This Week in Virology

TWiV 293: Virology Down Under

July 13, 2014

Guests: Melissa Churchill, Alex Khromykh, Gilda Tachedjian, and Paul Young

Vincent visits Melbourne, Australia and speaks with Melissa, Alex, Gilda, and Paul about their work on HIV infection of the central nervous system, West Nile virus, microbicides for HIV, and the Koala retrovirus.

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Links for this episode

Where does HIV hide? (Curr Op HIV AIDS)
Subgenomic flavivirus RNA (Viruses)
Vaginal lactic acid and HIV (J Antimicro Chem)
Koala retroviruses (Retrovirology)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

TWiV 293

TWiV 292: Medimmune goes viral

July 6, 2014

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Wade Blair, Matt Dickson, Nicole Kallewaard-Lelay, and Ken Miller

Vincent visits Medimmune and speaks with Wade, Matt, Nicole, and Ken about why they work in industry and their daily roles in a biotechnology company.

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Links for this episode

Medimmune, LLC
Medimmune on Twitter
Medimmune history and products
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

TWiV 291: Ft. Collins abuzz with virologists

June 29, 2014

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Guests: Clodagh O’Shea and Ron Fouchier

Vincent, Rich, and Kathy and their guests Clodagh and Ron recorded this episode at the 33rd annual meeting of the American Society for Virology at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

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Links for this episode

Viral polymer that inactivates tumor suppressors (Cell)
Mutations driving airborne transmission of influenza H5N1 virus (Cell)
Transmission of influenza H7N1 virus in ferrets (J Virol)
Ron Fouchier on TWiV #177
Photo credit: Matt Evans
Thanks to David Quammen for the title
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – No sexual transmission of HCV (Am J Gastro)
Vincent – Made with code (blog post)
Kathy – Beautiful math images (and 50 Visions of Mathematics)

Listener Pick of the Week

Jon – Advances in Life Sciences winners (YouTube)
Dave – Adam Ruben

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

TWiV 291

TWiV 290: Baylor goes viral

June 22, 2014

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Janet Butel and Rick Lloyd

Vincent meets up with Janet Butel and Rick Lloyd at Baylor College of Medicine to talk about their work on polyomaviruses and virus induced stress.

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Download TWiV 290 (63 MB .mp3, 88 min)
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Links for this episode

SV40 microRNAs (PLoS Path)
SV40 seroprevalence (J Infect)
Viruses and stress granules (PLoS Path)
Viral inhibition of stress granule formation (Cell Host Micr)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

TWiV 290

TWiV 289: Vinny and the capsids

June 15, 2014

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

Vinny and the capsids answer listener questions about the definition of life, state vaccination laws, the basic science funding problem, viral ecology, inactivation of viruses by pressure, and much more.

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Download TWiV 289 (73 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Links for this episode

Varun’s research poll
Letters read on TWiV 289

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – The Science of Good Cooking
Vincent – The Shooter Report (pdf)
Kathy – Daily overview
Dickson – Girl rising

Listener Pick of the Week

Johnye – Ri channel
Ricardo – Open spin microscope (Nikon gallery, plans)
Chris – The microbiome game

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

TWiV 288: ebircsnart esreveR

June 8, 2014

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

The Twivsters discuss how reverse transcriptase encoded in the human genome might produce DNA copies of RNA viruses in infected cells.

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Download TWiV 288 (87 MB .mp3, 120 min)
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Links for this episode

Should variola virus be destroyed? (poll at virology blog)
DNA complementary to non-retroviral RNA viruses (Sci Rep)
Integration of arenavirus DNA into cell genome (virology blog)
Infectious respiratory syncytial DNA (PNAS)
Tysabri and PML
JC and PML (J Imm Res)
Igor Koralnik laboratory
Jean-Luc Doumont (Kathy’s pick, TWiV 268)
Bullet points kill (TED)
Letters read on TWiV 288

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Luvalamps
Alan – Experiment
Vincent – American Society for Virology on Facebook
Kathy – LEGO female scientists
Dickson – The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman

Listener Pick of the Week

Basel – A Treatise on the small-pox and measles by Abu-Bakr Al-Razi

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

TWiV 287: A potentially pandemic podcast

June 1, 2014

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

Matt updates the TWiV team on MERS-coronavirus, and joins in a discussion of whether we should further regulate research on potentially pandemic pathogens.

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Weekly Science Picks

Matt – Forgive me, scientists
Alan – Do not link
Vincent – bioRxiv
Kathy – Snail photographs
Dickson – Solar roadways

Listener Pick of the Week

Daniel – Benz Biome concept car

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

TWiV 286: Boston TWiV party

May 25, 2014

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Guests: Julie Pfeiffer and Paul Duprex

Vincent and Alan meet up with Julie and Paul at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, to talk about their work on the pathogenesis of poliovirus and measles virus.

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Download TWiV 286 (68 MB .mp3, 94 min)
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Links for this episode

Threading the NEIDL (YouTube)
Transmission of measles virus from macaques (J Gen Virol)
Tropism of green measles virus in macaques (J Virol)
Intestinal microbiota promote enteric virus replication (Science)
Bacterial LPS enhances poliovirus stability (Cell Host Micr)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent – ASM Live 2014
Alan – I will not follow the herd
Paul – Invisible Threat
Julie – The importance of stupidity in biological research

Listener Pick of the Week

Neil – WEHI movies and VIZBI

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

TWiV 286

TWiV 285: Hokies go viral

May 18, 2014

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guests: XJ Meng and Sarah McDonald

Vincent meets up with XJ and Sarah at Virginia Tech to talk about their work on viruses of swine and rotaviruses.

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Download TWiV 285 (64 MB .mp3, 88 min)
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Links for this episode

Hepatitis E virus (Int J Env Res Pub Health)
Porcine and human anelloviruses (J Virol)
Origin of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in US (mBio)
Distinguishing rotaviruses (J Virol)
Molecular epidemiology of rotaviruses (J Virol)
Core domains in rotavirus polymerase encapsidation (J Gen Virol)
Video of this episode – view above or at YouTube

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

hokies go viral

TWiV 284: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes

May 11, 2014

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

The TWiV team discusses how skin scarification promotes a nonspecific immune response, and whether remaining stocks of smallpox virus should be destroyed.