Shirley writes:
You have credit lines for everyone participating in TWIV, including timestamps and music. Who’s responsible for the puns (the titles)? Credit and blame must be given where blame and credit are due!
[AD: Shirley you must be joking.]
GROAN
ARGH x 2!
John writes:
Vincent et al,
I had heard of the honeybee disease foulbrood, that kills off the entire hive, but didn’t realize it was a bacterial (Paenibacillus sp) infection. But the rule that if there’s a bacterium, there’s a phage for it applies, and while phage therapy aimed at human diseases is nothing new, there seem to be complications with its deployment.
But honeybee hives appear to offer a much simpler system than humans for introduction of phage into, and my old departmen’s own Heather Hendrickson, now in NZ and mentioned in an earlier letter as a co-organizer of the VoM meeting, is behind such an effort there. Add phage to the Paenibacillus to the bees sugar water, and they’ll wind up incorporating it in the hive. Apparently this is not a novel idea, but in NZ they had to develop their own phages because of import restrictions and because a prior collection had been destroyed, so the second link contains details on phage hunting there that involved beekeepers from all over NZ, and validation of the positive isolates.
Here’s the version for popular consumption:
And here’s the publication behind it:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10688787/
Meanwhile a lovely afternoon yesterday (when I started this) in the lower 20’sC in Greater Braddock after drying out from the rain that came Friday during/after a warning for tornados that largely didn’t materialize.
Cheers,
John
Patrick writes:
Dear TWiVers,
I cannot overstate the influence you and your podcast have had on me. Like many of your followers, I joined the viral bandwagon during the early days of the COVID pandemic. I was working as a chief resident of the UC San Diego pediatrics residency program where I completed half of my med-peds residency, and Victor Nizet recommended TWiV on a well-attended university-wide town hall.
I have been a devoted follower since (at least when my work schedule allows), and when I moved to the Southern Tier of New York state to work as a hospitalist, Daniel’s weekly clinical updates helped me stay up to date on COVID as our hospital was inundated with sick patients in successive waves over the next few years.
Last year when I learned of a vacant infectious diseases fellowship position at University of Rochester Medical Center, my regional hospital’s quaternary referral center, I applied and was offered the position. Officially entering the field is the fulfillment of an aspiration born more than two decades ago when I began reading about disease hunters who traveled the world to study and control emerging pathogens.
One of the many perks of joining the fellowship here was having the opportunity to work with Drs. Ann Falsey and Ed Walsh, two of the world’s top RSV researchers who have spent my entire lifetime and most of theirs studying the virus and helping to make the RSV vaccines a reality. In addition to wanting to express my gratitude for the work you do, I wanted to facilitate an introduction and gauge your interest in having Ann and Ed as guests on TWiV to discuss their work and what they see for the future for RSV vaccines and therapeutics. They are as kind and witty as they are brilliant, and I assure you, they would be dynamic, entertaining, and insightful guests.
Thanks again for enriching my professional and personal life through your expert knowledge, cheerful chatter, and devotion to the pursuit of truth.
All the best,
Patrick
Patrick Passarelli, MD
UC San Diego Internal Medicine-Pediatrics, Class of 2019
Infectious Diseases Fellow, Class of 2025
University of Rochester Medical Center
Dave writes:
Just listened to a discussion with Richard Webby regarding influenza in cows. (TWIV 1113)
Unless I missed something, I heard nothing said about vaccinating cattle herds. Possible? Available? Pros/cons?
Thanks and keep up the good work.
—
Dave
Mission Viejo, California
David writes:
Thought this would be of interest to you all.
Thanks for your work!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/measles-death-child-ontario-1.7207293
– David
Allison writes:
Hi Vincent and TWIV team,
First, I want to say thank you for all that you do- it is such a joy to listen to the podcast, and even as a virologist, I learn something new about viruses during every episode!
I am emailing specifically about episode 1111. I appreciate how enthusiastic you all were in sharing about the MYADM project- it truly is an amazing story with some really exciting experimental design behind the data, in large part designed by a very talented postdoc in the lab- Dr. Wenjie Qiao. That said, a few things were incorrect or slightly misrepresented. We are a lab that specializes in large-scale CRISPR screens, and as such we generate our own lentivirus and cell libraries. This takes large amounts of work and time (and incubator space), and is sort of the bread and butter of Jan’s lab (in addition to the exciting science we pull out using these generated libraries). We do purchase plasmid libraries, but from there we generate our lentivirus and build libraries to have very specific gene coverage. This takes a lot of work, but allows us to feel confident in our screening results.
I know you all have so much science to comb through in order to share with the public, but this felt worth mentioning, especially when others plan or design CRISPR screens for their own projects.
Thanks very much for taking the time to read this email, and thank you again for all that you do. I truly look forward to each new episode.
Best,
Allie
P.S. Kathy Spindler was one of my committee members for my graduate training, as well as an instructor during my graduate courses, and I love hearing her take on new science- it makes me feel like I am back in a committee meeting!
Allison Dupzyk, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Carette Lab
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Walt writes:
I’m always a fan but specifically wanted to thank your team for the well-organized and thoughtful Ep1121, and the “5 Key Points” Excerpt
You often state the importance of basic, “who knows where this’ll go” research and while this is true also for science communications—it draws a wide range of people to love open-mindedness & inquiry—there’s also a burning need to recognize what’s most salient to changing the course of the world TODAY, and to defend against those who HATE open inquiry
I don’t think TWiV would be well-served by morphing into a broader discussion of the role of politics in science but even as you did a superb job of sticking to the facts, not insinuations or conjectures in rebutting Dr Chan and Mr Ridley, it’s important to understand what helps push their ideas to the public
No better example at hand than this recent WaPo story how politicians SHUT down a group that attempted to counter malevolent COVID DIS-info, among other topics: https://wapo.st/3RuAlA5
Anyway, thank you again and Godspeed
Jessica writes:
Dear TWIV,
Thank you for years of fun, interesting and essential education.
I thought this little listener pick about an old epidemic might interest you even though it wasn’t viral but bacterial in origin, because of it being one of the first times PPE were used to try to control the spread of infection.
The pictures are interesting, too
Feel free to use it for TWIM if that seems better.
Best wishes,
Jessica, RN, MAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchurian_plague