WHAT'S NEW
TWiV Special: Dr. Peter Palese
On this special episode of This Week in Virology Vincent Racaniello and Dr. Peter Palese, noted influenza expert, discuss the origin and pandemic potential of the new H1N1 influenza virus.
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Sponsor: Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast
Download TWiV Special (27 MB .mp3, 40 minutes)
TWiV 30: A/Mexico/4108/2009 (H1N1)
In episode 30 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dick Despommier and guest Hamish Young focus on the new H1N1 influenza virus, which originated in swine and is likely to be the next pandemic strain.
Links for this episode:
- Original CDC report of California and Texas outbreak; recent updates here
- Science interview with CDC’s Ruben Donis
- CDC webpage on US status of influenza
- WHO webpage on international status of influenza
- Learn more about the outbreak an influenza virus biology at virology blog
Science blog of the week: GermBlog by Dr. Harley Rotbart
Science podcast pick of the week: Science and the City
Science book of the week: The Swine Flu Affair: Decision-making on a Slippery Disease by by Richard E. Neustadt, Harvey V. Fineberg
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Sponsor: Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast
Download TWiV #30 (47 MB .mp3, 67 minutes)
TWiV 29: Swine flu returns
In episode 29 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove and Dick Despommier talk about insect and human dengue virus host proteins, equine vaccine for WNV and EEEV, return of swine flu to humans, spread of polio in Africa, and listener email.
Links for this episode:
- Discovery of insect and human dengue virus host proteins
- Immunize your horse with PreveNile
- Swine flu returns to California, Texas, Mexico
- Polio spreads from Nigeria to 15 African countries
- Dead Chinese woman on Russian train: no SARS or influenza
- Jenny McCarthy body count
- Ten dumbass reasons why people don’t get their flu shots
Science blog of the week: Science-based medicine
Science podcast pick of the week: WNYC’s Radio Lab
Science book of the week: Flu by Gina Kolata
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Direct Download: TWiV #29 (49 MB .mp3, 70 minutes)
Sponsor: Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast
Meet the Scientist - Parisa Ariya - Bioaerosols: The Living Atmosphere
Parisa Ariya is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Chemistry Department at McGill University in Montreal. Dr. Ariya works mostly in atmospheric chemistry, but she’s also done a good deal of work with bioaerosols and airborne microorganisms. She’ll deliver a talk at the ASM General Meeting in May titled Bioaerosols: Impact on Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere.
Bioaerosols – microscopic clumps of microorganisms and organic debris – arise through any of a number of mechanisms. The scientific community has come full circle on the idea of microorganisms in the atmosphere, according to Dr. Ariya. Back in the early days of microbiology it was widely recognized that the air is full of living, breathing microbes, but once our understanding of atmospheric chemistry and physics matured, the roles of microbes in atmospheric processes were marginalized. Thanks, in part, to Dr. Ariya’s work, the activities and functions of bioaerosols are getting new attention. We now know cells in bioaerosol particles can actively metabolize materials at interfaces, and Dr. Ariya says some of her future work will look into the details of these transformation processes and how they impact the atmosphere.
In this interview, Dr. Merry Buckley talks with Dr. Ariya about how bioaerosols are formed, what they’re doing, and why it isn’t a good idea to use bioaerosols to manage the weather.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email alert.
Direct Download: MTS25
TWIV 28 - SARS
In episode 28 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dick Despommier, and
Eric F. Donaldson discuss a new test for influenza H5N1, poliovirus in Minnesota, Koala retrovirus, batteries made from viruses, and SARS.
Links for this episode:
- New rapid test for influenza H5N1 based on PDZ binding. Definition of ELISA.
- Poliovirus isolated from Minnesotan (article 1 and 2)
- Koala retrovirus: Japan story and review article
- Batteries made from viruses (cathode and anode). Image of phage M13.
- iMoleBuilder (iTunes link and review at Sunset Lake Software)
- Discovery of Norwalk virus
- Regulatin’ Genes (YouTube link)
Science blog of the week: The Great Beyond by Nature
Science podcast pick of the week: Sorting Out Science
Science book of the week: A Slot Machine, A Broken Test Tube by S.E. Luria (out of print - check your library)
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Download TWiV #28 (51 MB .mp3, 74 minutes)
Sponsor: Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast
Meet the Scientist - Jeff Bender - MRSA in Animals
Jeff Bender is a professor of veterinary public health at the University of Minnesota, and his research interests lie in the intersection of animal health and human health, including animal-borne diseases of humans, food safety, and antibiotic resistant pathogens in animals. Dr. Bender will speak on “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Veterinary Practice” at the American Society for Microbiology’s General Meeting in Philadelphia this May.
To a microorganism, vertebrates can all look pretty similar. Dr. Bender’s work focuses on pathogens that can make themselves at home in both human bodies and the bodies of our pets and livestock. Outbreaks of bacterial illnesses from meat products are well publicized these days, but the pathogens we have in common with animals don’t just travel in one direction. We humans can pass organisms and diseases to our animals, too. Dr. Bender says pets treated at veterinary clinics, for example, have come down with painful MRSA skin infections they picked up from their owners. Fluffy might become a temporary reservoir of MRSA in your home – capable of reinfecting you and your family, but the good news is that she probably won’t be a long term carrier of the bacterium.
In this interview, Dr. merry Buckley asks Dr. Bender about MRSA in pets, whether farmers often get sick from animal-borne diseases, and whether he thinks it’s a good idea to “go organic” when shopping for food.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email alert.
Direct Download: MTS24
ID3 Podcast Image courtesy of prettywar-stl on Flickr under CC 2.0.
Meet the Scientist - Jo Handelsman - The Science of Bug Guts
Jo Handelsman is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, where she’s a member of the Department of Plant Pathology and chair of the Department of Bacteriology. Dr. Handelsman’s research focuses on microbial communities – their composition, how they’re structured, and how they work. Thanks to her work to improve the quality of undergraduate education, Dr. Handelsman is this year’s recipient of the American Society for Microbiology’s Carski Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award.
Dr. Handelsman has been at the cutting edge of microbial science for years. After a long time spent studying the teeming communities of microorganisms that dwell in soil, Handelsman has pared down her focus to some arguably simpler neighborhoods: the guts of insects. Handelsman applies molecular methods to identify the strains and genes present in bug guts and combines this knowledge with other information about these environments to learn what these communities might be doing.
Handelsman also takes a particular interest in science education, and along with her colleagues Sarah Miller and Christine Pfund, she recently co-authored Scientific Teaching, a book that outlines a dynamic research- and results-driven approach to teaching college-level science.
In Dr. Merry Buckley's interview with Dr. Handelsman, they discuss about why microbiologists have a responsibility to educate almost everyone, why bacterial communities in the guts of gypsy moths might need genes for antibiotic resistance, and why and how bacteria inside of insects communicate. They also talk about the underrepresentation of women in academic research appointments and about how universities need to change to make these jobs both more available and attractive for all those brainy women who won’t (or can’t) make the jump from graduate school to academic research.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email alert.
Direct Download: MTS23
TWIV 27 - Leaving latency
In episode 27 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dick Despommier, and Saul Silverstein revisit an ebola virus needlestick accident, and discuss the role of TLR3 in formation of Negri bodies, a New England college closed by norovirus gastroenteritis, hand, foot, and mouth disease outbreak in China, and the exit of herpes simplex virus from latency by synthesis of VP16.
Links for this episode:
- Update on ebolavirus needlestick accident
- Formation of Negri bodies depend upon TLR3
- Norovirus outbreak closes New England college
- Hand, foot, and mouth disease outbreak in China
- Synthesis of VP16 coordinates herpes simplex virus exit from latency
Science blog of the week: Biocurious
Science podcast pick of the week: NPR’s Science Friday
Science book of the week: A Conspiracy of Cells by Michael Gold
Dick’s pick: Andros Island Bonefish Club
Saul’s pick: Secret Science Club
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Download TWiV #27 (49 MB .mp3, 71 minutes)
Episode Sponsor: Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast
Meet the Scientist - David Knipe - Herpes Simplex Virus 2
David Knipe is the Higgins Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical school. A virologist, Dr. Knipe focuses his research efforts on the herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) – the virus we have to thank for genital herpes.
An astonishing 20% of Americans have been infected with HSV-2, and whether they’ve had a recognizable outbreak of sores or not, they can still carry the virus. Once you contract the HSV-2 it lays low in your nerve cells, waiting for the right moment to create watery blisters that eventually burst and release more virus particles. Dr. Knipe is interested in how the cells lead these two, very different lives: quiet and quiescent inside the nerve cell and loud and lytic in the epithelium on the surface of the body.
Genital herpes is no picnic, but the effects of HSV-2 infection are worst in people with depressed immune systems and in newborns; babies who pick up the virus during birth may suffer from neurological damage, brain damage, or even death. There is no cure for genital herpes, and no means of getting rid of HSV-2, only ways of managing outbreaks. But there is some hope of relief; Dr. Knipe’s lab has developed a vaccine that will enter the trial phase soon.
In this interview, Dr. Merry Buckley asks Dr. Knipe about how he got interested in viruses, about the vaccine he’s developed and who could hope to benefit from it, and why it’s taken science so long to develop a vaccine for this extremely common disease.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to Dr. Merry Buckley's Meet the Scientist podcast via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email alert.
Direct Download: MTS22
TWIV 26 - Poxviruses
In episode 26 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove and guest Rich Condit converse about induction of polyomavirus replication in multiple sclerosis patients treated with the MS drug Tysabri, the extent of human polyomavirus infection, selection of influenza vaccines for the 2009-10 season, cowpox virus transmission from animals to humans, vaccinia-like virus infecting humans and cattle in Brasil, and poxviruses.
Links for this episode:
- JC virus, Tysabri, PML, and mefloquine at virology blog
- Seroepidemiology of polyomaviruses in human
- Next season’s influenza virus vaccines and how they are selected
- Cell-culture propagated smallpox vaccine
- Cowpox tranmission from rats to humans (Germany and France) and from cats to humans in Italy
- Vaccinia-like virus infecting cows and humans in Brasil
- When good vaccines go wild (review)
- Mosquito Map (thanks Duncan)
- Pfeiffer & Kirkegaard paper on quasispecies and virulence in mice
Science blog of the week: Coevolvers by Devin Drown
Science podcast pick of the week: QuackCast
Science book of the week: Listen to the Music: The Life of Hilary Koprowski by Roger Vaughan
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Download TWiV #26 (52 MB .mp3, 75 minutes)
TWIV 25 - Viral Evolution
In episode 25 of This Week in Virology, hosts Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove and guest Luis Villarreal discuss rabies in Viet Nam and Angola, needle-stick infections with ebola virus and West Nile virus, and viral evolution.
Links for this episode:
- Furious rabies after an atypical exposure
- Rabies outbreak in Angola
- Ebola virus needle stick injury in Germany
- West Nile virus needle stick injury in South Africa
- Antibody response to smallpox vaccine in humans (including Dr. Villarreal)
- The chemical formula for polio virus is: C332, 652H492, 388N98, 245O131, 196P7, 501S2, 340. Because polio virus is a quasispecies, the number of atoms is a population average.
- Review article: Ten Reasons to Exclude Viruses from the Tree of Life
- Origin and Evolution of Viruses, second edition, edited by Esteban Domingo
- Origin of Group Identity by Luis Villarreal
Science blog of the week: Small Things Considered by Moselio Schaechter and Merry Youle
Science podcast pick of the week: The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe
Science book of the week: Viruses and the Evolution of Life by Luis Villarreal
Please send your virology questions and comments to twiv [at] twiv [dot] tv.
To listen, click the play button next to the title of this entry. You can subscribe for free to TWIV via iTunes, through the RSS feed with a podcast aggregator or feed reader, or by email.
Download TWiV #25 (46 MB .mp3, 67 minutes)
MicrobeWorld Video Ep. 27 - ASMCUE
iPod | Apple TV | 3GP | PSP | Quicktime | MP4 | DIVX | MP3 (audio only)
The American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) is an interactive four-day conference on scientific updates and effective teaching strategies. Now in its 16th year, the conference attracts over 300 microbiology and biology educators.
Educators come from colleges, universities and international institutions to learn and share the latest information in the biological sciences and education research.
The conference program includes plenary, concurrent, poster, and exhibit sessions. Participants engage in formal and informal small group discussions between colleagues all focused on the same goal: to improve teaching and learning in the biological sciences.
In this episode, we talk with Erica Suchman, Associate Professor, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, and Local Organizing Chair for the 2009 meeting. Erica talks about her attendance at the meeting for the past 12 years and the benefits of participating. Also featured are several participants at the ASMCUE 2008 held at Endicott College in Beverly, MA and ASM’s Education Director, Amy Chang, a co-founder of the Conference.
For more information about the conference or to view past proceedings, visit www.asmcue.org. The registration deadline is April 24, 2009. Click here to register or visit www.asmcue.org for more information.
Click here for more MicrobeWorld Video
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