This Week in Virology » prion

TWiV 153: Rabid reindeer and protective prions

Vincent Racaniello — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:59:14 +0000

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich review an outbreak of rabies in arctic foxes and reindeer in Norway, and a prion that makes you go antiviral.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 153 (55 MB .mp3, 92 minutes).

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Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Amoebas microscope drive 2011
Vincent – WolframAlpha
Rich – Genesis by Ramos David (YouTube)

Listener Pick of the Week

Bill -Virolution by Frank Ryan

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.

TWiV 93: Our infectious inbox

Vincent Racaniello — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:05:32 +0000

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Vincent, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about lab procedures, prokaryotes, endogenous retroviruses, the iPad and teaching, prions, mimivirus, splitting water with viruses, and the polio outbreak in Tajikistan.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #93 (76 MB .mp3, 105 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
SIGA responds to BARDA request for smallpox antiviral
BARDA contract for filovirus vaccine
What is a Ph.D? (pdf)
HHMI resources for early career scientists
Pace article on abandoning prokaryote (Nature)
Three domains of life (Forterre article)
Mechanoenzymatic cleavage of Von Willebrand’s factor (Science)
Splitting water with viruses
WHO coverage on Tajikstan polio outbreak
Wild type polio infection in immunized Indian children (JID)
Letters read on TWiV 93

Weekly Science Picks

Alan – Southern Fried Science
Rich – Tree of Life web project
Vincent – Dickson Despommier at Big Think

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.

TWiV 78: Darwin gets weird

Vincent Racaniello — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:35:20 +0000

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

Vincent, Alan, Dickson, and Rich talk about treating arthritis with a tanapox virus protein, Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture, and the connection between cold weather fronts and outbreaks of avian H5N1 influenza in Europe.

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc. Use the promotion code TWIVPOD to receive $75-$500 off a Drobo.

Win a free Drobo S! Contest rules here.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #78 (53 MB .mp3, 73 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Treating arthritis with a tanapox virus protein that antagonizes TNF (press release and research article)
Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture (abstract)
Simple diagram of prion propagation (Wikipedia)
Thoughts on the pursuit of success in science by Charles Weissmann
Cold fronts linked to European H5N1 outbreaks (PLoS Pathogens)
Simon Singh’s website and letter of support (thanks, Mary!)
The importance of stupidity in scientific research (thanks, Mary!)
Sustainable energy – without the hot air (thanks, Bernhard!)
World Community Grid (thanks Dave!)
Pre-order The Vertical Farm by Dickson Despommier
Letters read on TWiV 78

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson Medical News Today: Infectious Diseases and Eaarth by Bill McKibben
Rich U can with Beakman and Jax by Jok Church
Alan UnderwaterTimes
Vincent The Reef Tank

TWiV 71: Please Mr. Postman

Vincent Racaniello — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:51:49 +0000

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

Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about maternal infection and fetal injury, viral gene therapy, eyeglasses and influenza, filtering prions from blood, eradication of rinderpest, Tamiflu resistance of H1N1 influenza, bacteriophages and the human microbiome, H1N1 vaccine recalls, human tumor viruses, RNA interference, and junk DNA.

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc. Use the promotion code VINCENT to receive $50 off a Drobo or $100 off a Drobo S.

Win a free Drobo S! Contest rules here.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #71 (63 MB .mp3, 88 minutes)

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Links for this episode:

Maternal infection and fetal neurological injury
Filtering prions from blood (prion capture technology)
Eradication of rinderpest (Merck veterinary manual)
Podcasts from Life in the Universe course
Immune Attack video game
H1N1 review article and Holmes on genetic hijacking
Podcast on Merck vaccines
Ft. Lee NJ snowed in (jpg)

Weekly Science Picks

Dickson and Alan NSF/AAAS Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge
Rich Foundation by Issac Asimov
Vincent Natural Obsessions by Natalie Angier

TWiV 67: Wasting deer and the Hulk rabbit

Vincent Racaniello — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:37:23 +0000

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Marc Pelletier

Vincent, Alan, and Marc talk about chronic wasting disease of deer caused by prions, blocking the semen-derived enhancer of HIV infection with surfen, and making green transgenic rabbits using a lentiviral vector.

This episode is sponsored by Data Robotics Inc. Use the promotion code VINCENT to receive $50 off a Drobo or $100 off a Drobo S.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #67 (64 MB .mp3, 88 minutes)

Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, or by email.

Links for this episode:

Chronic wasting disease in West Virginia
Chronic wasting disease alliance and CDC webpage
Semen-derived inhibitor of viral infection (SEVI)
Surfen inhibits the action of SEVI
Making green transgenic rabbits using simian immunodeficiency virus vector
Science comedy (thanks Lucky Fractal!)

Weekly Science Picks

Marc Association of Science-Technology Centers Passport Program
Alan Zooniverse
Vincent Grand Rounds at the Mailman School of Public Health

TWiV 12: Prions, lemur lentiviruses, RS virus vaccine, H5N1

Vincent Racaniello — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:21:50 +0000

Host: Vincent Racaniello (Wikipedia entry, and photo with Hilary Koprowski)

Guests: Alan Dove and Angela Rasmussen

Vincent, Alan, and Angela discuss Kuru, prions in milk, ancient lentiviruses found in the chromosomes of lemurs, a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine failure in the 1960s, and recent outbreaks of H5N1 influenza in chickens.

Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #12 (30.8 MB .mp3, 44 minutes)

Links for this episode:

Episode transcript (pdf) – Thanks, Gertrude!
D. Carleton Gajdusek obituary in the NY Times. We forgot to mention that he won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on Kuru.
PLoS Pathogens article on prions in sheep milk.
PNAS article on endogenous lemur lentivirus
Nature Medicine article on the failed respiratory syncytial virus vaccine.
December 18 was the 100th anniversary of the discovery of poliovirus.

Science podcast pick of the week: Skepticality.
Science book of the week: Science Fictions: A Scientific Mystery, a Massive Cover-up and the Dark Legacy of Robert Gallo by John Crewdson.

Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@twiv.tv. Let us know what you think were the top virology stories of 2008.

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