TWiV 54: Professor Lynn Enquist, virology luminary

October 18, 2009

enquist-xianHosts: Vincent Racaniello and Lynn Enquist

Vincent speaks with Lynn Enquist about his career in virology, moving from academia to industry and back. Along the way he did pioneering research on bacteriophage, participated in the birth of recombinant DNA technology, and studied herpesviruses.

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Download TWiV #54 (63 MB .mp3, 87 minutes)

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Weekly Science Picks
Lynn Francis Crick: Hunter of Life’s Secrets by Robert Olby
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

oatila October 21, 2009 at 9:09 pm

You and Alan Dove have said in a previous episode that it's very unlikely that someone will produce a deadly virus. And I fully agree. Evolution is much better at this than humans.
But what about 1918 H1N1 sequences? It's very hard to make a new virus from scratch, but if you have the sequences and can make hole genes with it, can this be a shortcut?

profvrr October 23, 2009 at 3:45 pm

Influenza viruses can be produced from the nucleotide sequence. The
technology has been published in a variety of scientific journals. The
1918 influenza virus has been produced from the nucleotide sequences
and there is no reason why it could not be done in other laboratories.
However, producing influenza viruses from the nucleotide sequence is
not 'kitchen biology': it requires a fairly sophisticated laboratory
and knowledge of the technique.

profvrr October 23, 2009 at 10:45 pm

Influenza viruses can be produced from the nucleotide sequence. The
technology has been published in a variety of scientific journals. The
1918 influenza virus has been produced from the nucleotide sequences
and there is no reason why it could not be done in other laboratories.
However, producing influenza viruses from the nucleotide sequence is
not 'kitchen biology': it requires a fairly sophisticated laboratory
and knowledge of the technique.

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