Shortly after I wrote about my years of experience with HeLa cells, I was contacted by author Rebecca Skloot. One of her many questions was how I knew that I had produced 800 billion HeLa cells in my laboratory over 26 years. I learned that she was writing a book about Henrietta Lacks, whose tumor …
A new bivalent poliovirus vaccine, consisting of infectious, attenuated type 1 and type 3 strains, has been deployed in Afghanistan. The use of this vaccine was recommended by the Advisory Committee on Poliomyelitis Eradication, the global technical advisory body of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Considering the polio experience in Nigeria, the elimination of type 2 …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit Vincent, Alan, and Rich discuss ten compelling virology stories of 2009. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV064.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #64 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes) Subscribe to TWiV (free) in iTunes , at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed, or by …
In healthy individuals, the first encounter with a virus leads to a primary antibody response. When an infection occurs with the same or a similar virus, a rapid antibody response occurs that is called the secondary antibody response. Antibodies are critical for preventing many viral infections, including influenza. But reinfection may occur if we encounter the same …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier On episode 2 of the podcast “This Week in Parasitism”, Vincent and Dick distinguish among intracellular and extracellular parasites, then discuss the history and general characteristics of Trichinella spiralis. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twip/TWiV003.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download Links for this episode: The History of Trichinella …
In the wake of a British Medical Journal article which concludes that Tamiflu has at best a modest effect, many readers have asked if influenza neuraminidase inhibitors function at all. If you’d like a good critique of this study, I suggest reading Paul Revere’s analysis at Effect Measure. For our part, we’ll examine some of …
