This Week in Virology

On episode #80 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich speak with Michael Bouchard about hepatitis B virus discovery, replication, and pathogenesis. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condit, and Michael Bouchard Links for this episode: The enigmatic X gene of hepatitis B virus Tableau public (thanks Ricardo!) Molecular phylogeny of Archaea from soil (thanks Etienne!) Habitats of Archaea (thanks Cedric!) Timer remote controls (thanks Bill!) Letters read in episode 80 Weekly science picks: Rich PBS Frontline: The Vaccine War Alan Readability Vincent Starswarm by Jerry Pournelle

On episode #79 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent and Alan converse about making published science accessible to everyone, global eradication of poliomyelitis, and whether a plant virus can cause disease in humans. Host links Vincent Racaniello and Alan Dove Links for this episode: Making published science accessible to everyone (Nature News) Federal Research Public Access Act Is disease eradication a waste of money? Do we have an ethical obligation to eradicate polio? Signs of progress in polio eradication (NY Times) Polio eradication: Harder than it looks (Fortner) Gates rethinks his war on polio (WSJ) Asymptomatic wild-type poliovirus infection in immune children (J Inf Dis) Can a plant virus cause disease in humans? (PLoS One) Replication of tomato spotted wilt virus in HeLa cells (PNAS) Glycine detected in comet (thanks Vincent!) Letters read on TWiV 79 Weekly science picks: Alan Data.govVincent foldit

On episode #78 of the podcast This Week in Virology, 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. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit 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

On episode #77 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich revisit circovirus contamination of Rotarix, then discuss poxvirus-like replication of mimivirus in the cell cytoplasm, and whether seasonal influenza immunization increases the risk of infection with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit Links for this episode: Contamination of Rotarix vaccine with porcine circovirus 1 DNA Do you want to know what is in your vaccines? Take the poll Mimivirus replicates in the cell cytoplasm like poxviruses mRNA capping and virus evolution Association between the 2008-09 seasonal influenza vaccine and pandemic H1N1 illness (commentary) Doane paper goes viral Energetics of genome ejection from bacteriophage (thanks Gary!) Five strategies for behavioral adaptation to pathogens and parasites (excerpt; thanks Wladimir!) Letters read on TWiV 77 Weekly science picks: Rich The Way We Work by David Macaulay Alan DimDim Vincent Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky

On episode #76 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent speaks with Stephen Goff about the origin of the retrovirus XMRV and its association with prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome. Host links Vincent Racaniello and Stephen Goff Links for this episode: Discovery of XMRV in prostate tumors Association of XMRV with chronic fatigue syndrome Enhanced infection of prostate cells by XMRV XMRV and xenotransplantation

On episode #75 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Matt review contamination of Rotarix with circovirus DNA, antigenic similarity between 1918 and 2009 H1N1 influenza, a collection of rabies reports, and chicken pox mistaken for smallpox in Uganda. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Matthew Frieman Links for this episode: Contamination of Rotarix vaccine with porcine circovirus 1 DNA Beak and feather disease circovirus (BFDV) threatens parrots Antigenic similarity between 1918 and 2009 H1N1 influenza Presumptive abortive human rabies in Texas Rabies rampant: feline, immunization change, Indonesia, wolf, Texas bat, US equine (thanks, Lenn!) Austin free tailed bats emerging at dusk Suspected smallpox in Uganda T-cell receptor therapy for AIDS (thanks Dorian!) Weekly science picks: Matt Bitesize BioAlan Free printable graph paper (see also doane paper)Vincent Avian Flu Diary

On episode #74 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent speaks with Adolfo Garcia-Sastre about the origin, pathogenesis, and prevention of the 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1 virus. Host links Vincent Racaniello and Adolfo Garcia-Sastre Links for this episode: Influenza virus receptor specificity and disease PB1-F2 expression by 2009 H1N1 strain does not increase virulence Protection against 2009 H1N1 infection by immunization with older strains Passage in eggs changes influenza receptor specificity Association between D222G mutation and virulence

On episode #73 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, and Rich discuss multipotent progenitor bone marrow cells as a reservoir of HIV-1, integration of HHV-6 into telomeres, and dispersal of West Nile virus across the US by mosquitoes. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit Links for this episode: HIV-1 infects multipotent progenitor cells HHV-6 genome integrates into telomeres A role for mosquito-mediated dispersal of West Nile virus across the US Using tobacco mosaic virus to produce synthetic photovoltaic cells (thanks Nissin!) Animation of HIV replication cycle (thanks Ilya!) Can computer viruses evolve? (thanks Norman!) Mumps outbreak in Israel (one and two) (thanks Ariel!) Bocavirus infections in children (thanks Tyler!) Weekly science picks: Dickson Whole-Genome Sequencing in a Patient with Charcot–Marie–Tooth Neuropathy (NEJM and NY Times) Rich Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene by Stephen Hall Vincent Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections - videocasts

On episode #72 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan and Rich explain CRISPR/Cas, the immune system of bacteria and archaea, how novel viruses are discovered by deep sequencing of small RNAs, and the relationship between dry weather and outbreaks of West Nile virus infection. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit Links for this episode: Review on the CRISPR/cas system of bacteria and archaea Virus discovery by sequencing small virus-derived RNAs (paper one and two) Dry weather induces outbreaks of West Nile virus infection (paper and comment form) Vaccine needle size matters Participate in the Personal Genome Project Weekly science picks: Dickson Scientist as Chef by Dickson Despommier (pdf) Alan Networked Organisms and Habitats (NOAH) iPhone app Rich Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat Vincent The Dish

On episode #71 of the podcast This Week in Virology, 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. Host links Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit 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