My virology course at Columbia University, Biology W3310, has begun. This course, which I taught for the first time in 2009, is aimed at advanced undergraduates and will be taught at the Morningside Campus of Columbia University. Columbia University encompasses two principal campuses: the historic, neoclassical campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood and the modern …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Seth Mnookin On episode #117 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent and Rich converse with Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus, about vaccines, autism, thimerosal, and a contagion of human unreason run wild. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV117.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #117 (69 …
Chris Upton, a contributor to the virology toolbox, has raised an important point about multiplicity of infection: Perhaps this is a place to bring up particle to pfu ratio? The above is great for when talking about phage, for example, when the ratio approaches 1. But with something like polio when it can be very …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit On episode #116 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Rich review an adenovirus-based vaccine strategy against drug addiction, a field trial of RNAi to prevent Israeli acute paralysis virus infection in honeybees, and suppression of avian influenza transmission in transgenic chickens. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV116.mp3″] Click the …
Multiplicity of infection (MOI) is a frequently used term in virology which refers to the number of virions that are added per cell during infection. If one million virions are added to one million cells, the MOI is one. If ten million virions are added, the MOI is ten. Add 100,000 virions, and the MOI …
Organic chemist Derek Lowe writes about XMRV at his blog, In the Pipeline: …this isn’t looking good at all. It’s pretty typical, though, of how things are out at the frontiers in this business. There are always more variables than you think, and more reasons to be wrong than you’ve counted. A theory doesn’t hold …
