that counters a host restriction protein which prevents establishment of latency.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 372 (91 MB .mp3, 124 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

Ebolavirus update (ProMedMail) 21:20
Influenza D virus (mBio) 22:45
Vincent’s influenza C virus paper (J Virol) 25:00
Virus-like particles protect wasp eggs (Sci Adv) 36:45
CMV protein foils cell defense against latency (Sci Adv) 50:55
Image credit: Mark
Letters read on TWiV 372 3:50, 1:27:00

This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Webinar and ASM Biodefense

Weekly Science Picks 1:45:25

Alan – Go viral
Vincent – 3D virus popsicles (3ders, dangerous popsicles)
Rich – Galileo thermometer
Kathy – Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe

Listener Picks

Christiane – Using PowerPoint to shine

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 371: Sympathy for the devil

January 10, 2016

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

The TWiVologists discuss the finding of a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils, and development of new poliovirus strains for the production of inactivated vaccine in the post-eradication era.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 371 (96 MB .mp3, 130 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

Second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian Devils (PNAS) 22:45
New strains for production of IPV (PLoS Path) 55:45
Synchronized switch to bivalent OPV (polioeradication.org) 50:30
Virologists, start your poliovirus destruction (virology blog) 1:15:45
Image is a painting by George Kush
Letters read on TWiV 371 9:00, 1:22:00

This episode is sponsored by ASM Grant Writing Webinar and ASM Biodefense 4:30, 1:20:55

Weekly Science Picks 1:48:55

Alan – Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker
Vincent – Your Cells. Their Research. Your permission?
Rich – NASA UV photos of the sun
Kathy – Aurora bike lights
Dickson – Unfilled vials

Listener Picks

Kevin – John Oliver on nutritional supplements
Jim – Tour of Australian synchrotron

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 370: Ten out of 15

January 4, 2016

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

The TWiVomics review ten captivating virology stories from 2015.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 370 (79 MB .mp3, 109 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Ten virology stories from 2015

Recoding to make vaccines and study viral functions: TWiV 351: The dengue code and TWiV 362: Gotta catch ’em all and new paper 52:30
Defining the virome: TWiV 365: Blood, feuds, and a foodborne disease, TWiV 362: Gotta catch ’em all, TWiV 356: Got viruses?, TWiV 355: Baby’s first virome, TWiV 342: Public epitope #1, TWiV 323: A skid loader full of viromes 55:55
Ebola outbreak wanes, vaccines tested, persistence noted: TWiV 361: Zombie viruses on the loose, TWiV 349: One ring to vaccinate them all, TWiV 341: Ebolavirus experiences, TWiV 336: Brought to you by the letters H, N, P, and Eye, TWiV 335: Ebola lite 1:00:10
Spillovers and scares: TWiV 347: Rose rosette and squirrel roulette, TWiV 351: The dengue code, TWiV 364: It’s not SARS 2.0, TWiV 365: Blood, feuds, and a foodborne disease 1:05:00
The “Gain of Function” debate continues: TWiV 321: aTrip and a pause, TWiV 351: The dengue code, TWiV 354: The cat in the HAART, TWiV 363: Eat flu and dyad, and the NSABB’s new draft report 1:09:10
Detailed mechanisms of pathogenesis: TWiV 336: Brought to you by the letters H, N, P, and eye, and TWiV 345: How a vaccine got the nod – plus numerous episodes (324, 328, 329, 330, 339, 343, 349, 353, 369) where we talked about basic research that undergirds these clinically important discoveries. 1:16:50
Dengue vaccines: Trial TWiV 319: Breaking breakbone. Dengvaxia was licensed in December in Mexico, Philippines, and Brazil (12/28); paper we didn’t have time to cover about broadly neutralizing Abs from viremic patients and another paper from same group with X-ray crystal structure of Ab + gpE. 1:22:35
Why do some RNA viruses undergo antigenic variation and others do not? TWiV 340: No shift, measles 1:28:40
TWiV 346: A double helical career 1:32:40
TWiV 345: How a vaccine got the nod 1:33:45
Letters read on TWiV 370 9:35

This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe and ASM Biodefense 6:00, 1:37:35

Weekly Science Picks 1:38:20

Alan – Scientifics online
Vincent – Giant squid in Tokyo Harbor
Kathy – A Year of Sky

Listener Picks

Daniel – Paper Life
Stephen – How to deal with science denialists
Venkat – Kabisa

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 369: Camel runny noses and other JNK

December 27, 2015

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

A swarm of virologists discusses testing of a MERS coronavirus vaccine for camels, and how a neuronal stress pathway reactivates herpes simplex virus.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 369 (86 MB .mp3, 118 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

MERS coronavirus vaccine for camels (Science) 22:45
WHO MERS summary
Neuronal stress pathway and herpes simplex virus reactivation (Cell Host Micr) 44:30
NGF pathway and HSV reactivation (pdf; thanks Anna!)
Stress flips a chromatin switch (Cell Host Micr)
How herpes simplex virus reactivates (UNC press release)
Histone antibodies database 1:06:50
New antibody portal (UNC press release)
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 369 7:35, 1:30:15

This episode is sponsored by Clinical Virology Symposium 3:30

Weekly Science Picks 1:47:00

Alan – SpaceX Falcon 9 landing
Vincent – Scientists: Engage the public! and Lego contest winners
Kathy – Google Ngram viewer

Listener Picks

Dennis – Americapox: The missing plague
Mark – WeatherSpark and Quasispecies theory

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 368: Infected, you will be

December 20, 2015

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

A plaque of virologists explores the biology of Zika virus and recent outbreaks, and the contribution of a filamentous bacteriophage to the development of biofilms.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 368 (86 MB .mp3, 119 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

More cowbell (Wikipedia) 7:50
Microcephaly in Brazil (Outbreak News) 18:40
Non-vector borne Zika transmission (EID) 30:40
Zika virus outside Africa (EID) 29:20
Zika virus possible sexual transmission (EID) 32:50
Zika virus in saliva (J Clin Virol) 32:10
Dengue’s cousin Zika (Micr Inf) 34:25
Filamentous phage promote biofilm assembly (Cell Host Micr) 38:40
Biofilm history (MSU) 41:10
Pseudomonas phage Pf1 45:10
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 368 11:10, 1:13:15
This episode is sponsored by Clinical Virology Symposium and ASM Microbe 5:55, 1:12:05

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:44:00

Alan – Twelve days of norovirus
Vincent – This Week in Evolution
Rich – In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides
Kathy – Kajanjian lecture on Frederick Novy and Milestones ceremony at UM

Listener Picks

Peter – What if anti-vax, anti-science movement won?
Stephen – Scandalous origin of vaccines
Pritesh – Absurd way of doing business

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 367: Two sides to a Coyne

December 13, 2015

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

Guests: Carolyn Coyne and Coyne Drummond

Two Coynes join the TWiV overlords to explain their three-dimensional culture model of polarized intestinal cells for studying enterovirus infection.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 367 (79 MB .mp3, 109 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

Carolyn and placentas on TWiV 193
Three-dimensional cell culture model (mSphere) 13:20
Bioreactor video (JoVE) 31:30
Neurovirologist Richard T. Johnson, 84 (Hopkins and virology blog) 1:08:05
Tardigrade HGT disputed (BioRxiv) 1:09:45
Exaptation of archaeal virus capsid protein from Cas4 (Biol Dir) 1:27:00
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 367 1:09:45

This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe 5:20

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:34:20

Alan – Antibiotic action nonprofit group
Vincent – Ex Machina and genome editing moratorium
Rich – Launch photography by Ben Cooper
Kathy – HIV life cycle in video (paper)
Dickson – 2015 Nobel Lectures Physiology or Medicine
Carolyn – Metapneumovirus entry

Listener Picks

Tom – Global host-pathogen database
Trudy – Madame Curie by Eve Curie

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 366: Doctorates down under

December 6, 2015

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Carla Giles, Zoe Dyson, Brianna McLean, and Caitlin O’Brien

In Melbourne, Australia, Vincent speaks with four PhD students about their research projects and what it’s like to get a doctorate down under.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 366 (44 MB .mp3, 61 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe and ASM Biodefense.

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV is a MicrobeTV Production

TWiV 365: Blood, feuds, and a foodborne disease

November 29, 2015

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

For a TWiV Thanksgiving, Vincent, Alan, and Kathy trace the feud over genome editing, a new virus discovered in human blood, and the origins of hepatitis A virus.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 365 (79 MB .mp3, 110 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

Battle over genome editing (Wired) 10:05
First description of CRISPR in E. coli (J Bacteriol) 14:00
Cas genes identified (Mol Micro) 14:20
CRISPR-Cas provides immunity to bacterial viruses (Science) 15:35
Cas9-crRNA complex mediates DNA cleavage (PNAS) 16:55
Dual RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in bacterial immunity (Science) 17:50
Genome engineering using CRISPR/Cas (Science) 18:50
Cpf1 endonuclease (Cell) 23:10
Classification of CRISPR/Cas systems (Nat Rev Micro) 23:50
Summit on gene editing 21:25
Novel human virus in transfusion recipients (mBio) 27:00
Origins of hepatitis A virus in small mammals (PNAS) 55:05
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 365 7:00, 1:20:35

This episode is sponsored by ASM Microbe, ASM Biodefense, and the 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium. (1:10, 1:18:30)

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:36:30

Kathy – Tardigrade genome sequence (video)
Alan – XKCD on Gates polio eradication site
Vincent – Lifting the Impenetrable Veil by Charles Calisher

Listener Picks

Judi – Jennifer Doudna’s Ted Talk
Ramon – Map of the Sky

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 364: It’s not SARS 2.0

November 22, 2015

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guests: Ralph Baric and Vineet Menachery

Vincent, Rich, and Kathy speak with Ralph and Vineet about their research on the potential of SARS-like bat coronaviruses to infect human cells and cause disease in mice.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 364 (95 MB .mp3, 131 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

Zoonotic potential of SARS-like bat viruses (Nature)
SARS-CoV susceptibility loci via collaborative cross (PLoS Genetics) 47:00, 57:25
Ebright and Wain-Hobson quotes (Nature) 1:17:20
Misleading press release (UNC) 1:24:45
Super powerful SARS 2.0 (not!) (Motherboard)
SARS-like bat virus can jump without mutating (not!) (Daily Mail) 1:26:30
Photo credit
Letters read on TWiV 364 1:47:40

This episode is sponsored by Mt. Sinai Department of Microbiology (2:10), ASM Education (33:25), and the 32nd Clinical Virology Symposium (1:51:30)

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thanks!

Weekly Science Picks 1:53:00

Kathy – California Dept of Public Health
Rich – Leafy greens on space station
Vincent – Mechanical keyboards and TWiV on Perfect your podcast

Listener Picks

Jesse – Networking for Nerds by Alaina G. Levine
Russell – Worldmapper

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 363: Eat flu and dyad

November 15, 2015

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

The TWiVers reveal influenza virus replication in the ferret mammary gland and spread to a nursing infant, and selection of transmissible influenza viruses in the soft palate.