Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, and Patrick Moore

The TWiV team speaks with Patrick Moore about his discovery, with Yuan Chang, of two human tumor viruses, Kaposi’s sarcoma herpesvirus and Merkel cell polyomavirus.

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Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 160 (66 MB .mp3, 109 minutes).

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Links for this episode:

• Chang-Moore laboratory at University of Pittsburgh
• Representational difference analysis (Science)
• KSHV: Forgotten but not gone (Blood)
• Why do viruses cause cancer? (Nat Rev Cancer)
• Merkel cell carcinoma review (Ann Rev)
• Clonal integration of a polyomavirus in Merkel carcinoma (Science)
• T antigen mutations in Merkel polyomavirus (PNAS)
• Merkel polyomavirus small t is an oncoprotein (J Clin Inves)
• Suggest a topic for the 2012 ASM General Meeting
• TWiV on Facebook
• Letters read on TWiV 160

Weekly Science Picks

Patrick – The Theory That Would Not Die by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
Dickson – Foodborne illness acquired in the US (Emerging Inf Dis)
Rich – GATTACA
Alan – Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Vincent - Boxwave capacitative stylus

Listener Pick of the Week

Neva – 10+1 top science apps
Ricardo – Where’s the outrage?

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv, or call them in to 908-312-0760. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Dickson, and Rich continue Virology 101 with a discussion of how viruses with DNA genomes replicate their genetic information.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #96 (65 MB .mp3, 90 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

• Figures for this episode (pdf)
• RNA silencing as a plant immune system (Trends in Genetics)
• Photos of transgenic petunia (PLoS Biology)
• Letters read on TWiV 96
• Video of this episode – download .mov or .wmv or view below

Weekly Science Picks

Rich – Breast milk sugars give infants a protective coat (NY Times and PNAS article)
Vincent – The Great American University by Jonathan R. Cole

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv or leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich discuss ten compelling virology stories of 2009.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #64 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes)

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Ten virology stories of 2009:

1. Pandemic influenza: Swine-origin H1N1 virus (TWiV 36)
2. XMRV, prostate cancer, and chronic fatigue syndrome (TWiV 50, 55)
3. AIDS vaccine ‘success’ (TWiV 51)
4. Colony collapse disorder (TWiV 46, 49)
5. AIDS-like disease in wild chimps (TWiV 45)
6. Diverse viral community in Antarctic lake (TWiV 58)
7. Polyomavirus seroepidemiology in humans (TWiV 26)
8. Poxvirus threatens UK red squirrels (TWiV 63)
9. Polio spreads from Nigeria (TWiV 29)
10. How mosquitoes survive Dengue virus infection (TWiV 21)

Picture book on viruses for kids (Thanks Soraia!)

Weekly Science Picks
Rich Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman, Ralph Leighton, Edward Hutchings, and Albert R. Hibbs
Alan Spaceweather.com
Vincent The Art and Politics of Science by Harold Varmus

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv or leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast. You can also post articles that you would like us to discuss at microbeworld.org and tag them with twiv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Dick, Alan and Rich Condit chat about infectious salmon anemia virus, virus-resistant grapevines, virulence of pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, origin of 1918 influenza virus, holy water ban to halt influenza, frequency of human WU and KI polyomavirus infection, rabies in China, and host species of sin nombre virus.

Sponsor:  Try GotoMyPC free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomypc.com/podcast

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #41 (51 MB .mp3, 73 minutes)

Links for this episode:

Weekly Science Picks
Alan For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner
Rich Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Dick Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Vincent Gallileoscope (thanks Zach!)

Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv or leave voicemail at Skype: twivpodcast

Subscribe to TWiV in iTunes, by the RSS feed, or by email

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and 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.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #26 (52 MB .mp3, 75 minutes)

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

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@twiv.tv

Subscribe to TWiV in iTunes, by the RSS feed, or by email