TWiV 743: Shape-shifting viruses

April 15, 2021

The TWiVsters explain how the shape of pleomorphic virus particles – spherical or filamentous – determines the probability of virus attachment and fusion, and resistance to selective pressure such as antibodies that block cell entry.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, and Amy Rosenfeld

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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

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7 comments on “TWiV 743: Shape-shifting viruses

  1. Open access link in Abbeys letter.
    FDA Grants EUA to COVID-19 Screening Device for Asymptomatic People

    https://www.mhcluster.org/2021/03/24/fda-grants-eua-to-covid-19-screening-device-for-asymptomatic-people/

  2. JJackson Apr 15, 2021

    The question of how many HA were involved in flu’s class 1 fusion and I remember a paper that looked into this – the answer being 3 – sadly I do not have a link.

    Re. Dickson’s pick about the Fermilab Muon G-2 experiment. This is a much longer – 1hr+ – explanation with a fuller look at the theoretical and experimental rational.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81PfYnpuOPA

  3. You managed to get “person-day” both wrong and right. It is the product of persons and days, not the ratio, thus 500 people for 500 days is 250 000 person days, not 1. It is simply a more finely granular (and inclusive) version of the old “man-month,” along the lines of what Vincent described about effort required to complete a task.
    Amy’s point about the development of immune response is dealt with, at least partially, in the paper in that person-days began to accumulate 14 days after the first dose for people who had only received one dose during the observation period or 14 days after the second dose for others.

  4. Hi Vincent.
    I missed a lot of your episodes of Twiv.
    Could you point out the episode where you talked on the media dubbed Indian “double mutation”.
    I look forward to your reply.

    Vili

  5. Kiran Wagle Apr 27, 2021

    Person-time is apparently the sum of the amount of time each participant contributed to the study.

    https://sph.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/112/2015/07/nciph_ERIC4.pdf