This Week in Microbiology

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...

Jennifer joins Vincent, Elio, and Michael to talk about the work of her laboratory on how a respiratory virus enhances bacterial growth by dysregulating nutritional immunity. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Elio Schaechter, and Michael Schmidt. Guest: Jennifer Bomberger Subscribe to TWiM (free) on iTunes , Stitcher , RSS , or by email. You can also listen on your mobile device with the Microbeworld a...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests: Marie Antonioli, Bryan Hansen, Forrest Jessop, Kyle Shifflet and Jim Striebel At the Hamilton, Montana Performing Arts Center, Vincent speaks with three local high school graduates and two high school teachers about how Rocky Mountain Laboratories influenced school science programs and opened up career opportunities.   Subscribe to TWiM (free) on  iTunes ,  Stitch...

The TWiM team discusses microbial DNA found on ATM machines in New York City, and how hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, alters microbial ecosystems deep in the Earth. 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 . Links fo...

The TWiM team brings you a bacterium from a Colorado field site that grows on uranium, and copper resistance in the emerging pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. 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 . Links for this ep...

Highlights of the Recent Advances in Microbial Control meeting in San Diego, and expansion of a gut pathogen by virulence factors that stimulate aerobic respiration. Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello , Elio Schaechter, Michael Schmidt , 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 . Links for t...

Them 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 . 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 Conquering neutroph...

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 brough...