MicrobeWorld

Hosts: Stanley Maloy, Jo Handelsman, Read More

Mike writes:

Hello Men (and sometimes women) of TWiV!

I have read before that the human genome contains the genetic code of several thousand retroviruses. These retroviruses are in an inactive state, and are believed to be the product of infec... Read More

Global fish farming may be the solution to the impending collapse of the commercial fishing industry, but penned fish are susceptible to infectious diseases. Infection with salmon infectious anemia virus, an orthomyxovirus, lead Wal-Mart to stop buying farmed salmon from Chile, the world’s secon... Read More

Don’t Get Caught Dirty Handed (2003)

(Click here for most recent findings)

Does it take an outbre... Read More

Influenza researcher Peter Palese visited yesterday and spoke about “Pandemic influenza: Past and Future”. A key part of his talk was a review of his efforts to produce a universal influenza vaccine which protects against all strains. He used the following graph to make the point that when influ... Read More

In addition to working as a scientist, and well before his discovery of antibiotics, Alexander Fleming painted. He was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, where he created amateurish watercolors. Less well known is that he also painted in another medium, living organisms. Fleming painted ballerin... Read More

Mom's advice about cleaning your hands may finally be starting to get through. In the August 2010 observational study sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology and the Read More

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Fungi can be found in rising bread, moldy bread, and old food in the refrigerator, and on forest floors. Most decompose non-living things, but some damage crops and plants. A few cause problems in people, such as Candida, which causes yeast infections.... Read More

A paper published in PubMed that appeared in the July 1967 edition of Applied Microbiology reports that men with beards who work in microbiology labs may be a public health hazard. The authors conclude that although lab personnel who wash their beards reduced the amount of virus or toxin, a suff... Read More

On episode #69 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich review recent outbreaks of mumps in the UK, US, and Israel, protection of mice against 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus by 1918-like and... Read More

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus (XMRV) has been implicated in prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Because XMRV is a retrovirus, it might be susceptible to antiviral drugs that are licensed for the treatment of AIDS. AZT (azidothymidine) was previously found to bloc... Read More

Chris Upton, a contributor to the virology toolbox, has raised an important point about multiplicity of infection:

Perhaps this is a place to bring up particle to pfu ratio? The above is great for when talking about phage, for example, when the ratio approaches 1. But with something like poli... Read More

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Small Things Considered

The purpose of Small Things Considered is to share appreciation for the width and depth of the microbial activities on this pla... Read More

Joyce writes:

Love the pod cast!

I once went into a very large bookstore and asked the clerk if they had any books on parasitology. She said that they did and pointed in the direction of a large case of colorful books which on closer examination turned out to ... Read More

As you know, we keep food in refrigerators so it will last longer. But still, sometimes you open a bag of bread or a jar of spaghetti sauce and what do you find? Mold!!

Ever wonder exactly what mold is? And how did it get there? And why sometimes it’s green and other times black or wh... Read More

On episode #66 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent and Dickson continue virology 101 with a discussion of information flow from RNA to DNA, a process known as reverse transcription, which occurs in ... Read More

Derek Smith, Professor of Infectious Disease Informatics, University of Cambridge, U.K., has developed a method for visualizing antigenic evolution by creating two-dimensional maps in a process called antigenic cartography. These maps are made with data that provide information on the antigen... Read More