This Week in Virology

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler The TWiV team consider how the kinase mTOR modulates the antibody response to provide broad protection against influenza virus, and explore the problems with scientific research. Links for this episode Two lives intertwined (Ann Rev Imm) John Holland, 83 Kinase mTOR modulates antibody response (Nat Imm) Drug widens immunity to flu (TheScientist) Concerto in B (TWiV 161) How science goes wrong (Economist) Trouble at the lab (Economist) Reforming science (TWiV 184) Letters read on TWiV 257 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - Tesla Motors superchargerKathy - FASEB contest: Stand out for scienceAlan - Natural History Museum virtual tourRich - Mauna Kea heavensVincent - FAA expands use of electronics on planes Listener Pick of the Week Peter - Score and ignore (pdf) Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler Vincent, Dickson, Alan, Rich, and Kathy review two papers that present evidence for RNA interference as an antiviral immunity mechanism in mammals. Links for this episode: World Polio Day Mole Day John Holland's publications RNAi is antiviral in mammals (Science) Antiviral RNA interference in mammals (Science) RNAi, antiviral after all (Science) Is RNA interference antiviral in mammals? (Cell Host Microbe) Nodamura virus (Nature) Ebolavirus proteins suppress RNAi (J Virol) Illustrated is an siRNA (orange), dicer (top right), and argonaute (bottom) Letters read on TWiV 256 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - Wildlife Photographers of the Year 2013Kathy - John Holland's Emerging Infectious Disease lecture (YouTube)Alan - The worst part is notRich - The Universe in a Single Atom by Dalai Lama (Mind and Life Institute)Vincent - The Truth about T. Rex by Brian Switek Listener Pick of the Week Stephen - International Institute for Species Exploration (Top 10 species choice) Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Rich Condit Guests: Robert Krug and Christopher Sullivan Vincent and Rich visit the University of Texas at Austin and meet up with Bob and Chris to talk about their work on influenza virus and microRNAs. Links for this episode: Virus-encoded microRNAs (PLoS Path) microRNA targetomes of polyomavirus (J Virol) Innate and RNAi reciprocal inhibition (Cell) ISG15 pathway (Trends Micro) Role of viral NS1 protein (Virology) Cap-snatching (Cell) Weekly Science Picks Rich - Unraveling BoleroVincent - New botulinum toxin, DURC implications, and inconvenient truths Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Kathy Spindler Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy review clearance of simian immunodeficiency virus infection from macaques by immunization with SIV proteins encoded in a rhesus cytomegalovirus vector. Links for this episode: Immune clearance of SIV infection (Nature) Rhesus CMV vectors (Nature Medicine) Types of memory T cells (WikiPedia) Goldilocks approach to vaccines (Scilogs) Chimeric HA influenza vaccine (J Virol) Influenza vaccine matched vs mismatched (BMC Medicine) Letters read on TWiV 254 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean GionoKathy - A boy and his atom and Moving Atoms (YouTube)Alan - It is pitch dark and Get Lamp (YouTube)Vincent - Who's afraid of peer review? (Science) Listener Pick of the Week Maren - Hello Maestro (episodes on YouTube)Ayesha - Why you don't f****** love scienceJon - A Capella Science (YouTube) Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler In this second consecutive all-email episode, the complete TWiV team reads questions and comments from listeners about systemic antiviral responses, wild type poliovirus in Israel, Turkish scientists, viral symbiotes, and much more. Links for this episode: One Nation in support of biomedical research? Bilim Kazani (The Cauldron of Science) Science for Gezi State of Turkish Science Pathogenesis of feline coronavirus (EID) Dinosaurs plagued by infection (PLoS One) Dinosaur renaissance (WikiPedia) Birds are dinosaurs (AMNH) Influenza vaccine enhances disease in pigs (Sci Transl Med) Gut microbes influence B-cell development (Nature) Circovirus in dogs (EID) We the microbiologist Letters read on TWiV 251 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - HD slow motion montage (YouTube)Kathy - Damselflies and Eyewitness appAlan - Space weather forecast (YouTube)Rich - 1984 by George Orwell (Doublethink)Vincent - PopSci comments off and Why so few women in science? Listener Pick of the Week Meika - Flip action roll (YouTube)CN - Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm GladwellBernadeta - Higgs Boson wins Nobel Prize Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler The complete TWiV team reads email from listeners about anti-vaccine activists, a career in microbiology, placentas, a virology textbook, the HeLa cell genome, norovirus, and much more. Links for this episode: Anthropic principle 1999 vaccine article by Alan Dove (Nature) Image credit: Jason Roberts Letters read on TWiV 251 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - A Sand County Almanac by Aldo LeopoldKathy - Noctilucent clouds and aurora over ScotlandAlan - Flu vaccination mapRich - There's a fly in my urinalVincent - Picornaviridae.com Listener Pick of the Week Peter - PDB-101Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Kathy Spindler The complete TWiV crew reviews work on MERS-coronavirus, including serological studies in camels, production of an infectious DNA clone, and identification of an interferon antagonist. Links for this episode: Stephan Chron dies (NY Times) Philip Marcus dies (NY Times) Philip Marcus on TWiV #197 Ellen Fanning dies (news@Vanderbilt) Donald Low dies (CBC News) MERS timeline MERS-CoV seroepidemiology (Eurosurveillance) MERS-CoV neutralizing antibodies in camels (Lancet Inf Dis) MERS-CoV vaccine candidate (mBio) MERS-CoV infectious DNA (PNAS) MERS-CoV protein 4a is IFN antagonist (J Virol) Letters read on TWiV 251 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - Scharf PhotoKathy - Blaschka glass models (NY Times, Cornell)Alan - Digital Public Library of AmericaRich - Dengue virus life cycle animationVincent - Creative Live Listener Pick of the Week John - Last person to get smallpox (NPR)Peter - SARS documentary (BBC) Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Robert Garcea Vincent and Robert recorded this episode at the 53rd ICAAC in Denver, where they talked about polyomaviruses. Links for this episode: A cornucopia of human polyomaviruses (Nat Rev Micro) Polyoma assembly factories in nucleus (PLoS Path) Overprinting gene in Merkel cell polyomavirus (PNAS) Human JCV as population marker (PLoS One) Letters read on TWiV 250 Video of this episode (YouTube) Weekly Science Picks Robert - The Panic Virus by Seth MnookinVincent - Aliens chestburster behind the scenes Listener Pick of the Week Adam - Virology Fact of the DayChristophe - dr Karl Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit Vincent, Dickson, Alan and Rich discuss an estimate of the number of different mammalian viruses on Earth. Links for this episode: Estimate of unknown viral diversity in mammals (mBio) How many viruses on Earth? (virology blog) Letters read on TWiV 249 Weekly Science Picks Alan - Extreme macrophotographyDickson - Baloney detection kitRich - Mutant silkworms spin colored silk (original article)Vincent - FlightRadar24 Listener Pick of the Week Jenn - Ebola by William CloseJenn - Eleven Blue Men by Berton RouecheNissin -Profiles in Science Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit Vincent, Dickson, and Rich reveal how experiments with a malaria parasite lead to the introduction of a mammalian retrovirus into birds. Links for this episode: Scientists cast doubt on MERS origin (NY Times) Animal reservoirs of SARS coronavirus (Virus Res) Jo Handelsman in the White House Origins of REV (PLoS Biology) Inadvertent transfer (virology blog) Mongoose, pheasant, pox, retrovirus (PLoS Biol) Evolutionary history of REVs Amazing story (Ed Yong) My wife's P. lophurae paper (Mol Bio Parasitol) William Trager's SNV paper (Exp Biol Med) EBV detection tests (Clin Diag Lab Immunol) Letters read on TWiV 248 Weekly Science Picks Dickson - Google SkyRich - Vanishing of the Bees (see also Bee Apocalypse Now)Vincent - Not Exactly Rocket Science Listener Pick of the Week Saira - Reproducibility Initiative Send your virology questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twiv@twiv.tv