This Week in Virology

Vincent Racaniello•www.microbe.tv

TWiV is a weekly netcast about viruses - the kind that make you sick. Brought to you by four university professors and a science writer.

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Episodes

TWiV #10 - Bats, elephants, and AIDS

Vincent, DIck, and Alan chat about reconstruction of a bat SARS-like coronavirus, herpesviruses that are killing elephants in zoos, and a plan to eradicate AIDS in ten years. Links for this episode: The Virology Network at socialmedian.com. The bat SARS-like coronavirus: scientific article in PNAS, and the Wired Science article . NY Times Editorial on eradicating AIDS. Herpesviruses killing elephants . Science podcast pick of the week: Futures in Biotech . Science book of the week: Principles of...

Dec 04, 2008•40 min

TWiV #9 - Fever! The Discovery of Lassa Virus

Vincent and Dick recall the discovery of Lassa virus in Africa in 1969. A non-fictional account of the story, ‘Fever’, written by John G. Fuller and published in 1974, inspired Vincent to become a virologist. Part of the story took place at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital (now Columbia University Medical Center), where both Vincent and Dick are employed. Dick remembers many of the key players in this medical drama. Links for this episode: Click here to view to cover of ‘Fever!’ Buy a used copy of...

Nov 22, 2008•41 min

TWiV #8 - HIV resistance, Google flu, measles in Gibraltar, viral batteries

Vincent and Dick converse about warfare preventing immunization of 120,000 children in Afghanistan, bone marrow transplant curing AIDS patient, Google tracking flu, measles outbreak in Gibraltar, using viruses to make batteries, and small mosquitoes and Dengue. Article on using viruses to make batteries (PubMed: Virus-enabled synthesis and assembly of nanowires for lithium ion battery electrodes). Science podcast pick of the week: NY Times Science Times ( iTunes link )....

Nov 14, 2008•37 min

TWiV #7 - Viruses in video games

Vincent, Dick, and Aidan discuss how viral infections play prominent roles in notable video games. Three games are discussed: World of Warcraft , Pandemic II , and Bioshock . An article on how World of Warcraft became a model for the transmission of virus infections was published in Lancet Infectious Diseases . The title of the article is “The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics.” After we did the netcast we learned of a game for the iPhone called ‘Vir...

Nov 07, 2008•51 min

TWiV #6 - Latest outbreaks

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier Dickson was at Pop!Tech last week. Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon . US Geological Survey Disease Maps . CDC page on Hendra and Nipah viruses . The flying fox (Google image search) . Vincent’s virology course . Vincent’s texbook is Principles of Virology , third edition, ASM Press (available December 2008). Science podcast pick of the week: Brain Science Podcast ....

Oct 30, 2008•43 min

TWiV #5 - Herpesviruses

Host: Vincent Racaniello Special guest: Saul Silverstein Dickson Despommier is away this week at Pop!Tech . CDC pages on herpes and zoster (shingles).

Oct 24, 2008•50 min

TWiV #4 - Rabies

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier CDC page on rabies Dick’s Ecology 101 course Ecotone defined Negri bodies defined (down on the page)...

Oct 17, 2008•37 min

TWiV #3 - Dengue

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier Article on the mortgage crisis and West Nile virus in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Environment-oriented review of Dengue. Dengue page at the World Health Organization....

Oct 02, 2008•43 min

TWiV #2 - Polio is not dead

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier polioeradication.org for the latest information on the global state of polio. Abstract of the Science article on engineering a new polio vaccine: “Virus attenuation by genome-scale changes in codon pair bias”....

Sep 26, 2008•50 min

TWiV #1 - West Nile Virus

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier . Buy “ West Nile Story ” by Dickson Despommier. ProMed Mail . The global reporting system for outbreaks of emerging infectious disease. PubMed . A service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 14 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. West Nile page at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Great maps of where the virus has been found....

Sep 24, 2008•1 hr 31 min

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