by Gertrud U. Rey The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently experiencing its worst outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history. More than 3,000 people have been infected with the virus, and nearly 1,900 have died since the outbreak began in 2018. The causative virus is "Ebola virus," ...

The TWiVologists consider whether to receive an influenza vaccine in August (in the northern hemisphere), and mice implanted with human lung fragments for studying microbial pathogens. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 563 (55 MB .mp3, 91 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Mice are important animal models for studying human pathogens, but they have limitations: not all human viruses replicate in mice and often these animals do not reproduce aspects of disease and immune responses. Mice implanted with human bone marrow, liver, and thymus (BLT mice) develop human immune systems, but most ...

TWiV travels to Rutgers University to speak with Brad, Kay, Siobain, and Kim about their careers and their work on viruses of plants, fungi, bacteria, diatoms, and coccolithophores. https://youtu.be/BHCVGIMqAKg Click arrow to play Download TWiV 562 (77 MB .mp3, 127 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

In the 19th century the word 'virus€™ was used to describe the cause of any contagious disease. How it came to describe the very small intracellular parasites that we know today is a fascinating story that illustrates our evolving concepts of infectious agents. Long before bacteria, fungi, and viruses were ...