TWiV 196: An arena for snakes

August 19, 2012

red tailed boa constrictorHosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan DoveRich Condit, Dickson Despommier, Kathy Spindler, Mark Stenglein, and Joseph DeRisi

The TWiVites meet with Mark Stenglein and Joseph DeRisi to discuss their discovery of a novel arenavirus in snakes with inclusion body disease.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 196 (77 MB .mp3,  107 minutes).

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4 comments on “TWiV 196: An arena for snakes

  1. This is where things get interesting…is the mouse involved, either giving or receiving the virus?  This type of research raises very important questions.  I wish we as a funding society and country jumped on board to understand viruses at the basic level.  This TWiV episode and the previous one looking at a RNA-DNA virus reinforces my belief that we need to invest funding in basic virology…image for just 4-5 million (40-50 labs at $100,000), a drop in the bucket for a major funding agency, we fund these smaller labs. Not so much as stable multi-year funding grants but at the very least give them at least a window to pursue those virus questions that would be “cool” and may lead to downstream applications.

    Josh