This Week in Virology

Vincent, Alan, and Jeremy discuss why certain AIDS patients, called ‘elite controllers’ or ‘long-term non-progressors’, do not develop disease, why mosquitoes infected with Sindbis virus remain healthy, and the continuing outbreaks of norovirus gastroenteritis. Links for this episode: Immunity article on elite controllers. PNAS article on protected mosquitoes. The word quarantine comes from the seventeenth century Venetian quarantena, which means forty day period. Science podcast pick of the week: The Mr. Science Show Science book of the week: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis. Click here to see a page from my Mother’s marked-up copy. She was a high school English teacher.

Vincent, DIck, and Alan chat about reconstruction of a bat SARS-like coronavirus, herpesviruses that are killing elephants in zoos, and a plan to eradicate AIDS in ten years. Links for this episode: The Virology Network at socialmedian.com. The bat SARS-like coronavirus: scientific article in PNAS, and the Wired Science article. NY Times Editorial on eradicating AIDS. Herpesviruses killing elephants. Science podcast pick of the week: Futures in Biotech. Science book of the week: Principles of Molecular Virology, by AJ Cann.

Vincent and Dick recall the discovery of Lassa virus in Africa in 1969. A non-fictional account of the story, ‘Fever’, written by John G. Fuller and published in 1974, inspired Vincent to become a virologist. Part of the story took place at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital (now Columbia University Medical Center), where both Vincent and Dick are employed. Dick remembers many of the key players in this medical drama. Links for this episode: Click here to view to cover of ‘Fever!’ Buy a used copy of ‘Fever!’ at Amazon. Science podcast pick of the week: The Naked Scientists (iTunes link).

Vincent and Dick converse about warfare preventing immunization of 120,000 children in Afghanistan, bone marrow transplant curing AIDS patient, Google tracking flu, measles outbreak in Gibraltar, using viruses to make batteries, and small mosquitoes and Dengue. Article on using viruses to make batteries (PubMed: Virus-enabled synthesis and assembly of nanowires for lithium ion battery electrodes). Science podcast pick of the week: NY Times Science Times (iTunes link).

Vincent, Dick, and Aidan discuss how viral infections play prominent roles in notable video games. Three games are discussed: World of Warcraft, Pandemic II, and Bioshock. An article on how World of Warcraft became a model for the transmission of virus infections was published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. The title of the article is “The untapped potential of virtual game worlds to shed light on real world epidemics.” After we did the netcast we learned of a game for the iPhone called ‘Virus’. In this game your body is infected with a virus, and you must clear the infection by controlling white blood cells. The game is at the iTunes App store. Science podcast pick of the week: MicrobiologyBytes. TWiV is now part of Sciencepodcasters.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier Dickson was at Pop!Tech last week. Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. US Geological Survey Disease Maps. CDC page on Hendra and Nipah viruses. The flying fox (Google image search). Vincent’s virology course. Vincent’s texbook is Principles of Virology, third edition, ASM Press (available December 2008). Science podcast pick of the week: Brain Science Podcast.

Host: Vincent Racaniello Special guest: Saul Silverstein Dickson Despommier is away this week at Pop!Tech. CDC pages on herpes and zoster (shingles).

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier CDC page on rabies Dick’s Ecology 101 course Ecotone defined Negri bodies defined (down on the page)

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier Article on the mortgage crisis and West Nile virus in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Environment-oriented review of Dengue. Dengue page at the World Health Organization.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier polioeradication.org for the latest information on the global state of polio. Abstract of the Science article on engineering a new polio vaccine: “Virus attenuation by genome-scale changes in codon pair bias”.