TWiV 222: Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a GAS GAS GAS

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Created on Sunday, 03 March 2013 16:36

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

The complete TWiV team discusses the amazing finding that cyclic GMP-AMP synthase is a cytosolic innate immune DNA sensor.

Download TWiV 222 (70 MB .mp3, 97 min)

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Links for this episode:

• Zhijian J. Chen (Wikipedia)
• Sensing the dark side of DNA (Science)
• cGAMP is an endogenous second messenger (Science)
• cGAMP synthase is a DNA sensor (Science)
• Pore-forming toxin (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiV 222

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - Graphene batteries
Alan - How do we get cures? (YouTube)
Rich - Explosive breach of Condit Dam (Vimeo)
Vincent -  10 things you can do to support open access (Tree of Life)

Listener Pick of the Week

Mark - The real story of Stuxnet
John - D-connector virus

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TWiV 221: Bunya there, done that

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Created on Sunday, 24 February 2013 16:35

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Dickson, and Kathy review two emerging bunyaviruses, SFTSV and SBV.

Download TWiV 221 (66 MB .mp3, 91 min)

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Links for this episode:

• Human transmission of SFTSV (JID)
• SFTSV serosurvey (EID)
• SFTSV on TWiV 147
• SFTSV in Japan (ProMedMail)
• SFTSV mouse model (PNAS)
• SBV infectious DNA and mouse model (PLoS Path)
• SBV in Sweden (ProMedMail)
• Letters read on TWiV 221

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - Winners, 2012 Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge
Vincent -  The Operator and Dr. Oz's Problem

Listener Pick of the Week

Shane - OpenPCR
John - Python

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TWiV 220: Flu watches the clock while T7 gets a CAT scan

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Created on Sunday, 17 February 2013 16:22

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Rich, Alan, and Kathy discuss regulation of influenza virus replication by splicing, and the bacteriophage T7 random walk.

Download TWiV 220 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)

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Links for this episode:

• Influenza splicing regulates infection (Cell Reports)
• Reporting on flu splicing from NPR, BBC, NBC
• Splicing of influenza RNA 8 (jpg)
• Bacteriophage T7 remodeling during infection (Science)
• Cryo-ET of intact cells (Trends Cell Biol)
• T7: The Movie (YouTube)
• Cry0-EM vs Cryo-ET (Wikipedia)
• Virus caught in the act (e! Science News)
• Letters read on TWiV 220

Weekly Science Picks

Kathy - Journal of Virology Image Gallery
Rich - Phage T7 Genetics and Physiology and slab gels
Alan - PeerJ (press release)
Vincent -  Virologia en Español

Listener Pick of the Week

Dave - Thingiverse pathogens and proteins 

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TWiV 219: Fauci pharmacy

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Created on Sunday, 10 February 2013 20:12

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Anthony S. Fauci

Vincent and Rich meet up with Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Download TWiV 219 (46 MB .mp3, 64 min)

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Links for this episode:

• Fauci history (J Clin Inves) 
• Fauci Pharmacy
• Anthony Fauci (Wikipedia)
• Anthony Fauci: Unfinished business (Lens)

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TWiV 218: Monkeys turning valves and pushing buttons

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Created on Sunday, 03 February 2013 22:04

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Welkin Johnson

Vincent, Alan, and Welkin discuss how endogenous retroviruses in mice are held in check by the immune response.

Download TWiV 218 (64 MB .mp3, 89 min)

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Links for this episode:

•  Kuan-Teh Jeang, 54
• Resurrection of ERVs (Nature)
• Toll-like receptors control ERVs (Immunity)
• Retroviral danger from within (Immunity)
• Ancient viruses wreak havoc (The Scientist)
• Letters read on TWiV 218

Weekly Science Picks

Welkin - Viruses: Essential Agents of Life (review at STC)
Alan - Infinity Imagined
Vincent - Spaceship built for son

Listener Pick of the Week

Amanda - Written? Kitten!
Kevin - Protein synthesis: An epic (YouTube)
Daria - The Baltimore Scheme  

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TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot

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Created on Sunday, 27 January 2013 15:09

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Dickson Despommier

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.

Download TWiV 217 (69 MB .mp3, 95 min)

Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email

Links for this episode:

• FDA licensed flu vaccines
• Seasonal influenza vaccine distributed
• How flu vaccine strains are selected (one, two)
• WHO report on flu vaccine strain selection (pdf)
• Derek Smith on antigenic mapping
• Salk's 1945 influenza vaccine
• TIV preparation: Fluzone, Agriflu, Fluvirin, Fluarix, Flulaval, Afluria (pdfs)
• LAIV preparation (pdf)
• Efficacy of flu vaccine 2012-13 (MMWR, virology blog)
• Meta-analysis of flu vaccine efficacy (Lancet)
• Two new flu vaccines FDA approved
• Flublok
• Flublok clinical trial
• Pandemrix and narcolepsy (Yahoo, PLoS One, PLoS One)
• CIDRAP analysis of flu vaccines
• Letters read on TWiV 217

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Repoopulate (original article), Robogut (new clinical trial)
Alan - WTF, Evolution?
Dickson - The Beauty and Benefits of Science
Vincent - Supercomputing modeling of poliovirus

Listener Pick of the Week

Bjorn, Marshall, Meaghan - Glass sculptures of Luke Jerram

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TWiV 216: Processing VIRALGUUAACACCAGRNA

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Created on Sunday, 20 January 2013 21:06

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy resume the virology 101 series with a discussion of RNA capping, splicing, and export.

Download TWiV 216 (67 MB .mp3, 93 min) 

Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Links for this episode:

• Slides for this episode (pdf)
• Spliced Ad 2 late mRNAs (Cell)
• An amazing sequence arrangement (Cell)
• Adenovirus late mRNA undecanucleotide (Cell)
• Aaron Shatkin, 72 (virology blog)
• Schrödinger's cat (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiV 216

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Linus Pauling's explanation of science (YouTube)
Alan - Underwater experiments
Kathy - I'm a virus (YouTube)
Vincent - Stem cells(Bizarro Comics)

Listener Pick of the Week

Tom - The President's Analyst
Danielle - Overly honest methods (HuffPost and ASBMB Today)

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TWiV 215: Illuminating rabies and unwrapping a SARI

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Created on Sunday, 13 January 2013 16:02

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy review the finding that rabies virus infection alters but does not kill neurons, and provide an update on the novel coronavirus in the Middle East.

Download TWiV 215 (66 MB .mp3, 92 min)

Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Links for this episode:

• Neuronal survival after rabies virus infection (PLoS Path)
• Clusters of coronavirus cases (Nature)
• ProMedMail on novel coronavirus
• Novel coronavirus outbreak news (Int J Inf Dis)
• Genomic characterization of novel coronavirus (mBio)
• Broad cell tropism of novel coronavirus (mBio)
• Are viruses alive? (poll at virology blog)
• Antibodies taken up by endocytosis (PNAS)
• Antibody eliminates alphaviruses from neurons (Science)
• Image: Virus in the garden by Helen Hache
• Letters read on TWiV 215

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - I'm a Scientist - The Film
Kathy - Humorous units of measurement (Wikipedia)
Vincent - Open access must enable open use (Nature)

Listener Pick of the Week

Tarwin - Plague Inc.

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TWiV 214: This is your brain on polyomavirus

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Created on Monday, 07 January 2013 01:29

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent, Alan, and Kathy discuss how coagulation factor X binding to adenovirus activates the innate immune system, and a novel polyomavirus associated with brain tumors in raccoons.

Download TWiV 214 (56 MB .mp3, 78 min)

Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Links for this episode:

• Coagulation factor X activates innate immunity to adenovirus (Science)
• A decorated virus cannot hide (Science)
• Reflecting on goals for Science
• Polyomavirus associated with raccoon brain tumors (EID)
• MPNST
• Moore tumor viruses - TWiV 160
• Treating CLL with lentivirus vectors (NEJM)
• Letters read on TWiV 214

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Parasite of the Day
Kathy - Tour of International Space Station
Vincent - Earth as Art

Listener Pick of the Week

Robin - Angell on Big Pharma
Michael - Flu jokes
Jim - Database of Ted talks; Downloadable Ted Talks

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TWiV 213: Not bad for a hobby

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Created on Monday, 31 December 2012 01:12

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler

In their final episode of the year, the TWiV team reviews twelve cool virology stories from 2012.

Download TWiV 213 (88 MB .mp3, 122 min)

Subscribe to TWiV (free): iTunes, RSS feed, email

Twelve virology stories from 2012:

1. H5N1 (TWiV 190, 182, 177, 173, 168)
2. Polymorphisms that control susceptibility (TWiV 175, 180)
3. New virus receptors (TWiV 166, 210)
4. XMRV: Last nail in the coffin (TWiV special)
5. Polio eradication troubles in Pakistan (NY Times one, two, three; virology blog)
6. Biomedical research crisis (TWiV 208, 184, 189, 194)
7. Polydnaviruses in parasitoid wasps (TWiV 179)
8. Carolyn Coyne’s placental barrier story (TWiV 193)
9. Touring NEIDL (TWiV 200)
10. Epidemiology (TWiV 169, 178)
11. A good year for virus hunting (173, 183, 195, 196, 198, 199, 204)
12. Pox accordion (TWiV 198)

Links for this episode:

• US plans for H5N1 research (ScienceInsider)
• FDA recommends against Ampligen
• Rituximab and CFS (PLoS One)
• No evidence for XMRV in prostate cancer (PLoS One)
• Retraction of XMRV prostate cancer paper (Retraction Watch)
• Gender bias among science faculty (PNAS)
• NEIDL risk assessment
• Virology 101 at TWiV
• Letters read on TWiV 213

Weekly Science Picks

Listener Pick of the Week

Matt - The flu vaccine controversy

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