TWiV 114: Ten out of ’10

January 2, 2011

vaccinia plaqueHosts: Vincent RacanielloAlan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich revisit ten compelling virology stories of 2010.

Click the arrow above to play, or right click to download TWiV #114 (64 MB .mp3, 88 minutes).

Subscribe (free): iTunesRSSemail

Ten virology stories of 2010:

  1. XMRV, CFS, and prostate cancer (TWiV 113, 99, 98, 94, 89, 76, 70, 65)
  2. The ongoing saga of polio eradication (TWiV 110, 79)
  3. Viruses interact with the miRNA/siRNA system (TWiV 108, 72)
  4. Endogenous viruses – retro and beyond (TWiV 105, 91, 88, 65)
  5. Dengue virus progress and new outbreak (TWiV 111, 95, 82)
  6. Colony collapse disorder (TWiV 104)
  7. David Baltimore (TWiV 100)
  8. Ode to a plaque (TWiV 68)
  9. Vaccine contamination with circovirus (TWiV 86, 77, 75)
  10. Universal influenza vaccines (TWiV 107)

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Elementary schoolchildren publish a science paper (original article and editorial with video) – thanks Kathy!
Alan – White-nose syndrome blog
Vincent – Headway, headlines and healthy skepticism

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv.

Leave a Reply to umnklang Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

4 comments on “TWiV 114: Ten out of ’10

  1. Anonymous Jan 2, 2011

    You say that people aren’t interested in the XMRV prostate cancer story because it is an old mans disease. I would totally disagree. It is that this story does not at this time advance the science on prostate cancer enough for the media to pick it up. The media also accept that it can kill people and that it is a physical disease, so as you say those patients don’t need it. But this is untrue also, as there are enormous cancer charities constantly tacking the issues and funding studies into this disease. The story for people with ME/CFS is very, very different. Multiple news outlets have admitted that the ME/CFS story will not be covered until the cause is found. Guess that is the influence of financial pressures. In the UK there has been a near total blackout on the story since October, that it until the press release from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. There is little funding available for biomedical research, effective treatments are hidden from most, and a great deal of misinformation is accepted as fact by those who should and do know better.

    During the podcast you also state that there is a robust advocacy group for ME/CFS. Wow! Never heard anyone say that about this disease. Nothing could be further from the truth. Patients are usually too sick, careers too busy or don’t exist, and there are too few doctors/researchers who are interested in this disease. It is a desperate situation. The patients that are attempting to let this XMRV research reach it’s conclusion (whatever that may be) are incurring terrible relapses. They cannot keep going at this pace, but what choice do they have? Nobody wants to force Governments to fund biomedical research except those who were before the XMRV research broke. How are we to find the cause if no biomedical research is funded? People with MS, Parkinson’s disease don’t face this problem.

    Going back to the XMRV issue. Is it not impossible to find a reliable assay, if the only people who are using one are those who are already able to find the virus? Are scientists now incapable of producing a replication study? Why keep trying to invent the wheel at this point? If it’s so controversial why use another novel assay? Come on. People are too sick to have scientists delay research into this potential goldmine.

    Another assay that was mentioned was Coffins IAP test. Well how do we know that isn’t picking up human IAPs?

    And finally why is the Lipkins study only looking at ME/CFS and not Prostate cancer?

  2. Michael Walsh Jan 7, 2011

    A very nice recap of This Year in Virology, thank you all in the TWiV team. I am an infectious disease epidemiologist at SUNY, Downstate and have been a long time listener to both TWiV and TWiP. I was particularly pleased with your summary of dengue virus in this last recap episode. Indeed, you have given this subject its well deserved attention given the public health threat it constitutes in much of the world, and which may yet emerge in the US. The latter starting to bear out with this year’s developments in Florida as you have covered well in your show.
    I am beginning an extended series on arthropod-borne infections at my blog: http://infectionlandscapes.blogspot.com/
    This blog focuses on infectious diseases and the ecologies and landscapes relevant to their epidemiology. The new series begins with dengue fever, starting with a short lecture posted today and continuing next week with interesting discussion on the ecologies and physical landscapes of dengue virus and its mosquito vectors.
    All are welcome and comments are always appreciated.
    Cheers,
    Michael Walsh

  3. umnklang Jan 7, 2011

    A comment to Rich about his pic last episode – google goggles will translate text that you take a picture of. It does require a self focusing camera, so only on the 3gs and 4g Iphones, but it works quite well. It is completely free. It is packaged with the google mobile app.

    Keep up the good work fellas.

    -K