TWiV 160: Moore tumor viruses

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Created on Sunday, 04 December 2011 15:36

Written by Vincent Racaniello

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

The TWiV team speaks with Patrick Moore about his discovery, with Yuan Chang, of two human tumor viruses, Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus and Merkel cell polyomavirus.

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Right-click to download TWiV 160 (66 MB .mp3, 109 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Chang-Moore laboratory at University of Pittsburgh
• Representational difference analysis (Science)
• KSHV: Forgotten but not gone (Blood)
• Why do viruses cause cancer? (Nat Rev Cancer)
• Merkel cell carcinoma review (Ann Rev)
• Clonal integration of a polyomavirus in Merkel carcinoma (Science)
• T antigen mutations in Merkel polyomavirus (PNAS)
• Merkel polyomavirus small t is an oncoprotein (J Clin Inves)
• Suggest a topic for the 2012 ASM General Meeting
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 160

Weekly Science Picks

Patrick - The Theory That Would Not Die by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
Dickson - Foodborne illness acquired in the US (Emerging Inf Dis)
Rich - GATTACA
Alan - Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Vincent - Boxwave capacitative stylus

Listener Pick of the Week

Neva - 10+1 top science apps
Ricardo - Where's the outrage?

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 159: Flu gets the REDD light

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Created on Sunday, 27 November 2011 20:10

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review concern over an influenza H5N1 transmission experiment, and a new host defense protein against RNA viruses.

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Right-click to download TWiV 159 (48 MB .mp3, 80 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Concern over H5N1 transmission experiment (CIDRAP)
• Information on NSABB
• Enserink's overstated story (Science)
• New cell defense protein against RNA viruses (Nature Chem Biol)
• Uta Schwedler obituary (jpg)
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 159

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Livescribe Smartpen
Alan - Royal Society journal archive
Vincent - Chronic fatigue syndrome and the CDC by Dave Tuller

Listener Pick of the Week
Judi - Top 7 in Microbiology

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 158: Wolverines go viral

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Created on Sunday, 20 November 2011 20:49

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alice Telesnitsky, and Kathy Spindler

Vincent and Rich visit the Microbiology and Immunology Department at the University of Michigan Medical School, and speak with Alice and Kathy about their work on HIV genome dimerization, and packaging and pathogenesis of mouse adenovirus.

Model of poliovirus bound to CD155 made by Stefan Taube.

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Right-click to download TWiV 158 (52 MB .mp3, 87 minutes). Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Mouse adenovirus infection of macrophages (Virology)
• Breakdown of blood-brain barrier by mouse adenovirus (J Virol)
• Major locus for mouse adenovirus susceptibility (J Immunol)
• Structures in HIV 5'-end that regulate genome packaging (Science)
• Packaging of host RNAs by murine leukemia virus (J Virol)
• What, how, when, where, and why of retroviral genome dimerization and packaging (PLoS Path)
• Virologist replaces Steve Jobs at Apple
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 158

Weekly Science Picks

Alice - Banvard's Folly by Paul S. Collins
Kathy - The world at seven billion
Rich - The Princess Bride
Vincent - Center for the history of microbiology

Listener Pick of the Week

Tim - Dead Ends to Somewhere by Richard L. Ward
Don - Ben Goldacre: Battling bad science (TED)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 157: Better innate than never

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Created on Monday, 14 November 2011 01:30

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, Jeremy Luban, and Gabriel Victora

A large TWiV panel remembers Ralph Steinman, and considers a new innate sensor of retroviral capsids.

Photograph of a dendritic cell (green) interacting with T cells (cyan) near a blood vessel by Gabriel Victora.

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Right-click to download TWiV 157 (90 MB .mp3, 125 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• HG Khorana obituary
• DC discovery: four seminal papers (one, two, three, four)
• Ralph Steinman videos from Lasker Award
• TRIM5 is an innate immune retroviral sensor (Nature)
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 157

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson - Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
Rich - Battlestar Galactica
Alan - Coleman LED quad lantern
Gabriel - A History of Immunology by Arthur M. Silverstein
Jeremy - Principles of Virology by Flint, Enquist, Racaniello, Skalka
Vincent - Principles of Molecular Virology by AJ Cann

Listener Pick of the Week

David - Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot (YouTube)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 156: Armed and targeted killer meta-analysis

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Created on Sunday, 06 November 2011 23:11

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Dickson Despommier

Vincent, Rich, and Dickson review a meta-analysis on influenza vaccine, a killer virus in fungi that selects against RNAi, and the use of armed and targeted poxviruses for oncolytic virotherapy.

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Right-click to download TWiV 156 (57 MB .mp3, 94 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccine (Lancet)
• Flu vaccine not as effective as thought (MPRNews)
• Blog posts on flu vaccine meta-analysis (virology blog, alandove, viva)
• Killer virus explains RNAi deficient fungi (Science)
• Poxvirus-based oncotherapy (Nature)
• Jennerex
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 156

Weekly Science Picks

Rich - Google's self-driving car (story one and two)
Dickson - Wild Russia and Wild China TV series
Vincent - Baculovirus molecular biology by George Rohrmann (free)

Listener Pick of the Week

Jim - Lee Cronin: Making matter come alive (TED)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 155: XXII Brazilian National Virology Meeting

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Created on Sunday, 30 October 2011 19:50

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Grant McFadden, Eurico de Arruda Neto, Paulo Eduardo Brandão, Francisco Murilo Zerbini, and Janice Reis Ciacci Zanella

Vincent, Grant, Eurico, Paulo, Francisco and Janice discuss their work on bocavirus, infectious bronchitis virus, begomoviruses, and circoviruses at the Brazilian Virology Society meeting in Atibaia, São Paulo, Brazi.

Right-click to download TWiV 155 (56 MB .mp3, 93 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Program of the XXII Brazilian Virology Meeting (pdf)
• Sociedade Brasiliera de Virologia
• Journal of the Brazilian Society for Virology
• Photographs from the meeting at TWiV Facebook or Picasa
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 155
• Video of this episode - view below or download 640x480 .mp4 file

Weekly Science Picks

Vincent - AAM Colloquium Program
Grant - The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean

Listener Pick of the Week

Antonio - 2011 Nobel Laureates Lectures at Lindau

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 154: Symbiotic safecrackers

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Created on Monday, 24 October 2011 10:05

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich are very enthusiastic about two studies that show how gut bacteria help viral invaders.

Right-click to download TWiV 154 (46 MB .mp3, 77 minutes). Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes, at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Retrovirus transmission dependent on commensal microbiota (Science)
• Intestinal microbiota promote enteric virus replication (Science)
• TWiV 3D timeline (9 MB .mv4 - thanks, Ricardo)
• Faleye's photos at VirusTalk
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 154

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - SciWriteLabs
Vincent - Take as directed

Listener Pick of the Week Tony - Introduction to AI online course

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 153: Rabid reindeer and protective prions

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Created on Sunday, 16 October 2011 20:10

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review an outbreak of rabies in arctic foxes and reindeer in Norway, and a prion that makes you go antiviral.

Right-click to download TWiV 153 (55 MB .mp3, 92 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Goodbye Dennis Ritchie (boingboing)
• Rabies in Svalbard (Eurosurveillance)
• Where is Longyearbyen? (Google maps)
• Svalbard global seed vault (Wikipedia)
• WHO map of rabies prevalence (pdf)
• US rabies surveillance, 2010
• A prion-like aggregate in innate immunity (Cell)
• Virology lectures on prions (#24) and virus entry (#5)
• Susan Lindquist on prions at FiB (#77, #57)
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 153

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Amoebas microscope drive 2011
Vincent - WolframAlpha
Rich - Genesis by Ramos David (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week Bill -Virolution by Frank Ryan

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 152: Viromes in the effluence of society

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Created on Sunday, 09 October 2011 18:37

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich cover the virome of raw sewage, and a baculovirus gene that causes caterpillars to climb to their doom.

Right-click to download TWiV 152 (50 MB .mp3, 83 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• Viruses in raw sewage (mBio)
• Surprising number of viruses in sewage (EurekAlert!)
• Shinola
• Gene for an extended phenotype (Science)
• Liquefying virus uses one gene (Ed Yong)
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 152

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - xkcd tribute to Steve Jobs
Vincent - Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford commencement address (YouTube)
Rich - 1984 Apple Macintosh commercial (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

David - Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

TWiV 151: Dear TWiVers

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Created on Sunday, 02 October 2011 16:15

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review questions and comments from TWiV listeners.

Right-click to download TWiV 151 (49 MB .mp3, 81 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, by email, or listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode:

• CFIDS Association of America
• Research1st (CFS research)
• Chronic Fatigue Initiative (CFI)
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 151

Weekly Science Picks

Alan - Aurora Australis from space
Vincent - Science360 Radio
Rich - Ghost Productions (demo and website)

Listener Pick of the Week

Sophie - Bacteria by Jonathan Coulton

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.