This Week in Virology

On episode #99 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent tours the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), speaking with exhibitors and visitors, including Professors Derek Smith, Michael Schmidt, Frederick Hayden, and Myra McClure. Host links Vincent Racaniello Links for this episode: 50th ICAAC ICAAC daily press conference videos (including Prof. Myra McClure) Antigenic cartography Antimicrobial properties of copper

On episode #98 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich review the finding of murine leukemia virus-related sequences in the blood of CFS patients and healthy donors, laboratory inventories for wild poliovirus containment, weaving high-performance viral batteries into fabric for the military, and a case of human rabies in Indiana.

On episode #97 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent visited Peter Sarnow and Bert Semler during a trip to California, and spoke with them about their work on internal ribosome entry, and the requirement for a cellular microRNA for hepatitis C virus replication.

On episode #96 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, and Rich continue Virology 101 with a discussion of how viruses with DNA genomes replicate their genetic information.

On episode #95 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich consider the end of the influenza H1N1 pandemic, dengue in Florida, vaccinia virus infection in Brazilian monkeys, and viruses in the faecal microbiota. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit Links for this episode: WHO declares end of influenza H1N1 pandemic CDC's FluView WHO global monitoring of influenza Locally acquired dengue in Key West, Florida (MMWR) CDC page on dengue Vaccinia virus infection in monkeys of the Brazilian Amazon Dam site where animals were collected for vaccinia study (Google maps) Rich's article: Whence feral vaccinia? Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their Mothers (Nature) New Yorker article The Treatment (thanks, Jim!) Letters read on TWiV 95 Weekly science picks: Alan - Families Fighting Flu Rich - Food, Inc. Dickson - Fuel Vincent - MIT Open Courseware Michael - Waiting for Superman and Can Science Feed the World? (Nature)

On episode #94 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich speak with Ila Singh about the new human retrovirus XMRV, and how her laboratory is studying its association with prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Ila Singh Links for this episode: CFIDS Association of America Discovery of XMRV (PLoS Pathogens) Detection of XMRV in CFS patients (Science) Presence of XMRV in malignant prostate (PNAS) Inhibition of XMRV by raltegravir (PLoS One) Letters read on TWiV 94 Weekly science picks: Alan - The new Federal Register site (see also regulations.gov) Rich - The Florida Museum of Nautural History Butterfly Rainforest Vincent - JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments

On episode #93 of the podcast This Week in Virology, 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. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit 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

Vincent, Rich, Karla, and Marilyn recorded TWiV at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology in Bozeman, where they discussed plant viruses and how they make plants resistant to adverse conditions, and identification of dominant negative drug targets. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Karla Kirkegaard, and Marilyn Roosinck Links for this episode: Lifestyles of plant viruses Using pyrosequencing to understand virus ecology A virus in a fungus in a plant Trans-dominant inhibition of RNA viral replication Resistance is futile Announcement of TWiV at ASV (pdf) Photographs of TWiV at ASV Letters read on TWiV 92 Weekly science picks: Marilyn - Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their mothers (Nature) Rich - The Known Universe by the American Museum of Natural History Vincent - The Red Queen by Matt Ridley (thanks, Jesper!)

On episode #91 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan, Rich and Welkin discuss the nature, origin, and evolution of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), and the recent finding of endogenous filovirus genomes in mammals. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Welkin Johnson Links for this episode: Welkin blogs at Small Things Considered Constructing primate phylogenies from ancient retrovirus sequences (PNAS) Filoviruses are ancient and integrated into mammalian genomes (BMC Evol Biol) Synthetic cells: Momentous breakthrough or ethical morass? (To The Point) Creation of a bacterial cell (Science) Comments on the synthetic cell (Small Things Considered) TWiV rap: T-Number Index by G-Unit (mp3) and Vincent (mp3) (thanks, Darrick and Scott!) Letters read on TWiV 91 Weekly science picks: Welkin - Advice for a Young Investigator by Santiago Ramon y Cajal Rich - How microbes define and defend us Dickson - H1N1 virus lacks 1918 virus killer protein Alan - The Xtal Set Society Vincent - Antibodies and the quest for an AIDS vaccine

On episode #90 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich and Eric discuss identification of viruses in Northeastern American bats, vaccinia virus infection after sexual contact with a military vaccinee, and identification of a new flavivirus from an Old World bat in Bangladesh. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Eric F. Donaldson Links for this episode: Vaccinia virus infection after sexual contact with vaccinee Smallpox vaccination overview Smallpox vaccine lesions (jpg) Smallpox hospital, Roosevelt Island, NY (photo 1, photo 2) Isolation of a flavivirus from bats in Bangladesh (PLoS Pathogens) Review on hepatitis G virus Dickson has been teaching at Singularity University and fishing in Bozeman MT (jpg) Letters read on TWiV 90 Weekly science picks: Eric - Year of Darwin by Sean Carroll Rich - March of the Penguins Alan - Standing-height desks Vincent - DengueWatch (thanks Richard!)