This Week in Virology

TWiV 282: Tamiflu and tenure too

April 27, 2014

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

The TWiV team reviews a meta-analysis of clinical trial reports on using Tamiflu for influenza, and suggestions on how to rescue US biomedical research from its systemic flaws.

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Download TWiV 282 (75 MB .mp3, 104 min)
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Links for this episode

World Malaria Day
Review of oseltamivir clinical trials (Brit Med J)
Effectiveness of Tamiflu questioned (NHS choices)
Tamiflu campaign (Brit Med J)
Rescuing US biomedical research (PNAS)
Letters read on TWiV 282

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Northampton Airport
Vincent – Particle Fever
Kathy – Turn iPhone into microscope
Rich – My favorite science gifs

Listener Pick of the Week

Nathan – The Ascent of Man (YouTube)

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

TWiV 281: The Salk legacy with Peter L. Salk

April 20, 2014

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Peter L. Salk

Vincent meets up with Peter L. Salk to talk about development of the first poliovaccine, eradication of poliomyelitis, and Jonas Salk’s 100th birth anniversary.

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Download TWiV 281 (66 MB .mp3, 91 min)
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Links for this episode

Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation
Poliomyelitis control meeting poster (png)
Man of Science cartoon (png)
Jonas Salk, Officier: Recalling a Medical Hero (pdf)
The Cutter Incident by Paul Offit
Splendid Solution by Jeffrey Kluger (review)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

Peter L. Salk, MD

TWiV 280: Post viral

April 13, 2014

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

The TWiVmeisters answer listener email about the NEIDL, negative results, patenting MERS-coronavirus, human papillomavirus transmission, canine distemper virus, and much, much more.

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Download TWiV 280 (71 MB .mp3, 99 min)
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Links for this episode

Poxvirus viability in historical relics (EID)
TWiM 74: It came from the Siberian permafrost
How to read a scientific paper
Image credit: Not only quilts
Letters read on TWiV 280

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Heartbleed explanation
Vincent – Agriculture science today podcast
Kathy – Quizlet flashcards (online and iTunes)
Rich – Why nothing is truly alive

Listener Pick of the Week

Lance – Myles Power (YouTube and Facebook)
Raihan – Cheap DIY microscope
Gerald – DaVinci Press
Neal – I’m a virus

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

TWiV 279: The missing LNC

April 6, 2014

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy reveal how a retrovirus in the human genome keeps embryonic stem cells in a pluripotent state, from where they can differentiate into all cells of the body.

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Download TWiV 279 (65 MB .mp3, 90 min)
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Links for this episode

Retrovirus needed for stem cell identity (Nat Struc Mol Biol)
HERV-H is a marker for pluripotency (Retrovirology)
Letters read on TWiV 279

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Heathkit
Vincent – How to think about autism risk and Autism prevalence
Kathy – Distortions

Listener Pick of the Week

Joseph – The real process of science
Marion – Zometool
Kevin – Audioimmunity and Emmunity

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

TWiV 278: Flushing HIV down the zinc

March 30, 2014

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy discuss disruption of the ccr5 gene in lymphocytes of patients infected with HIV-1.

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Download TWiV 278 (74 MB .mp3, 103 min)
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Links for this episode

Gene editing of ccr5 in AIDS patients (NEJM)
HIV gets the zinc finger (TWiV 144)
Genome engineering with zinc finger nucleases (Genetics)
Photo credit: Watty’s Wall Stuff
Mice lie, monkeys exaggerate t-shirt design (thanks, Christophe)
Letters read on TWiV 278

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Digital scale model of solar system
Dickson – Font of knowledge
Vincent – Measles outbreaks trends, and NYC measles (one, two)
Kathy – Winner, funding basic science to revolutionize medicine

Listener Pick of the Week

Stephen & Jon – Watty’s Wall Stuff
Johyne – Macro views of snowflakes
Ricardo & Stephen – Vaccine exemptions
Bill – Books by John Janovy
Marshall – Animation of DNA replication
Steve – Debunking influenza vaccine myths

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

TWiV 277: My podcast Vinny

March 23, 2014

Hosts: Glenn Rall, Ann Skalka, and Vincent Racaniello

Glenn and Ann meet up with Vincent to talk about his career in science and science communication.

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Download TWiV 277 (57 MB .mp3, 78 min)
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Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

TWiV 277

TWiV 276: Ramblers go viral

March 16, 2014

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Susan Baker and Thomas Gallagher

Vincent meets up with Susan Baker and Tom Gallagher at Loyola University to talk about their work on coronaviruses.

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Download TWiV 276 (51 MB .mp3, 70 min)
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Links for this episode

Papain-like viral proteases (Virus Res)
MERS-CoV papain-like protease (Virology)
Mouse model for MERS-CoV (PNAS)
Receptor and MERS-CoV infection (J Virol)
Letters read on TWiV 276
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent – First demonstration of Macintosh, 1984

Listener Pick of the Week

Lance – The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

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

TWiV 276

TWiV 275: Virocentricity with Eugene Koonin

March 9, 2014

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit

Guest: Eugene Koonin

Vincent and Rich meet up with Eugene Koonin to talk about the central role of viruses in the evolution of all life.

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Download TWiV 275 (94 MB .mp3, 130 min)
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Links for this episode

Virocentric view of evolution (Curr Op Virol)
Proposed order Megavirales (Arch Virol)
Pithovirus (PNAS)
Selfish virus-like elements (Virol J)
Pandoraviruses are derived Phycodnaviruses (Biol Direct)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

TWiV 274: Data dump

March 2, 2014

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

The TWiV team discusses recent cases of polio-like paralysis in California, and the virome of 14th century paleofeces.

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Download TWiV 274 (87 MB .mp3, 120 min)
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Weekly Science Picks

Alan – The science of science communication
Rich – Command and Control by Eric Schlosser
Dickson – Top 10 plant viruses
Vincent – Is the Nobel Prize good for science?
Kathy – Time to rethink graduate and postdoc education (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

Jon – Lessons from a Kansas graveyard
Mike – Cross a fashion designer with a microbiologist

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

Below is a video depicting laser capture microdissection from Tim Sheahan:

TWiV special: MERS-coronavirus in dromedary camels

February 25, 2014

Dromedary camels Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: W. Ian Lipkin and Thomas Briese

Vincent meets up with Ian and Thomas to discuss their finding that MERS-coronavirus has been circulating in dromedary camels in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since at least 1992.