On episode #337 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent meets up with Michael and Steve to discuss their finding of a transmissible tumor in soft-shell clams associated with a retrovirus-like element in the clam genome. You can find TWiV #337 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
A leukemia-like cancer is killing soft-shell clams along the east coast of North America. The cancer is transmitted between animals in the ocean, and appears to have originated in a single clam as recently as 40 years ago. Hemic neoplasm is a disease of marine bivalves that is characterized by proliferation of morphologically and functionally aberrant hemocytes, the …
Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, an estimated 75 million people have been infected with HIV. Only one person, Timothy Ray Brown, has ever been cured of infection. Brown was diagnosed with HIV while living in Berlin in 1995, and was treated with anti-retroviral drugs for more than ten years. In 2007 he was diagnosed with …
On episode #264 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVites read listener questions and comments about public engagement in science, vaccines, RNAi, reprogramming CD8 cells to treat cancer, rabies, and much more. You can find TWiV #264 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
The genomes of most higher organisms contain sequences from retroviral genomes called endogenous retroviruses (ERVs). These are DNA copies of retroviral RNAs that are integrated into the germ line DNA of the host, and passed from parent to offspring. In most species the infections that lead to germ line ERVs appear to have occurred millions …
