I am always looking for microbe-themed art; I keep a list of my findings at Microbe Art. I’ve just discovered a new artist: Jane Hartman of Trilobite Glassworks. From her website: Trilobite Glassworks features stained glass and fused glass decorative as well as functional pieces all designed and made by me. I use both traditional …
December 2-8 is National Influenza Vaccination Week. It was established in 2005 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to highlight the importance of continuing immunization throughout the holiday season. This year the push to immunize against flu comes as the disease has begun to increase substantially throughout the United States, as shown in the …
I was scheduled to deliver a lecture on picornaviruses to a virology class at Yale University this week, but had to cancel at the last minute. I prepared this screencast to make up for my absence. The Picornaviridae is a family of non-enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses which contains some well known viruses including poliovirus, rhinovirus, …
In August this year I received the following note from Michele Hardy, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Montana State University: I’m writing to ask if you’d be willing to participate in my undergraduate/graduate virology course this fall. We have several guests per semester that we Skype in to talk with students. I …
Many protozoan parasites (Trichomonas, Leishmania, Giardia, Plasmodium, Entamoeba, Nagleria, Eimeria, Cryptosporidium) are infected with viruses. These viruses do not infect vertebrates, but their double-stranded RNA genomes are sensed by the innate immune system, leading to inflammatory complications of protozoan infections. Trichomonas vaginalis is a protozoan parasite that infects the genitourinary tract of ~250 million individuals …
Viruses of protozoan parasites may exacerbate human disease Read More »
The Koala retrovirus (KoRV) continues to spread within Australia, according to results of a new analysis of a larger sample size from a wider geographical range than was previously studied. Blood or tissue samples were collected from koalas in different regions of Australia, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the presence of …
