MicrobeWorld

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Read More

An article by Alan Derman, Project Scientist in Joe Pogliano’s lab at the University of California at San Diego, published on the Small Things Considered blog presents a point-by-point analysis of a paper "Quantitative genome-scale analysis of protein localization in an asymmetric bacterium" pub... Read More

Kristopher writes:

Dear TWIV,

As a developmental biologist and post-doc, I greatly enjoy your show which gives me both information and distraction from pipetting small volumes from one tube to another in the lab. Recently, my lab enjoyment was cut short by a w... Read More

Bryce writes:

I enjoyed your discussion of the Molecular Therapy paper in this week’s TWiV. My lab (and others) have worked on using virus particles as scaffolds to increase the immunogenicity of various targets for quite some time. One thing that wanted to point out ... Read More

TWiV 82 letters

Erik writes:

Yesterday I sent my Skype audio question again, and I think it worked this time. In my question I mentioned a particular youtube video. Here's the link if you want to see what I was referring to. It's only 5 minute... Read More

A second virophage has been identified. The name does not signify a virus that infects another virus – it means virus eater.
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El podcast del Microbio Nº194 is about the recent observation that the algae Closterium moniliferum could remove strontium... Read More

Science writer Carl Zimmer writes a masterful blog piece tracing the history of the study of ecosystems, from lakes to the human microbiome. Just one interesting fact: In their lifetimes, individual humans will produce about five elephants worth of microbes. Read More

Some viruses that infect bacteria (bacteriophages) deliver their DNA into the host cell with an amazing injection machine. The tailed bacteriophages (such as T4, illustrated) store their DNA in a capsid attached to a long tail tube that is surrounded by a sheath. At the bottom of the tube is a b... Read More

Glenn Rall, a virologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center, sent me the following note:

Baruch S. Blumberg, Nobel Laureate in 1976 for discovery of Hepatitis B (and the eventual development of the vaccine, which probably has saved hundreds of thousands of lives since its introduction), died this pas... Read More

Rich Condit found an article highly critical of the original Wakefield study (claiming a link between MMR vaccine and autism) which was published in the same issue of Lancet. He asked the publisher, Elsevier, to open up the article to non-subscribers so he could recommend it as a pick of the wee... Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich... Read More

This episode: Black smoker bacteria are more versatile as symbionts than we thought!

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit... Read More

Yesterday the Chicago Tribune published my reaction to the four papers on the retrovirus XMRV published this week in the journal Retrovirology. I was quoted as saying ”These four papers are probably the beginning of the end of XMRV and CFS”. I wish to retract this statement and explain my reason... Read More

Michael writes:

I had previously wondered why the technology discussed on episode “Barking Up the Ri... Read More

Small Things Considered co-blogger Merry Youle has a post about the diversity of life in McKelvey Valley, a broad, glacially-carved pass just west of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. Her writing is inspired in part by a recent paper from the University of Hong Kong (See Read More

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Raul Andino

Vincent meets up w... Read More

Bjorn writes:

Hi Vincent and Dickson,

I want to correct a statement you made in the trypanosomes episode. Apolipoprotein L-I in human blood kills only the subspecies Trypanosoma brucei brucei, whereas the East African subspecies Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and the... Read More