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 …
In the summer of 1989, two papers about viruses were published in high-profile journals. One described the engineering of a recombinant poliovirus bearing on its surface an antigen from HIV-1. The second paper claimed that transgenic mice could be made by adding DNA to sperm before using them to fertilize eggs. Both reports played a …
Viruses and journalism: Poliovirus, HIV, and sperm Read More »
Today I lectured on viral vaccines in the Immunology course at the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. I used poliovirus and influenza virus vaccines to illustrate general principles of immunization. My thanks to the engaged students who asked excellent questions! Here is a video of my lecture. Thanks to ScreenFlow, I was able to …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier Vincent and Dick continue Virology 101 with a discussion of how RNA viruses produce mRNA and replicate their genomes. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV060.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #60 (51 MB .mp3, 71 minutes) Subscribe to TWiV in iTunes, by the RSS feed, or by …
At the end of 1981, the year that I had shown that cloned poliovirus DNA is infectious, BBC Radio asked me to do an interview about the work. The name of the show was Science Now but I can’t recall who was the host. Whoever he was, he didn’t understand what I had done and …
I have had many opportunities to speak with journalists of different kinds during the more than 30 years that I have studied viruses. I wrote previously about my negative experience with CNN. I’d like to relate a much more positive encounter with newspaper reporters. As a postdoctoral fellow in David Baltimore’s laboratory I was fortunate …
