Trudy joins the the TWiVlords to discuss new tests for detecting prions in the blood, and evidence showing that foamy retroviruses originated in the seas with their jawed vertebrate hosts at least 450 million years ago. You can find TWiV #424 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV424.mp3"] Click arrow to ...

I spoke with virologist Ian Goodfellow, whose laboratory works on noroviruses, about why he went to Sierra Leone to establish an Ebolavirus diagnostic and sequencing laboratory. The obstacles he encountered were considerable, but the results were very useful. Recorded at the Emerging Infectious Diseases A to Z (EIDA2Z) conference hosted by the National ...

A sensitive and specific blood test has been developed that could be used to limit the risk of transmission of prion disease through the blood supply (link to papers one and two). Prion diseases, also known as spongiform encephalopathies, are uniformly fatal, chronic degenerative neurological diseases caused by misfolding of ...

The TWiV academia discuss induction of diarrhea by the capsid protein of an astrovirus, and association of a fungal RNA virus with white-nose syndrome of North American bats. You can find TWiV #423 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV423.mp3"] Click arrow to play Download TWiV 423 (66 MB .mp3, 110 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV!

Virus infections initiate when virions bind to receptors on the cell surface. It is well known that cells can be made susceptible to infection by providing DNA encoding the virus receptor. For example, mice cannot be infected with poliovirus, but become susceptible if they are given the human poliovirus receptor gene. Now we have learned ...