Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review the biology and pathogenesis of the amoebae Naegleria fowlerii and Acanthamoeba castellani.

Right-click to download TWiP #39 (61 MB .mp3, 85 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• N. fowlerii life cycle (CDC)
• N. fowlerii at Artful Amoeba
• Naegleria and amoebic meningoencephalitis (MDPH)
• First case of Naegleria PAM in Italy (Emerg Inf Dis)
• N. fowlerii in well water (Emerg Inf Dis)
• Recent N. fowlerii case in Minnesota (Clin Inf Dis)
• Beat the holiday bug (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Is your neti pot safe? (Dallas News)
• Acanthamoeba keratitis fact sheet (CDC)
• Letters read on TWiP 39

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson tackle the backlog of listener email, then consider the life cycle and pathogenesis of Trichomonas vaginalis, the flagellated protozoan transmitted by sexual contact.

Right-click to download TWiP #38 (53 MB .mp3, 74 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• T. vaginalis life cycle (jpg)
• T. vaginalis hydrogenosome (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 38

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the life cycle and pathogenesis of Dracunculus medinensis, the filarial nematode that causes dracunculiasis, or Guinea worm disease.

Right-click to download TWiP #37 (74 MB .mp3, 102 minutes).

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Links for this episode:

• Dracunculus emerging from foot (jpg)
• Dracunculus medinensis life cycle (jpg)
• Guinea worm - WHO
• Guinea worm eradication - The Carter Center
• War against Guinea worm (YouTube)
• Caduceus vs staff of Asclepius
• Vincent and Dickson - the dogs (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 37

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review how gut bacteria help establish T. muris in the large intestine of mice.

Right-click to download TWiP #36 (50 MB .mp3, 69 minutes).

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Links for this episode:

• T. muris exploits the intestinal microflora (Science)
• Trichuris Park (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 36
• Video of Dickson at the whiteboard (view below)

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss control of malaria with their Columbia University colleague David Fidock.

Right-click to download TWiP #35 (55 MB .mp3, 77 minutes).

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Links for this episode:

• The Fidock laboratory
• Next-generation antimalarial drug discovery (Science)
• Insights into artemisinin resistance (Curr Op Inf Dis)
• Letters read on TWiP 35

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss control of malaria and filariasis with the bacterial endosymbiont Wolbachia.

Right-click to download TWiP #34 (66 MB .mp3, 91 minutes).

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Links for this episode:

• Targeting Wolbachia for antifilarial therapy (PLoSNTD)
• Wolbachia inhibits malaria parasite (PLoS One)
• Letters read on TWiP 34

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review an in silico pipeline for identifying molecular mimicry candidate proteins in the genomes of parasites, and catch up on listener email.

Right-click to download TWiP #33 (63 MB .mp3, 88 minutes).

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Links for this episode:

• Molecular mimicry candidates in parasites (PLoS One)
• Letters read on TWiP 33

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss immune evasion by the cruzain protease of T. cruzi, and novel tetraspanin antigens of S. japonicum.

Right-click to download TWiP #32 (65 MB .mp3, 90 minutes).

Please help us by taking our listener survey.

Links for this episode:

• NF-kappaB: Nuclear Factor binding kappa enhancer in B cells
• Immune evasion by T. cruzi cruzain (PLoS Pathogens)
• Novel tetraspanins in S. japonicum (Acta Tropica)
• Intravenously administered malaria vaccine (Science)
• TWiP on trypanosomes (#15) and schistosomes (#26)
• Monsters Inside Me
• Futures in Biotech with Dr. Jack Horner, advisor for Jurassic Park
• Dickson's Pick: Labcoats in Hollywood by David Kirby
• Letters read on TWiP 32

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the promising results of a phase III trial of a malaria vaccine in African children.

Right-click to download TWiP #31 (50 MB .mp3, 70 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• First results of RTS,S/AS01 phase III trial (NEJM)
• Development of RTS,S/AS malaria candidate vaccine (Vaccine)
• Chandler's dog images (one, two - jpg)
• Schistosomiasis hieroglyphics (pdf)
• TWiP on malaria (#9, #10, #11)
• Letters read on TWiP 31

Contact

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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson have a broad-ranging conversation with Charles Knirsch of Pfizer, Inc. about how public-private partnerships can function to control and eliminate infectious diseases.

Right-click to download TWiP #30 (61 MB .mp3, 85 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• Ivan's images (one, two, three, four - jpg)
• Dickson Despommier's parasitology lectures
• Letters read on TWiP 30

Contact

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Subscribe (free)

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