TWiV 96: Making viral DNA

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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

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TWiV #96 (65 MB .mp3, 90 minutes)

TWiV 95: Does a virus shift in the woods?

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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)

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TWiV #95 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)

TWiV 94: XMRV with Dr. Ila Singh

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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

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TWiV #94 (56 MB .mp3, 77 minutes)

TWiV 93: Our infectious inbox

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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

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TWiV #93 (76 MB .mp3, 105 minutes)

TWiV 92: Live at ASV in Bozeman

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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!)

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TWiV #92 (42 MB .mp3, 57 minutes)

TWiV 91; You're an ERVous wreck

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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

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TWiV #91 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes)

TWiV 90: Guano happens

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Created on Sunday, 11 July 2010 12:21

Written by Vincent Racaniello

On episode #90 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich and Eric discuss identification of viruses in Northeastern American bats, vaccinia virus infection after sexual contact with a military vaccinee, and identification of a new flavivirus from an Old World bat in Bangladesh.

Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Eric F. Donaldson

Links for this episode:

• Vaccinia virus infection after sexual contact with vaccinee
• Smallpox vaccination overview
• Smallpox vaccine lesions (jpg)
• Smallpox hospital, Roosevelt Island, NY (photo 1, photo 2)
• Isolation of a flavivirus from bats in Bangladesh (PLoS Pathogens)
• Review on hepatitis G virus
• Dickson has been teaching at Singularity University and fishing in Bozeman MT (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiV 90

Weekly science picks:

Eric - Year of Darwin by Sean Carroll
Rich - March of the Penguins
Alan - Standing-height desks
Vincent - DengueWatch (thanks Richard!)

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TWiV #90 (64 MB .mp3, 89 minutes)

TWiV 89: Where do viruses vacation?

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Created on Sunday, 04 July 2010 17:13

Written by Vincent Racaniello

On episode #89 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent and Alan review recent findings on the association of the retrovirus XMRV with ME/CFS, reassortment of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in swine, and where influenza viruses travel in the off-season.

Host links Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove

Links for this episode:

• Conflicting XMRV papers on hold
• Leak of PNAS paper
• CDC study on XMRV in CFS patients (Retrovirology) and Science update
• Where influenza viruses travel in the off season (EurekaAlert! and PLoS Pathogens)
• NPR article on Ebola siRNA treatment (thanks, Andreas!)
• Priming mechanism for reovirus entry (thanks, Agyeman-Badu!)
• Wired article on science PR (thanks, Dan!)
• Letters read on TWiV 89

Weekly science picks:

Alan - Tree of Life graphic
Vincent - TEDx Oil Spill

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TWiV #89 (56 MB .mp3, 78 minutes)

TWiV 88: A bug fix, an AIDS treatment, and an undead retrovirus

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Created on Sunday, 27 June 2010 15:07

Written by Vincent Racaniello

On episode #88 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Marc discuss using a virus for beetle control, RNA based gene therapy for AIDS, and reconstitution of a endogenous human retrovirus.

Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Marc Pelletier

Links for this episode:

• Controlling the palm rhinoceros beetle with a virus
• The virologist in the Hawaiian shirt
• Information on Orcytes rhinocerus nudivirus (one, two, three)
• RNA based gene therapy for AIDS
• Reconstitution of an infectious human retrovirus (PLoS Pathogens)
• Letters read on TWiV 88

Weekly science picks:

Marc - Apple iPad as a tool for writing, with Papers, Pages, and GoodReader
Alan - The Bacterium and the Bacteriophage
Vincent - Naturally Obsessed (thanks, Sharon!)

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TWiV #88 (66 MB .mp3, 91 minutes)

Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc. Use the promotion code TWIVPOD to receive $75-500 off a Drobo.

TWiV 87: A PHIREside chat with Professor Graham Hatfull

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Created on Sunday, 20 June 2010 18:48

Written by Vincent Racaniello

On episode #87 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich hear from Professor Graham Hatfull how students in the Phage Hunters Integrating Research and Education (PHIRE) program learn about scientific inquiry by doing research on bacteriophages.

Host links Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Graham Hatfull

Links for this episode:

• Bacteriophage Research: Gateway to learning science
• Mycobacterium smegmatis at NCBI
• Prof. Steve Cresawn
• Scientist infected with computer virus (thanks, Jason!)
• The Invisible ABCs
• Letters read on TWiV 87

Weekly science picks:

Rich - CDC Public Health Image Library
Vincent - March of the Microbes by John L. Ingraham
Alan – Great Microbiologists – A Lego Movie
Graham – Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas by Forest Rohwer

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TWiV #87 (62 MB .mp3, 86 minutes)

Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc. Use the promotion code TWIVPOD to receive $75-500 off a Drobo.