This Week in Microbiology

The TWiM team discusses the use of copper on exercise weights to reduce bacterial burden, and the mechanism of antigenic variation by which a fungus that causes severe pneumonia escapes the immune system. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello , Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt , and Michele Swanson Links for this episode: Reducing bacteria on exercise weights with copper (Am J Inf Contr) Antigenic variation i...

From Indiana University, Vincent speaks with Ankur, Julia, and Xindan about their careers and their work on horizontal gene transfer, quorum sensing, and chromosome organization in bacteria. Guests: Ankur Dalia , Julia Van Kessel , and Xindan Wang Watch the video version! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifGCe-qfnA0 Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode: Dalia laboratory Van Kessel labora...

This episode is all about saliva: how certain bacteria survive in it, and how swallowing saliva might cause intestinal inflammation. Links for this episode: Genes for the Streptococcus pyogenes fitness in human saliva (mSphere) Swallowed bacteria drive colonic inflammation (Science) Intestinal inflammation induced by oral bacteria (Science) Human oral microbiome (J Bact) T cell subsets (Nat Rev Im...

The TWiM hosts and associated microbiomes review a fungus destroying salamanders in Europe, and genes for flagella in intracellular bacteria. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for thi...

From the TWiM team, a discussion of Hurricane Harvey microbiology, and a bacterial enzyme that induces eukaryotic mating. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Tainted Ho...

The TWiM team provides an update on Zika virus, and reveals a plasmid on the road to becoming a virus. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , and Michele Swanson . Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Regional Zika update, Americas (PAHO, WHO) F...

The TWiM team pays a tribute to Chris Condayan, and investigates the synergy between virus and the innate immune system for clearing bacterial pneumonia by phage therapy.

The TWiM team considers a report on prokaryotic viral DNA in mammalian brain, and how diarrhea is beneficial, by clearing enteric pathogens. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this...

The TWiMbionts explore the role of bacteria in the genesis of moonmilk, and how ancient host proteins can be used to engineer resistance to virus infection. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this e...

The TWiM team explains the use of microbial genome mining to identify new drugs, and how a bacterial symbiont protects flies against parasitoid wasps. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Link...

Michele updates the TWiMers on Legionella in the Flint water supply, and Elio informs us about how horizontally acquired biosynthesis genes boost the physiology of Coxiella burnetii. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app...

At Microbe 2017 in New Orleans, the TWiM team speaks with Arturo Casadevall about his thoughts on the pathogenic potential of a microbe, rigorous science, funding by lottery, and moonshot science. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Watch the video version recorded live at ASM Microbe 2017! Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by e...

The TWiM team ventures into preprint space with an analysis of type VI secretion across human gut microbiomes, and provide insight into urinary tract infection: how bladder exposure to a member of the vaginal microbiota triggers E. coli egress from latent reservoirs. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , Michele Swanson and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , R...

The TWiMmers get cozy with symbionts: the bacteria that allow a giant shipworm to oxidize sulfur, and algae that live within salamander cells. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode ASM M...

The TWiMsters discuss potential new sources of antimicrobial compounds from unusual places: the skin of bats and the intestines of moths. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt ,  Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson . Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this...

In recognition of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, Robin Patel speaks with the TWiM team about directing a clinical bacteriology laboratory, and how an observation made by a laboratory technologist lead to the finding that Ureaplasma species can cause a system metabolic disturbance, hyperammonemia. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello , Elio Schaechter , Michael Schmidt , and Michele Swanson G...

The TWiM team speaks with Pat Schloss about assigning sequence data to operational taxonomic units, and his experience with mSphere Direct, a new way of submitting papers for publication. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt ,  Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson . Special guest: Pat Schloss Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobi...

Vincent, Elio, and Michael reveal what Neanderthals ate from analysis of DNA in their teeth, and new CRISPR-Cas systems found in the genomes of uncultured microbes. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello , Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iPhone , Android , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM. Links fo...

The TWiM hosts reveal why phosphorus is essential for fungal brain disease, and how bacteria kill local competitors to favor the evolution of public goods cooperation. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michele Swanson , Michael Schmidt , and Elio Schaechter . Links for this episode Phosphate needed for Cryptococcus brain disease (mSphere) Type VI killing drives phase separation (Nat Rep) Type VI secret...

Vincent, Elio and Michael discuss the finding of a prion in bacteria, and how communication between bacteria guides the decision between lysis and lysogeny. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt , and Elio Schaechter. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes , Stitcher , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Become a patron of TWiM . Links for th...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guest:  Robert Heinzen At the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana, Vincent speaks with Robert Heinzen about the work of his laboratory on Q fever and its causative microbe,  Coxiella burneti .   Become a  Patron of TWiM ! Links for this episode Rocky Mountain Laboratory Heinzen Laboratory Small town, big science ( TWiM 140 ) Music used on TWiM is composed and p...

Vincent meets up with Catharine Bosio, Michael Merchlinsky, and Shilpa Gadwal at the ASM Biothreats meeting to talk about careers for scientists outside of the ivory tower. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode: ASM Biothreats 2017 Rocky Mountain Laboratory BARDA  

The TWiMers discuss how changes in domestic laundering affect the removal of microorganisms, and assembly of a nucleus-like structure during viral replication in bacteria. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt ,  Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson . Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes , Stitcher , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld app . Beco...

Vincent, Michael, and Michele explain the use of an electrochemical gradient to eliminate bacterial biofilms, and how phage susceptibility can be transferred by exchange of receptor proteins. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson . Right click to download  TWiM#143 (32 MB .mp3, 66 minutes). Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes , Stitcher , RSS , or by email. You can also ...

Vincent, Elio and Michele wind up a year of microbial podcasts with a story about the lack of resistance to a crop antifungal compound, and how a bacterium uses a molecular caliper to measure membrane thickness. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Elio Schaechter, and Michele Swanson . Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes , Stitcher , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Mi...