TWiV 68: Ode to a plaque

February 1, 2010

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich are enthralled by movies of vaccinia virus plaque formation, then consider how repulsion of superinfection virions leads to rapid virus spread, and a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine.

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc. Use the promotion code VINCENT to receive $50 off a Drobo or $100 off a Drobo S.

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Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #68 (58 MB .mp3, 80 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Weekly Science Picks

Rich Foundations of Virology – PowerPoint by Frederick A. Murphy (bio/interview pdf)
Alan Spoonful of Medicine – Nature Medicine blog
Vincent The Feynman Lectures (thanks Ilya!)

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

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5 comments on “TWiV 68: Ode to a plaque

  1. What amazing videos! I listened to the podcast in the car and had to get home so I could see the videos you were talking about. I can see what all the excitement was for. Totally awesome science!! I plaque viruses all the time and have always wanted to make this movie. Lets do all types of viruses now with this. Are they all the same? Does it differ in different cell types? I want more data!!

  2. Virus adsorption and plaque formation by poliomyelitis, herpes-B, and vaccinia viruses have been studied in monolayer cultures of monkey kidney. Under the conditions employed, it was found that the time required for adsorption of 50% of the plaque-forming units was approximately 30 minutes for herpes-B virus and between 1 and 2 hours for poliomyelitis and vaccinia viruses.

  3. Charles Brandon Stauft Jul 22, 2018

    Wasn’t the first plaque assay published by Dulbecco in 1952 using WEEV, not poliovirus? I think that the impact of WEEV in virology during the 1930’s and 1940’s is underestimated in general.

    Apologies if this was corrected in a future TWiV.