TWiV 60: Making viral RNA

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Created on Sunday, 29 November 2009 19:15

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Vincent and Dickson continue Virology 101 with a discussion of how RNA viruses produce mRNA and replicate their genomes.

Host links Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Links for this episode:

Contact

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TWiV #60 (51 MB .mp3, 71 minutes)

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TWiV 59: Dog bites virus

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Created on Sunday, 22 November 2009 14:47

Written by Vincent Racaniello

A TWiV panel of five considers the finding of Streptococcus pneumoniae in fatal H1N1 cases in Argentina, hysteria in the Ukraine over pandemic influenza, and human vaccinia infection after contact with a raccoon rabies vaccine bait.

Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, Gustavo Palacios, and Mady Hornig

Links for this episode:

• Argentine flu death mystery
• H1N1 influenza outbreak in Ukraine (article one and two, and WHO statement)
• Human vaccinia infection after contact with rabies vaccine bait
• Agrippal S1 inactivated H1N1 vaccine (pdf - thanks Ariel and Ayelet)
• Nick's letter on are viruses and life
• Take the poll: are viruses alive?

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #59 (58 MB .mp3, 80 minutes)

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TWiV 58: Nipah virus in ferrets

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Created on Sunday, 15 November 2009 14:29

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Vincent, Dick, and Alan are joined by emergency medicine physician Dr. Joshua Stillman to talk about passive antibody therapy for Nipah infection in ferrets, annual influenza immunization of children, facemasks to prevent influenza, predicting dengue outbreaks by the weather, and the amazing viral communities in an icy Antarctic lake.

Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Joshua Stillman

Links for this episode:

• Post-exposure passive antibody therapy for Nipah virus in ferret
• Image above left shows Nipah viral antigen (red) in ferret brain ependymal epithelium
• Is yearly influenza vaccination of children a bad idea?
• Debate on N95 masks vs surgical masks to prevent influenza
• Weather patterns help predict dengue outbreaks
• Diverse viral community in Antarctica's icy lakes (thanks Russ!)
• Tamiflu in Japanese river waters (see TWiV 40 - thanks Russ!)
• Chlorine dioxide gas removes influenza virus (thanks André!)

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #58 (52 MB .mp3, 73 minutes)

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TWiV 57: Virology in high school

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Created on Sunday, 08 November 2009 15:12

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Vincent visits Scotch Plains – Fanwood High School and talks about viruses with high school biology students.

Host links: Vincent Racaniello

Links for this episode:

• Vincent’s presentation (pdf)
• Thank you letters
• Oncolytic reovirus
• Does rhinovirus interfere with influenza?

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #57 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)

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TWiV 56: Perspicuously perspicacious

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Created on Sunday, 01 November 2009 16:46

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Cliff answer questions from listeners on swine influenza origins, transmission, virulence, and vaccines, HIV and AIDS, and more.

Host links: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Cliff Mintz

Links for this episode:

• Physicists propose 'Schrödinger's Virus' experiment (thanks Duncan)
• Nanoparticle adjuvant (ScienceDaily and Journal of Controlled Release - thanks Jim)
• Hand washing won't stop H1N1 at Newsweek (thanks Jim)
• Newsweek's virus quiz
• TWiV timeline (download .m4v file - thanks Ricardo)
• Sanjay Gupta's H1N1 experience (thanks Lenn)
• Swine flu vaccine fear mongering at eSkeptic (thanks Jesper)
• Flu transmission and humidity (letter from Joe)

Weekly Science Picks

Dick 27" iMac and Powers of Ten by Philip Morrison and Phyllis Morrison
Alan ImageMagick
Cliff ePatient Connections 2009
Vincent Cell size and scale

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #56 (57 MB .mp3, 82 minutes)

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TWiV 55: Mice lie, monkeys exaggerate

Details

Created on Sunday, 25 October 2009 14:45

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, Jason Rodriguez, and Rich Condit

The largest TWiV panel ever assembled takes on XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome, 2009 chemistry Nobel prizes for ribosome structure, finding new poxvirus vaccine candidates, a brouhaha over leaked Canadian data on flu susceptibility, and transmission of H1N1 influenza to a pet ferret.

Links for this episode:

• XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome
• XMRV not found in German prostate cancer
• 2009 Chemistry Nobel Prize for ribosome structure
• New poxvirus vaccines (e! Science and Virology articles - thanks Jim!)
• Seasonal flu shots and susceptibility to 2009 H1N1 (one, two, and three)
• Pet ferret gets H1N1 influenza from owner

Weekly Science Picks

Dick Nikon photomicroscopy contest winners at SciAm (Dick's article on vertical farming)
Alan Make:
Rich BBC's Planet Earth (DVD at Amazon)
Jason The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate
Vincent An Epidemic of Fear and Misinformants at Wired Magazine

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #55 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes)

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TWiV 54: Professor Lynn Enquist, virology luminary

Details

Created on Monday, 19 October 2009 01:18

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Lynn Enquist

Vincent speaks with Lynn Enquist about his career in virology, moving from academia to industry and back. Along the way he did pioneering research on bacteriophage, participated in the birth of recombinant DNA technology, and studied herpesviruses.

Links for this episode:

• Holliday junction
• Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA
• Restriction enzymes
• Movies of herpesvirus movement in nerve cells
• The 'other' Enquist lab
• Can you find the TWiV 54 hosts in this photo?

Weekly Science Picks

Lynn Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets by Robert Olby
Vincent ViralZone

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #54 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes)

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TWiV 53: The ends justify the means

Details

Created on Sunday, 11 October 2009 16:01

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Dick, and Alan talk about Nobel prizes for telomere research, bacteriophages that protect aphids from wasps, salicylates and pandemic influenza mortality, and hand washing.

Links for this episode:

• Bacteriophages encode toxins that protect aphids from wasps
• 14 year old dies after receiving HPV vaccine
• Salicylates and pandemic influenza mortality
• Canadian microbiologist says hand washing is not proven to prevent influenza
• Surgical mask vs N95 respirator for preventing influenza
• Americans unsure about receiving pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine
• DnaTube (thanks Jim!)
• Laboratory Director certification (pdf - thanks Megan!)
• Plant production of pharmaceuticals (pdf one and pdf two - thanks Ed!)

Weekly Science Picks

Alan scienceline
Dick Younger by Judith Sulzberger MD
Vincent FluView

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #53 (45 MB .mp3, 62 minutes)

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TWiV 52: Scott Hammer, MD on AIDS vaccines

Details

Created on Sunday, 04 October 2009 22:55

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Scott Hammer, MD

Vincent and Dr. Scott Hammer talk about different types of AIDS vaccines and how they are tested in clinical trials.

Links for this episode:

• PAVE 100 trial cancelled
• HIV vaccine shows promise for the first time
• Description of the Thailand AIDS program
• NEJM review on why AIDS vaccine is difficult (pdf)
• Arguments for the AIDS vaccine trial in Thailand
• International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI)

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #52 (51 MB .mp3, 73 minutes)

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TWiV 51: ALVAC-HIV and AIDSVAX B/E

Details

Created on Sunday, 27 September 2009 16:10

Written by Vincent Racaniello

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, and Alan Dove

Vincent, Dick, and Alan (with a cameo appearance by Rich Condit) review the world’s largest Phase III study of a complex HIV vaccine candidate in Thailand, immunization of salmon against infectious salmon anemia virus, and an outbreak of blueberry shock virus in Michigan.

Links for this episode:

• HIV vaccine shows promise for the first time - description of the program, FDA background document (pdf), NEJM review on why AIDS vaccine is difficult (pdf), and arguments for the trial
• Chile immunizes salmon (USGS article on the virus, pdf)
• Blueberry virus strikes Michigan research center (information on the disease and the virus)
• Rotavirus seasonality (thanks Didier!)
• Viruses and the tree of life at virology blog
• Big brains have evolved twice (thanks Arsen!)

Weekly Science Picks

Alan Bat Rabies and Other Lyssavirus Infections
Dick Boosting Vaccines: The Power of Adjuvants (Scientific American; subscription required)
Vincent The Ig Nobel Prizes by Marc Abrahams

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 to delicious and tagging them with to:twivpodcast.

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TWiV #51 (60 MB .mp3, 84 minutes)

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