This Week in Virology

TWiV 342: Public epitope #1

June 21, 2015

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

The TWiVniks discuss the structure of a virus that reproduces in an extreme environment, long-term consequences of Ebolavirus infection, and VirScan, a method to identify the different virus infections you have had in your lifetime.

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Links for this episode

Virus with A-form DNA (Science) 34:25
Viruses in the extreme (virology blog)
Sequelae of Ebolavirus infection (Lancet Inf Dis) 42:35
Long term Ebolavirus effects (virology blog)
Take the chili ME challenge 47:50
Serological profiling of human viral infections (Science) 50:50
Your viral past (virology blog)
Letters read on TWiV 342 3:30, 1:11:30

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:26:20

Dickson – Incredible photos
Alan – Alone in a room full of science writers
Kathy – Calico cats and Siamese cats
Rich – Missing link in evolution
Vincent – Podcasts saving NPR and Podcasting blossoms

Listener Pick of the Week

Jenny – What Bill Gates is afraid of
Neva – The Kardashian Index

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 341: Ebolavirus experiences

June 14, 2015

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Adam Kucharski, Gillian Slack, and Emma Thomson

Vincent returns to the University of Glasgow MRC-Center for Virus Research and speaks with Emma, Gillian, and Adam about their ebolavirus experiences: caring for an infected patient, working in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone, and making epidemiological predictions about the outbreak in west Africa.

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Links for this episode

Tribute to Richard Elliott
Donate to mesothelioma research for Richard Elliott
CVR science blog
Photos of our visit
Ceilidh goes viral!
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 340: No shift, measles

June 7, 2015

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

The TWiV teams reviews a MERS-coronavirus serosurvey and an outbreak in South Korea, and constraints on measles virus antigenic variation.

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Links for this episode

Richard Elliott on TWiV 177 3:25
MERS-CoV outbreak, South Korea (ProMedMail) 16:50
MERS-CoV serosurvey (Lancet Inf Dis) 27:25
Biolabs in your backyard (USA Today) 32:40
Constraints on measles virus antigenic variation (Cell Rep) 47:20
Selection bias and bombers (John D. Cook) 50:00
Virology (journal)
Image credit: Cameron Moll
Letters read on TWiV 340 4:20, 20:05, 46:45, 1:10:35

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:40:15

Dickson – Singapore Flower Dome and Cloud Forest
Alan – Rescuing biomedical research
Kathy – The value of basic research
Rich – Virology 60th Anniversary Issue
Vincent – Careers in virology: Science writing and journalism

Listener Pick of the Week

Pritesh – How T cells kill cancer cells
Ramon – The power of herd immunity

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 339: Herpes and the sashimi plot

May 31, 2015

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Tre TWiV amici present three snippets and a side of sashimi: how herpesvirus inhibits host cell gene expression by disrupting transcription termination.

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Links for this episode

Searching for Steamer in the oceans
Lassa fever death in NJ (CDC and NYTimes) 7:30
Transgenic mouse model for MERS-CoV (J Virol) 14:35
First West Nile virus disease case in Texas 17:25
Herpesvirus disrupts host transcription termination (Nat Comm) 20:30
Sashimi plots 44:00
Broad benefits of measles virus immunization (TWiM #104) 54:35
Avian influenza outbreak (NPR) 57:40
The virome in health and disease (Immunity) 1:02:50
Image credit
Letters read on TWiV 339 1:20, 54:05

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:29:50

Alan – Fooling millions into thinking chocolate helps weight loss
Kathy – Approaching Pluto
Vincent – ASM Agar art contest

Listener Pick of the Week

Daniel – FB pages you need to stop sharing from (one and two)
Ken – Bird box science (canceled)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 338: Coyotes have sushi

May 24, 2015

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Kathy Spindler

Guest: Laura Newcomb

Vincent and Kathy visit Laura Newcomb at California State University San Bernardino, where they talk about Laura’s viral tattoos, and a protein that protects the mosquito brain from lethal flavivirus infection.

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Links for this episode

Neuron-specific mosquito antiviral mechanism (PLoS Path) 10:40
Letters read on TWiV 338 36:35
Photos of our visit
Video of this episode – view below or at YouTube

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 50:30

Laura – NP siRNA inhibits different influenza viruses (Antiviral Res)
Kathy – Time-lapse mining
Vincent – Does the public trust science?

Listener Pick of the Week

Paul – Degree-Off XKCD
Peter – Ebola containment, Hans Rosling, eLife podcast, Naked Scientists

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 337: Steamer

May 17, 2015

Mya arenaria Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Michael Metzger and Steve Goff

Vincent meets up with Michael and Steve to discuss their finding of a transmissible tumor in soft shell clams associated with a retrovirus-like element in the clam genome.

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Links for this episode

Hemocytic leukemia in soft shell clam (Sci Total Environ) 12:30
Activation of Steamer in neoplastic hemocytes (PNAS) 19:40
Transmission of clonal cancer cells in clams (Cell) 11:40, 35:45
Steve Goff on TWiV #76
Image credit

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 336: Brought to you by the letters H, N, P, and Eye

May 10, 2015

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

The TWiVsters explore mutations in the interferon pathway associated with severe influenza in a child, outbreaks of avian influenza in North American poultry farms, Ebolavirus infection of the eye weeks after recovery, and Ebolavirus stability on surfaces and in fluids.

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This episode is sponsored by @ASM Conferences and ASM Microbe

Links for this episode

Life threatening influenza and IRF7 deficiency (Science) 13:25
Whole exome sequencing (Wikipedia) 18:45
Herpes encephalitis in children with Trif deficiency (TWiV 175) 18:20
Avian influenza in the US (USDA, ProMedMail, CDC) 46:05
Ebola eye (NEJM, NYTimes) 49:55
Viral persistence (Virology lectures, pdf) 52:50
Uveitis (National Eye Institute) 51:30
Image credit
Stability of Ebolavirus on surfaces (EID) 1:01:05
Ignorance with Stuart Firestein (TWiV Special) 1:15:00
Letters read on TWiV 336 6:50, 1:05:50

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:26:30

Alan – Winogradsky time-lapse
Rich – Missing link in evolution of complex cells
Kathy – Grantome
Dickson – National Geographic Landscape Photo of the Day
Vincent – PyMol and Chimera

Listener Pick of the Week

Mauricio – Vax!

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 335: Ebola lite

May 3, 2015

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

The TWiVumvirate discusses a whole Ebolavirus vaccine that protects primates, the finding that Ebolavirus is not undergoing rapid evolution, and a proposal to increase the pool of life science researchers by cutting money and time from grants.

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This episode is sponsored byASM Microbe and ICAAC/ICC

Links for this episode

Possible sexual transmission of Ebolavirus (MMWR) 28:55
Ebolavirus whole-virus vaccine protects primates (Science) 31:55
Biologically contained Ebolaviruses (PNAS) 35:00
Ebolavirus is evolving but not changing (Virology) 52:40
Ebolavirus not undergoing rapid evolution (Science) 52:40
Increasing the pool of researchers (MBoC) 1:01:10
Letters read on TWiV 335 7:05, 1:10:00

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:36:15

Alan – Pinboard
Rich – Academic medicine investment in medical research
Kathy – Tissue paper stop motion animation
Dickson – Do peer review panels select best science proposals?
Vincent – MMR and autism: Still no association

Listener Pick of the Week

Ramon – Autism by MMR vaccine status
Mehul – Ebolavirus disease course
Justin – Molecular Biology of Bacterial Viruses by Gunther S. Stent

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 334: In vino virus

April 26, 2015

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

The TWiVles talk about endogenous viruses in plants, sex and Ebolavirus transmission, an outbreak of canine influenza in the US, Dr. Oz, and doubling the NIH budget.

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Download TWiV 334 (70 MB .mp3, 96 min)
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This episode is sponsored by SciMed Solutions and ASM Education.

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:17:05

Alan – NIH RFI: How do we fix this mess?
Rich – Editing embryos (PopSci, Prot Cell)
Kathy – Creative class presentations (one, two, three, four)
Dickson – The most tornadoes
Vincent – Apollo 13, 45 years later (Ars, IEEE, Farewell)

Listener Pick of the Week

Johnye – Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to [email protected]

TWiV 333: Naturally curious chimeras

April 19, 2015

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Ben Fensterheim, Megan Freeman, Bobak Parang, and Meredith Rogers

Vincent returns to Vanderbilt University and meets up with Ben, Megan, Bobak, and Meredith to learn about life in the Medical Scientist Training Program.