A new coronavirus appears to be causing a pneumonia-like illness in China. It is certainly a zoonotic infection - jumping from non-human animals to humans - as exemplified by previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS coronaviruses. The government in Wuhan, China confirmed on 31 December that dozens of cases of ...

by Gertrud U. Rey Bacteria use at least a couple of pathways for protecting themselves against viral infection. In return, multiple viral strategies for inhibiting or evading these pathways have evolved. Two well-known bacterial strategies for self-defense against viruses involve immune enzymes, and roughly resemble the vertebrate innate and adaptive ...

Vincent speaks with virologists at the University of Nevada at Reno about their careers and their work on herpesviruses, arboviruses, and the development of diagnostics for infectious diseases. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 579 (61 MB .mp3, 101 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

The human gut microbiome appears to play diverse roles in host physiology, metabolism, and immunity. Most conclusions about what the trillions of bacteria in our intestines actually do come from studies in mice, or correlative studies in humans. An exception is an investigation in humans which shows that antibiotic-mediated alteration ...

Vincent speaks with members of Prometheus, a team of academic and industrial scientists assembled to develop antibody-based therapeutics against infections caused by tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus and rodent-borne hantaviruses, for which no approved vaccines or specific drugs are available. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 578 (55 MB .mp3, 91 ...