Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Delthia Ricks In episode #42 of the podcast “This Week in Virology”, Vincent, Dick, Alan, and Delthia Ricks discuss a new influenza virus-like particle vaccine, dog flu, ultrasensitive pen-sized virus detector, imported rabies in the US, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and next season’s flu vaccines. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV042.mp3″] Click the arrow …
The antibody response is crucial for preventing many viral infections and may also contribute to resolution of infection. When a vertebrate is infected with a virus, antibodies are produced against many epitopes on multiple virus proteins. A subset of these antibodies can block virus infection by a process that is called neutralization. Antibodies can neutralize viral infectivity …
With the looming prospect of mass immunization against influenza, it’s important to understand how vaccines work. To do this we must have a good understanding of adaptive immune defenses. Today we’ll begin a discussion of the humoral arm of the adaptive immune response – antibodies. Antibodies are large proteins produced by vertebrates that play important …
While most adults cannot name a scientist, the readers of virology blog can identify many of them. I asked readers to spontaneously name just one scientist, and I received 204 responses. Nine of the individuals named were not scientists; that left 195 responses out of 204, indicating that 96% of those who responded could name …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dick Despommier, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit On episode #41 of the podcast “This Week in Virology”, Vincent, Dick, Alan and Rich Condit chat about infectious salmon anemia virus, virus-resistant grapevines, virulence of pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, origin of 1918 influenza virus, holy water ban to halt influenza, frequency of human WU and …
Dispensers of alcohol-based rubs are appearing in public places in an attempt to reduce the spread of pandemic influenza. Are these effective at removing virus from hands? In a recent study, the hands of twenty vaccinated, antibody-positive volunteers were contaminated with 10,000,000 TCID50 of a 1999 seasonal H1N1 influenza virus strain (see this post for …
