This Week in Virology

TWiV 221: Bunya there, done that

February 24, 2013

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Dickson, and Kathy review two emerging bunyaviruses, SFTSV and SBV.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 221 (66 MB .mp3, 91 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Winners, 2012 Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge
Vincent – The Operator and Dr. Oz’s Problem

Listener Pick of the Week

Shane – OpenPCR
John – Python

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 220: Flu watches the clock while T7 gets a CAT scan

February 17, 2013

T7 random walk Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Rich, Alan, and Kathy discuss regulation of influenza virus replication by splicing, and the bacteriophage T7 random walk.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 220 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy – Journal of Virology Image Gallery
Rich – Phage T7 Genetics and Physiology and slab gels
Alan – PeerJ (press release)
Vincent – Virologia en Español

Listener Pick of the Week

Dave – Thingiverse pathogens and proteins

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 219: Fauci pharmacy

February 10, 2013

Anthony Fauci, MD Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Anthony S. Fauci

Vincent and Rich meet up with Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 219 (46 MB .mp3, 64 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

Fauci history (J Clin Inves)
Transcript of this episode (thanks, Dr. Fernandez!)
Fauci Pharmacy
Anthony Fauci (Wikipedia)
Anthony Fauci: Unfinished business (Lens)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 218: Monkeys turning valves and pushing buttons

February 3, 2013

Bakugan Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Welkin Johnson

Vincent, Alan, and Welkin discuss how endogenous retroviruses in mice are held in check by the immune response.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 218 (64 MB .mp3, 89 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

Kuan-Teh Jeang, 54
Resurrection of ERVs (Nature)
Toll-like receptors control ERVs (Immunity)
Retroviral danger from within (Immunity)
Ancient viruses wreak havoc (The Scientist)
Letters read on TWiV 218

Weekly Science Picks

Welkin – Viruses: Essential Agents of Life (review at STC)
Alan – Infinity Imagined
Vincent – Spaceship built for son

Listener Pick of the Week

Amanda – Written? Kitten!
Kevin – Protein synthesis: An epic (YouTube)
Daria – The Baltimore Scheme

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot

January 27, 2013

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 217 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

FDA licensed flu vaccines
Seasonal influenza vaccine distributed
How flu vaccine strains are selected (one, two)
WHO report on flu vaccine strain selection (pdf)
Derek Smith on antigenic mapping
Salk’s 1945 influenza vaccine
TIV preparation: Fluzone, Agriflu, Fluvirin, Fluarix, Flulaval, Afluria (pdfs)
LAIV preparation (pdf)
Efficacy of flu vaccine 2012-13 (MMWR, virology blog)
Meta-analysis of flu vaccine efficacy (Lancet)
Two new flu vaccines FDA approved
Flublok
Flublok clinical trial
Pandemrix and narcolepsy (Yahoo, PLoS One, PLoS One)
CIDRAP analysis of flu vaccines
Letters read on TWiV 217

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Repoopulate (original article), Robogut (new clinical trial)
Alan – WTF, Evolution?
Dickson – The Beauty and Benefits of Science
Vincent – Supercomputing modeling of poliovirus

Listener Pick of the Week

Bjorn, Marshall, Meaghan – Glass sculptures of Luke Jerram

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 216: Processing VIRALGUUAACACCAGRNA

January 20, 2013

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

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy resume the virology 101 series with a discussion of RNA capping, splicing, and export.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 216 (67 MB .mp3, 93 min)
Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Links for this episode:

Slides for this episode (pdf)
Spliced Ad 2 late mRNAs (Cell)
An amazing sequence arrangement (Cell)
Adenovirus late mRNA undecanucleotide (Cell)
Aaron Shatkin, 72 (virology blog)
Schrödinger’s cat (Wikipedia)
Letters read on TWiV 216

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Linus Pauling’s explanation of science (YouTube)
Alan – Underwater experiments
Kathy – I’m a virus (YouTube)
Vincent – Stem cells (Bizarro Comics)

Listener Pick of the Week

Tom – The President’s Analyst
Danielle – Overly honest methods (HuffPost and ASBMB Today)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 215: Illuminating rabies and unwrapping a SARI

January 13, 2013

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy review the finding that rabies virus infection alters but does not kill neurons, and provide an update on the novel coronavirus in the Middle East.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 215 (66 MB .mp3, 92 min)
Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – I’m a Scientist – The Film
Kathy – Humorous units of measurement (Wikipedia)
Vincent – Open access must enable open use (Nature)

Listener Pick of the Week

Tarwin – Plague Inc.

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 214: This is your brain on polyomavirus

January 6, 2013

raccoon tumor Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy discuss how coagulation factor X binding to adenovirus activates the innate immune system, and a novel polyomavirus associated with brain tumors in raccoons.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 214 (56 MB .mp3, 78 min)
Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Links for this episode:

Coagulation factor X activates innate immunity to adenovirus (Science)
A decorated virus cannot hide (Science)
FX binding sites on hexon (Blood)
Engineering adenoviruses for gene therapy (YouTube)
Reflecting on goals for Science
Polyomavirus associated with raccoon brain tumors (EID)
MPNST
Moore tumor viruses – TWiV 160
Treating CLL with lentivirus vectors (NEJM)
Letters read on TWiV 214

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Parasite of the Day
Kathy – Tour of International Space Station
Vincent – Earth as Art

Listener Pick of the Week

Robin – Angell on Big Pharma
Michael – Flu jokes
Jim – Database of Ted talks; Downloadable Ted Talks

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@microbe.tv

TWiV 213: Not bad for a hobby

December 30, 2012

TWiV Team in BSL4 suits Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

In their final episode of the year, the TWiV team reviews twelve cool virology stories from 2012.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 213 (88 MB .mp3, 122 min)
Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Twelve virology stories from 2012:

H5N1 (TWiV 190, 182, 177, 173, 168)
Polymorphisms that control susceptibility (TWiV 175, 180)
New virus receptors (TWiV 166, 210)
XMRV: Last nail in the coffin (TWiV special)
Polio eradication troubles in Pakistan (NY Times one, two, three; virology blog)
Biomedical research crisis (TWiV 208, 184, 189, 194)
Polydnaviruses in parasitoid wasps (TWiV 179)
Carolyn Coyne’s placental barrier story (TWiV 193)
Touring NEIDL (TWiV 200)
Epidemiology (TWiV 169, 178)
A good year for virus hunting (173, 183, 195, 196, 198, 199, 204)
Pox accordion (TWiV 198)