MicrobeWorld

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Nearly four months ago I stood at the front of a crowded classroom at Columbia University and began teaching the third year of my undergraduate virology course. Twice a week we discussed the basic principles of virology, including how virions are built, how they replicate, and how they cause dis... Read More

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Why is there such widespread fear of avian H5N1 influenza virus?

Why did Paul Keim, chair of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) say “I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one”. What lead Donald McNeil, writing about H5N1 in the New Yor... Read More

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I hear from many readers that they routinely get the flu vaccine every year, yet they often contract the disease. I usually tell them that the vaccine is not perfect: it doesn’t protect everyone who gets it. Now we have the numbers to back up this statement, and they are not pretty.
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Andreas writes:

Hello professors,

I would just like to start by saying thank you for the wonderful podcast.

Today I found this article (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127226355) on npr which seems to describe a remarkably effectiv... Read More

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Vincent and Dickson review the life cycle and pathogenesis of the world's most unusual parasite, Strongyloides stercoralis.

Host links: Read More

New 2010 Handwashing Brochure - Get a Grip

This new brochure, available from the American Society for Microbiology and the Amer... Read More

Jesper writes:

Dear Professors,

Having upped my daily dose of podcasts I stumbled upon This Week In Science. The latest show (http://www.twis.org/audio/2010/03/09/438/) they mentioned something that probably comes within your sphere of interest, namely the fin... Read More

Beki writes:
I am a second year graduate student, and the lab that I joined works on Leishmania and Trypanosomes. I originally discovered TWiP via TWiV (where my true interests are - but that is a long story; Matt Frieman came and gave a seminar and gave a small plug fo... Read More

Ed writes:

Gentlemen, I think you'll find that Dylan Thomas was Welsh, not Irish. Though you are of course correct on his penchant for writing and

drinking!

Josh writes:

Dear TWiV Doctors,

I have one question and one co... Read More

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The retrovirus XMRV arose during passage of a human prostate tumor in nude mice. The genomes of these mice contain two different proviral DNAs related to XMRV, pre-XMRV-1 and pre-XMRV-2, that recombined to produce XMRV that has been isolated from humans. Two other prostate cancer cell lines also... Read More

RSS stands for really simple syndication. It's an acronym encompassing various data formats (xml, atom, rss, rdf) used for providing users with frequently updated content. RSS also allows... Read More

The fatality rate for human infections with avian influenza H5N1 is widely quoted at >50%, based on the number of deaths among the fewer than 600 cases confirmed by the World Health Organization. Wang, Parides, and Palese suggest that this number is an overestimate. Read More

Welkin Johnson, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Blogger for Small Things Considered, ponders the "fossil record" of viruses:

"As a scientist fascinated with the evolutionary interplay between viruses and their hosts, I admi... Read More

On episode #86 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent and Rich travel to the Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco to speak with Eric De... Read More

Mary writes:

Listening to the most recent Republican, I mean Tea Party, presidential debate, I was quite upset (for many reasons), but one of which was to listen to how Michelle Bachmann characterized the HPV vaccine as a "dangerous government injecti... Read More