Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal disorder of unknown etiology. The disease involves degeneration of motor neurons, leading to paralysis, respiratory failure, and death within five years. A viral etiology for ALS has been suggested but never proven. Retroviruses ...

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Cliff Mintz, Michael Schmidt, and Ronald Atlas. Vincent, Cliff, Michael and Ron discuss the genome sequqnce of a mercury-methylating bacterium and the antimicrobial effects of nanoparticles. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twimshow/TWiM005.mp3"] Click the arrow above to play, or right click to download TWiM #5 (52.5 MB .mp3, 76 minutes). Subscribe to ...

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit Vincent, Alan, Dickson and Rich answer listener questions about XMRV, yellow fever vaccine, virus-like particles, West Nile virus, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and human endogenous retroviruses, multiplicity of infection, and how to make a poxvirus. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV129.mp3"] Click the arrow above to ...

What would you conclude if you read the following headlines: Man sexually transmits insect-borne disease to wife (Fox News); Zika virus: First insect borne STD? (HuffPo); Scientist gives insect-borne disease to wife during sex (New York Magazine), and A scientist contracts a mosquito-borne virus and gives it to his wife ...

Glenn Rall, a virologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center, sent me the following note: Baruch S. Blumberg, Nobel Laureate in 1976 for discovery of Hepatitis B (and the eventual development of the vaccine, which probably has saved hundreds of thousands of lives since its introduction), died this past Tuesday (4/5/11).  ...