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This Week in Virology
This Week in Virology (TWiV) is a podcast – or netcast, as some prefer to call them, since you don’t need an iPod to listen – about viruses. It was begun in September 2008 by Vincent Racaniello and Dick Despommier, two science Professors at Columbia University Medical Center. Their goal was to have an informal yet informative conversation about viruses which would be accessible to everyone, no matter what their science background. We wanted to eventually bring other virologists into the conversation, to make it more varied and interesting. Alan Dove, a science writer, joined us late in 2008, and Rich Condit, a poxvirologist, joined in 2009. We’ve had a number of guests on the show and we’re always trying to get more.
Why are we doing this? Dick, Rich, and I have spent our entire academic careers directing research laboratories, so we have a lot of knowledge to share. Plus, we both enjoy teaching. Put those two things together, and you have TWiV. If you want to learn about viruses in a relaxing way, then TWiV is for you.
TWiV 100: TWiV catches a big fish
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 26 September 2010 16:36
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #100 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich celebrate the 100th episode by talking about viruses with Nobel Laureate David Baltimore.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit, and David Baltimore
Links for this episode:
- David's early papers on poliovirus and mengovirus RNA synthesis
- Reverse transcriptase found by Baltimore and Temin (pdfs)
- Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975
- David fishing (Picasa web album)
- The David Baltimore asteroid belt
- Cedric's essay The 'Death' of a Virus (pdf)
- Letters read on TWiV 100
Weekly science picks:
Alan - TimeTree
Rich - The neurons that shaped civilization
Vincent - Ahead of the Curve: David Baltimore's Life in Science by Shane Crotty
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #100 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)
TWiV 99: ICAAC Boston 2010
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 19 September 2010 21:50
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #99 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent tours the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), speaking with exhibitors and visitors, including Professors Derek Smith, Michael Schmidt, Frederick Hayden, and Myra McClure.
Host links Vincent Racaniello
Links for this episode:
- 50th ICAAC
- ICAAC daily press conference videos (including Prof. Myra McClure)
- Antigenic cartography
- Antimicrobial properties of copper
- Video of this episode – download .mp4 or .wmv or view below
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #99 (47 MB .mp3, 62 minutes)
TWiV 98: Murine musings, electric shirts, and rabid pathologists
- Details
- Created on Monday, 13 September 2010 00:57
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #98 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich review the finding of murine leukemia virus-related sequences in the blood of CFS patients and healthy donors, laboratory inventories for wild poliovirus containment, weaving high-performance viral batteries into fabric for the military, and a case of human rabies in Indiana.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit
Links for this episode:
- MLV-related sequences in blood of CFS patients (commentary)
- Laboratory inventories for poliovirus containment
- Viral batteries for the military (abstract) - also see TWiV 28
- Human rabies, Kentucky/Indiana, 2009
- Letters read on TWiV 98
Weekly science picks:
Alan - NCBI ROFL
Rich - The Great Bridge by David McCullough
Vincent - Dr. Rous' Prize-Winning Chicken
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #98 (58 MB .mp3, 90 minutes)
TWiV 97: California virology
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 05 September 2010 22:21
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #97 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent visited Peter Sarnow and Bert Semler during a trip to California, and spoke with them about their work on internal ribosome entry, and the requirement for a cellular microRNA for hepatitis C virus replication.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Peter Sarnow, and Bert Semler
Links for this episode:
- Eukaryotic mRNAs that might contain an IRES (PNAS)
- Modulation of HCV RNA abundance by a liver-specific microRNA (Science)
- Viral small RNAs (PLoS Pathogens)
- Bridging IRES elements to the translation apparatus (Biochim Biophys Acta)
- A nucleo-cytoplasmic SR protein functions in viral IRES mediated translation (EMBO J)
- Nuclear vs cytoplasmic routes to IRES mediated translation (Trends in Microbiology)
- Letter read on TWiV 97
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #97 (66 MB .mp3, 91 minutes)
TWiV 96: Making viral DNA
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 22 August 2010 15:55
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #96 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, and Rich continue Virology 101 with a discussion of how viruses with DNA genomes replicate their genetic information.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit
Links for this episode:
- Figures for this episode (pdf)
- Video of this episode - coming soon
- RNA silencing as a plant immune system (Trends in Genetics)
- Photos of transgenic petunia (PLoS Biology)
- Letters read on TWiV 96
Weekly science picks:
Rich - Breast milk sugars give infants a protective coat (NY Times and PNAS article)
Vincent - The Great American University by Jonathan R. Cole
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #96 (65 MB .mp3, 90 minutes)
TWiV 95: Does a virus shift in the woods?
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 15 August 2010 23:50
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #95 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich consider the end of the influenza H1N1 pandemic, dengue in Florida, vaccinia virus infection in Brazilian monkeys, and viruses in the faecal microbiota.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit
Links for this episode:
- WHO declares end of influenza H1N1 pandemic
- CDC's FluView
- WHO global monitoring of influenza
- Locally acquired dengue in Key West, Florida (MMWR)
- CDC page on dengue
- Vaccinia virus infection in monkeys of the Brazilian Amazon
- Dam site where animals were collected for vaccinia study (Google maps)
- Rich's article: Whence feral vaccinia?
- Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their Mothers (Nature)
- New Yorker article The Treatment (thanks, Jim!)
- Letters read on TWiV 95
Weekly science picks:
Alan - Families Fighting Flu
Rich - Food, Inc.
Dickson - Fuel
Vincent - MIT Open Courseware
Michael - Waiting for Superman and Can Science Feed the World? (Nature)
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #95 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)
TWiV 94: XMRV with Dr. Ila Singh
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 08 August 2010 12:30
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #94 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich speak with Ila Singh about the new human retrovirus XMRV, and how her laboratory is studying its association with prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Ila Singh
Links for this episode:
- CFIDS Association of America
- Discovery of XMRV (PLoS Pathogens)
- Detection of XMRV in CFS patients (Science)
- Presence of XMRV in malignant prostate (PNAS)
- Inhibition of XMRV by raltegravir (PLoS One)
- Letters read on TWiV 94
Weekly science picks:
Alan - The new Federal Register site (see also regulations.gov)
Rich - The Florida Museum of Nautural History Butterfly Rainforest
Vincent - JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #94 (56 MB .mp3, 77 minutes)
TWiV 93: Our infectious inbox
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 01 August 2010 14:38
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #93 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about lab procedures, prokaryotes, endogenous retroviruses, the iPad and teaching, prions, mimivirus, splitting water with viruses, and the polio outbreak in Tajikistan.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit
Links for this episode:
- Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
- SIGA responds to BARDA request for smallpox antiviral
- BARDA contract for filovirus vaccine
- What is a Ph.D? (pdf)
- HHMI resources for early career scientists
- Pace article on abandoning prokaryote (Nature)
- Three domains of life (Forterre article)
- Mechanoenzymatic cleavage of Von Willebrand's factor (Science)
- Splitting water with viruses
- WHO coverage on Tajikstan polio outbreak
- Wild type polio infection in immunized Indian children (JID)
- Letters read on TWiV 93
Weekly science picks:
Alan - Southern Fried Science
Rich - Tree of Life web project
Vincent - Dickson Despommier at Big Think
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #93 (76 MB .mp3, 105 minutes)
TWiV 92: Live at ASV in Bozeman
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 25 July 2010 15:16
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
Vincent, Rich, Karla, and Marilyn recorded TWiV at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology in Bozeman, where they discussed plant viruses and how they make plants resistant to adverse conditions, and identification of dominant negative drug targets.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Karla Kirkegaard, and Marilyn Roosinck
Links for this episode:
- Lifestyles of plant viruses
- Using pyrosequencing to understand virus ecology
- A virus in a fungus in a plant
- Trans-dominant inhibition of RNA viral replication
- Resistance is futile
- Announcement of TWiV at ASV (pdf)
- Photographs of TWiV at ASV
- Letters read on TWiV 92
Weekly science picks:
Marilyn - Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their mothers (Nature)
Rich - The Known Universe by the American Museum of Natural History
Vincent - The Red Queen by Matt Ridley (thanks, Jesper!)
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #92 (42 MB .mp3, 57 minutes)
TWiV 91; You're an ERVous wreck
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 18 July 2010 04:49
- Written by Vincent Racaniello
On episode #91 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan, Rich and Welkin discuss the nature, origin, and evolution of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), and the recent finding of endogenous filovirus genomes in mammals.
Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Welkin Johnson
Links for this episode:
- Welkin blogs at Small Things Considered
- Constructing primate phylogenies from ancient retrovirus sequences (PNAS)
- Filoviruses are ancient and integrated into mammalian genomes (BMC Evol Biol)
- Synthetic cells: Momentous breakthrough or ethical morass? (To The Point)
- Creation of a bacterial cell (Science)
- Comments on the synthetic cell (Small Things Considered)
- TWiV rap: T-Number Index by G-Unit (mp3) and Vincent (mp3) (thanks, Darrick and Scott!)
- Letters read on TWiV 91
Weekly science picks:
Welkin - Advice for a Young Investigator by Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Rich - How microbes define and defend us
Dickson - H1N1 virus lacks 1918 virus killer protein
Alan - The Xtal Set Society
Vincent - Antibodies and the quest for an AIDS vaccine
Contact
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 leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also send articles that you would like us to discuss by tagging them with 'twiv' here at microbeworld.org.Download
TWiV #91 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes)
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