This Week in Virology

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests:  Marshall Bloom ,  Sonja Best , and  Byron Caughey Vincent visits the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana and speaks with Marshall, Sonja, and Byron about their work on tick-born flaviviruses, innate immunity, and prion diseases. Links for this episode Rocky Mountain Laboratories , NIH Flavivirus  persistence  (Path Dis) Flaviviruses  antagonize IRF1...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Alan Dove ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler The TWiV gang answer follow-up questions about the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, then discuss treatment of  disseminated multiple myeloma with oncolytic measles virus. Links for this episode Use of  unregistered interventions  for Ebola virus disease (WHO) Response  to anthrax and H5N1 incidents (CDC) Remission of...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Alan Dove ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler The TWiVites present an all-ebolavirus episode, tackling virology, epidemiology, and approaches to prevention and cure that are in the pipeline. Links for this episode Risks and benefits  of gain-of-function experiments (mBio) Scientists for Science US Policy for  oversight of DURC  (pdf) US framework for guiding  H5N1 tr...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guest:  Linfa Wang Vincent visits the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, Australia and speaks with Linfa about his work on bats and bat viruses. Links for this episode Hendra virus  vaccine  (Emer Inf Dis) Comparison of  bat genomes  (Science) Endogenous retroviruses  in bats (Retrovirol) The Bat Pack Bats in Geelong  (YouTube) Video of this episode - view at...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove , and  Rich Condit The TWiVome discusses an miRNA based strategy to mitigate risk of gain of function studies, and identification of a second receptor required for Lassa virus entry. Links for this episode miRNA strategy  to minimize risk (Nat BioT) NIH  Office of Science Policy NIH recombinant DNA  guidelines Second receptor for  Lassa...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove , and  Rich Condit The TWiV team reviews the discovery of old vials of smallpox virus at NIH, anthrax and influenza mishaps at CDC, the baby who was not cured of HIV, Cambridge Working Group, and sacking of NSABB members. Links for this episode Newly discovered  smallpox  (CDC) Infectious smallpox  in FDA storage (FDA) Report on potenti...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests:  Melissa Churchill ,  Alex Khromykh ,  Gilda Tachedjian , and  Paul Young Vincent visits Melbourne, Australia and speaks with Melissa, Alex, Gilda, and Paul about their work on HIV infection of the central nervous system, West Nile virus, microbicides for HIV, and the Koala retrovirus. Links for this episode Where does  HIV hide ? (Curr Op HIV AIDS) Subgenomic  fl...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests: Wade Blair, Matt Dickson, Nicole Kallewaard-Lelay, and Ken Miller Vincent visits Medimmune and speaks with Wade, Matt, Nicole, and Ken about why they work in industry and their daily roles in a biotechnology company. Links for this episode Medimmune, LLC Medimmune on Twitter Medimmune  history and products Video of this episode - view at  YouTube Send your virolog...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler Guests:  Clodagh O'Shea  and  Ron Fouchier Vincent, Rich, and Kathy and their guests Clodagh and Ron recorded this episode at the 33rd annual meeting of the American Society for Virology at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Links for this episode Viral polymer that  inactivates tumor suppressors  (Cell) Mutations dri...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests: Janet Butel and Rick Lloyd Vincent meets up with Janet Butel and Rick Lloyd at Baylor College of Medicine to talk about their work on polyomaviruses and virus induced stress. Links for this episode SV40  microRNAs  (PLoS Path) SV40  seroprevalence  (J Infect) Viruses and  stress granules  (PLoS Path) Viral inhibition  of stress granule formation (Cell Host Micr) V...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove , and  Kathy Spindler Vinny and the capsids answer listener questions about the definition of life, state vaccination laws, the basic science funding problem, viral ecology, inactivation of viruses by pressure, and much more. Links for this episode Varun's  research poll Letters read  on TWiV 289 Weekly Science Picks Alan -  The Science...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler The Twivsters discuss how reverse transcriptase encoded in the human genome might produce DNA copies of RNA viruses in infected cells. Links for this episode Should variola virus be  destroyed ? (poll at virology blog) DNA complementary to  non-retroviral RNA viruses  (Sci Rep) Integration of arenavi...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove ,  Kathy Spindler , and  Matt Frieman Matt updates the TWiV team on MERS-coronavirus, and joins in a discussion of whether we should further regulate research on potentially pandemic pathogens. Links for this episode MERS stories at  CIDRAP MERS at  CDC MERS  in the US  (CDC) MERS-CoV map MERS-CoV infection after  camel exposure  (EID)...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello  and  Alan Dove Guests: Julie  Pfeiffer  and  Paul Duprex Vincent and Alan meet up with Julie and Paul at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, to talk about their work on the pathogenesis of poliovirus and measles virus. Links for this episode Threading the NEIDL  (YouTube) Transmission  of measles virus from macaques (J Gen Virol) Trop...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests:  XJ Meng  and  Sarah McDonald Vincent meets up with XJ and Sarah at Virginia Tech to talk about their work on viruses of swine and rotaviruses. Links for this episode Hepatitis E virus  (Int J Env Res Pub Health) Porcine and human  anelloviruses  (J Virol) Origin of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus  in US  (mBio) Distinguishing  rotaviruses  (J Virol) Molecular epi...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler The TWiV team discusses how skin scarification promotes a nonspecific immune response, and whether remaining stocks of smallpox virus should be destroyed. Links for this episode Skin scarification  protects against vaccinia virus disease (J Virol) Smallpox  research agenda  (PLoS Path) WHO report on  variola rese...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Alan Dove ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler Guest:  Jens H. Kuhn Jens speaks with the TWiV team about filoviruses, including the recent Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea. Links for this episode Review of  Zanamavir clinical trials  (Brit Med J) Ebola virus  disease in Guinea  (NEJM) Filovirus  nomenclature  (virology blog) Ebola virus disease,  West Africa  (ProMedMai...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Alan Dove ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler The TWiV team reviews a meta-analysis of clinical trial reports on using Tamiflu for influenza, and suggestions on how to rescue US biomedical research from its systemic flaws. Links for this episode World Malaria Day Review  of oseltamivir clinical trials (Brit Med J) Effectiveness of Tamiflu  questioned  (NHS choices) T...

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guest: Peter L. Salk Vincent meets up with Peter L. Salk to talk about development of the first poliovaccine, eradication of poliomyelitis, and Jonas Salk's 100th birth anniversary. Links for this episode Jonas Salk Legacy Foundation The Cutter Incident  by Paul Offit Splendid Solution  by Jeffrey Kluger ( review ) Coming soon: Video of this episode Send your virology que...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove ,  Rich Condit , and  Kathy Spindler The TWiVmeisters answer listener email about the NEIDL, negative results, patenting MERS-coronavirus, human papillomavirus transmission, canine distemper virus, and much, much more. Links for this episode Poxvirus viability  in historical relics (EID) TWiM 74 : It came from the Siberian permafrost Ho...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Alan Dove , and  Kathy Spindler Vincent, Alan, and Kathy reveal how a retrovirus in the human genome keeps embryonic stem cells in a pluripotent state, from where they can differentiate into all cells of the body. Links for this episode Retrovirus needed for  stem cell identity  (Nat Struc Mol Biol) HERV-H is a  marker for pluripotency  (Retrovirology) Letters read  o...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello ,  Dickson Despommier ,  Alan Dove , and  Kathy Spindler Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy discuss disruption of the  ccr5  gene in lymphocytes of patients infected with HIV-1. Links for this episode Gene editing  of  ccr5  in AIDS patients (NEJM) HIV gets the zinc finger  (TWiV 144) Genome engineering with  zinc finger nucleases  (Genetics) Photo credit:  Watty's Wall S...

Hosts:  Glenn Rall ,  Ann Skalka , and  Vincent Racaniello Glenn and Ann meet up with Vincent to talk about his career in science and science communication. Video of this episode - view at  YouTube Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Host:  Vincent Racaniello Guests:  Susan Baker  and  Thomas Gallagher Vincent meets up with Susan Baker and Tom Gallagher at Loyola University to talk about their work on coronaviruses. Links for this episode Papain-like  viral proteases (Virus Res) MERS-CoV  papain-like protease  (Virology) Mouse model  for MERS-CoV (PNAS) Receptor and  MERS-CoV infection  (J Virol) Letters read  on TWiV 276 Vide...

Hosts:  Vincent Racaniello  and  Rich Condit Guest:  Eugene Koonin Vincent and Rich meet up with Eugene Koonin to talk about the central role of viruses in the evolution of all life. Links for this episode Virocentric  view of evolution (Curr Op Virol) Proposed order  Megavirales  (Arch Virol) Pithovirus  (PNAS) Selfish  virus-like elements (Virol J) Pandoraviruses  are derived Phycodnaviruses (Bi...