This Week in Virology

TWiV 337: Steamer

May 17, 2015

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.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 337 (50 MB .mp3, 69 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

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.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 336 (72 MB .mp3, 100 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

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.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 335 (79 MB .mp3, 110 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

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.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 334 (70 MB .mp3, 96 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

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.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 333 (68 MB .mp3, 94 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

MTGR1 and intestinal secretory lineage allocation (Faseb J) 27:50
Coronaviruses induce macropinocytosis (mBio) 36:30
PD-1 and respiratory virus reinfection (J Immunol) 42:50
Vanderbilt MSTP on Facebook
Video of this episode: view above or at YouTube

Timestamps by Jennifer.

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

TWiV 332: Vanderbilt virology

April 12, 2015

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Seth Bordenstein, James Crowe, and Mark Denison

Vincent visits Vanderbilt University and meets up with Seth, Jim, and Mark to talk about their work on a virus of Wolbachia, anti-viral antibodies, and coronaviruses.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 332 (70 MB .mp3, 97 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

SARS-CoV error correction (PLoS Path) 19:00
Marburg virus neutralization by a human antibody (Cell one and two) 56:35
Phage WO, Wolbachia and Drosophila (Peer J) 1:02:00
Seth’s blog Symbionticism 1:31:30
Seth on Twitter
Video of this episode: view above or at YouTube

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

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

TWiV 331: Why is this outbreak different from all other outbreaks?

April 5, 2015

Enterovirus D68 by Jason Roberts

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

The TWiV team discusses the possible association of the respiratory pathogen enterovirus D68 with neurological disease.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 331 (98 MB .mp3, 136 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

This episode is sponsored by SciMed Solutions and ASM Education.

Links for this episode

Clusters of AFP associated with enterovirus D68 (Lancet) 31:35
Novel outbreak enterovirus D68 strain (Lancet Inf Dis) 53:00
Enterovirus D68 in Norway (Euro Surveill) 1:12:00
Unknown enemy (Nature) 1:10:40
Enterovirus D68 on TWiV 302
Letters read on TWiV 331 8:00, 1:23:50

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:53:50

Alan – OU0POLIO ham radio special event station (on air reports)
Rich – Crane building itself (YouTube)
Kathy – Vaccine heroes LEGO project
Dickson – Life at the limits
Vincent – Emperor of all Maladies film and Conference gender balance

Listener Pick of the Week

Jake – Designing useful microbes

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

TWiV 330: A swinging gate

March 29, 2015

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

The TWiVers explain how a protein platform assists the hepatitis C virus RNA polymerase to begin the task of making viral genomes.

Click arrow to play
Download TWiV 330 (80 MB .mp3, 111 min)
Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode

NYAS Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program 9:25
Concerns about editing the human germline (Science, Nature) 29:10
Engineering the perfect baby (MIT Tech Rev)
RNA recognition by HCV polymerase (Science) 37:15
Kickstarting an RNA polymerase (Science)
A protein platform for priming (virology blog) 42:00
Apoenzyme and holoenzyme (Wikibooks)
Ebolavirus will not become a respiratory pathogen (virology blog) 1:24:58
Burkholderia pseudomallei (CDC) 1:17:45
Letters read on TWiV 330 3:45 and 1:04:38

Timestamps by Jennifer. Thank you!

Weekly Science Picks 1:32:25

Alan – X-Flare 2.1 captured
Rich – Volvo ocean race drops research buoys (YouTube)
Kathy – Nature double-blind peer review
Dickson – Largest cave in the world
Vincent – New program for early-career scientists

Listener Pick of the Week

Michael – Space Engine and Kerbal Space Program
Varun CN – Incognito by David Eagleman

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

TWiV 329: Pox in the balance

March 22, 2015

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

The TWiV team reviews identification of immune biomarkers in CFS/ME patients, and how a cell nuclease controls the innate immune response to vaccinia virus infection.