TWiV 54: Professor Lynn Enquist, virology luminary

October 18, 2009

enquist-xianHosts: Vincent Racaniello and Lynn Enquist

Vincent speaks with Lynn Enquist about his career in virology, moving from academia to industry and back. Along the way he did pioneering research on bacteriophage, participated in the birth of recombinant DNA technology, and studied herpesviruses.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #54 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes)

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Weekly Science Picks
Lynn Francis Crick: Hunter of Life’s Secrets by Robert Olby
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3 comments on “TWiV 54: Professor Lynn Enquist, virology luminary

  1. oatila Oct 21, 2009

    You and Alan Dove have said in a previous episode that it's very unlikely that someone will produce a deadly virus. And I fully agree. Evolution is much better at this than humans.
    But what about 1918 H1N1 sequences? It's very hard to make a new virus from scratch, but if you have the sequences and can make hole genes with it, can this be a shortcut?

    • Influenza viruses can be produced from the nucleotide sequence. The
      technology has been published in a variety of scientific journals. The
      1918 influenza virus has been produced from the nucleotide sequences
      and there is no reason why it could not be done in other laboratories.
      However, producing influenza viruses from the nucleotide sequence is
      not 'kitchen biology': it requires a fairly sophisticated laboratory
      and knowledge of the technique.

  2. Influenza viruses can be produced from the nucleotide sequence. The
    technology has been published in a variety of scientific journals. The
    1918 influenza virus has been produced from the nucleotide sequences
    and there is no reason why it could not be done in other laboratories.
    However, producing influenza viruses from the nucleotide sequence is
    not 'kitchen biology': it requires a fairly sophisticated laboratory
    and knowledge of the technique.