TWiM #136: Diderms and then monoderms

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Created on Friday, 07 October 2016 06:17

Written by profvrr

The TWiM team discusses the importance of neutrophils in microbial infections, and evidence that ancient bacteria had two cell walls.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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Right click to download TWiM#136 (35 MB .mp3, 49 minutes).

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Links for this episode

• Conquering neutrophils (PLoS Path)
• Ancestral outer membrane in firmicutes (eLife )
• Were gram positive rods the first bacteria? (Cell)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 136

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

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TWiM #135: Unruly individuals and their unruly friends

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Created on Friday, 23 September 2016 05:01

Written by profvrr

How critical illness alters the microbiome, and the consequences of a sewage spill into an aquatic environment, from the TWiM team.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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Right click to download TWiM#135 (48 MB .mp3, 66 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Dysbiosis of microbiome in critical illness (mSphere)
• Consequences of sewage spill into aquatic environment (App Env Mic)
• EPA recreational water guidelines (pdf)
• VRE following sewage spill (Outbreak Radio)
• FAQ: Human microbiome
• American gut project
• British gut project
• Rob Knight on human microbiome (TED)
• Rob Knight on TWiM
• Image credit
• TWiM 135 Letters

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

TWiM #134: Lipids that live forever

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Created on Thursday, 08 September 2016 04:00

Written by profvrr

Design of a synchronously lysing bacterium for delivery of anti-tumor molecules in mice, and hopanoids, the lipids that live forever, brought to you by the four Microbies of TWiM.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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Right click to download TWiM#134 (46 MB .mp3, 64.5 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Bacterial lysis for in vivo delivery (Nature)
• Coley’s toxins (Iowa Orthop J)
• Hopanoids, stress tolerance, and nutrient storage (Geobiol)
• Lipids that last forever (STC)
• Fattening up microbial geological biomarkers (STC)
• Money spreads infection (Fut Micro)
• TWiM 134 Letters

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

TWiM #133: Right under our noses

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Created on Saturday, 20 August 2016 08:47

Written by profvrr

Insight into the biology of rhinovirus C from cryo-electron microscopy, and a novel antibiotic from a commensal bacterium that grows in the human nose, from the doctors of TWiM.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt.

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Right click to download TWiM#133 (44.5 MB .mp3, 61 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Cryo-EM of viruses and vaccine design (PNAS)
• Atomic structure of rhinovirus C (PNAS)
• Opening windows into the cell (STC)
• Human commensals produce novel antibiotic (Nature)
• The nose knows (Nature)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 133

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

This episode is also brought to you by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable, yet simple to use storage arrays. Drobos are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more. Listeners can save $100 on a Drobo system at drobostore.com by using the discount code Microbe100.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

TWiM #132: Bacteria learn long division

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Created on Friday, 05 August 2016 22:47

Written by profvrr

Vincent, Elio, and Michele present cell division by longitudinal scission in an insect symbiont, and thermally activated charge transport in microbial nanowires.

Read more: TWiM #132: Bacteria learn long division

TWiM 131: Mice behaving badly

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Created on Wednesday, 20 July 2016 20:59

Written by profvrr

Michael and Vincent present Spotlights, brief reviews of classic papers in the Journal of Bacteriology, and explain how a single bacterial species can reverse autism-like social deficits in the offspring of obese mice.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt

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Right click to download TWiM#131 (60 MB .mp3, 82 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Protein secretion in E. coli (J Bacteriol)
• Plague pathogenesis (J Bacteriol)
• Reversal of diet induced social defects (Cell)
• Letters read on TWiM 131

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

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TWiM #130: Interkingdom interactions at ASM Microbe

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Created on Thursday, 23 June 2016 22:21

Written by profvrr

The TWiMers get together at ASM Microbe 2016 in Boston to speak with David and Vanessa to talk about their work on regulation of bacterial virulence in the gut by bacterial adrenergic sensors, and the physiological mechanisms that make us ill and that help us recover.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.

Guests: David S. Schneider and Vanessa Sperandio

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Right click to download TWiM#130 (35.5 MB .mp3, 77 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Bacterial adrenergic receptors in the gut (mBio)
• What a dinner party! (mBio)
• Mapping disease space (PLoS Biol)
• What can vampires teach us about immunology? (Trends Immunol)

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

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TWiM #129: Dried and wrinkled, smooth and mucoid

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Created on Tuesday, 07 June 2016 00:14

Written by profvrr

The arrival in the US of plasmid-mediated resistance to colistin antibiotics, a last line of defense against many gram-negative bacilli, and a quorum sensing system in a eukaryote are topics of this episode hosted by Vincent, Michael, and Michele.

Image (right): Etest used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration of an antibiotic for a particular bacterium.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.

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Right click to download TWiM#129 (51 MB .mp3, 70.5 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• E. coli with mcr-1 on a plasmid in the US (AAC)
• Emergence of plasmid mediated colistin resistance in China (The Lancet)
• Major breach in last line of defense (The Lancet)
• Resistance plasmid families in Enterobacteriaceae (AAC)
• EUCAST MIC breakpoints (ClinCalc)
• Role of ASM in microbial resistance one, two (bLogphase)
• Quorum sensing in fungi (Cell Host Microbe)
• Image credit
• Letters read on TWiM 129

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

TWiM #128: A moonlighting phage protein

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Created on Saturday, 21 May 2016 04:01

Written by profvrr

A eukaryote without a mitochondrion, and using a phage enzyme to eliminate intracellular bacteria are two topics discussed by the TWiMers on this episode.

Image (right): An entry in the ASM Agar Art Contest which bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the TWiM hosts.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.

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Right click to download TWiM#128 (37.5 MB .mp3, 77.5 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Copper and Michael Schmidt in the news (The Scientist)
• Fair Pay for Postdocs (Huff Post)
• National Microbiome Initiative (White House)
• Twenty-five lectures in virology (virology blog)
• The shrinking mitochondrion (The Scientist)
• Eukaryote without a mitochondrion (Curr Biol)
• Why have organelles retained genomes? (Cell Sys)
• Bugs as drugs (Amer Acad Micro)
• Phage encoded lysin eliminates intracellular bacteria (eLife)
• Letters read on TWiM 128

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers over 1,400 documentaries and non­fiction series from the world's best filmmakers. Get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month, and for our audience, the first two months are completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/m​icrobe ​and use the promo code MICROBE​.

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

TWiM #127: Subway Snowblowers and Men in Black

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Created on Thursday, 05 May 2016 21:01

Written by profvrr

The TWiM team explores microbes in snowblower vents on the ocean floor, and cleavage of antibody molecules by a Mycoplasma protease.

Image (right): Photograph of the ‘Subway’ snowblower vent on the sea floor at Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge. Visible are white ‘snow’ in the vent and orange floc on the seafloor. Credit: Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility and the University of Washington.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Elio Schaechter, Michele Swanson, and Michael Schmidt.

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Right click to download TWiM#127 (40 MB .mp3, 54.5 minutes).

Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes, Stitcher, RSS, or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app.

Links for this episode

• Happy Birthday, Elio!
• In the Company of Microbes
• Snowblower vents (Front Micro)
• Deep-sea snowblower vents video (YouTube)
• Visions 11 cruise photos
• Mycoplasma capture and cleave IgG (PNAS)
• Snowblower image (large)
• Letters read on TWiM 127

This episode is sponsored by ASM Agar Art Contest and ASM Grant Writing Course

Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.