Virology
TWiV 99: ICAAC Boston 2010
By Vincent Racaniello | | This Week in Virology
Host: Vincent Racaniello Vincent tours the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Boston, speaking with exhibitors and visitors, including Professors Derek Smith, Michael Schmidt, Frederick Hayden, and Myra McClure. Many thanks to Chris Condayan and Ray Ortega of the American Society for Microbiology for recording and editing this episode. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV099.mp3″] Click …
TWiV 98: Murine musings, electric shirts, and rabid pathologists
By Vincent Racaniello | | This Week in Virology
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit On episode 98 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich review the finding of murine leukemia virus-related sequences in the blood of CFS patients and healthy donors, laboratory inventories for wild poliovirus containment, weaving high-performance viral batteries into fabric for the military, and …
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PMRV joins XMRV as possible etiologic agent of chronic fatigue syndrome
By Vincent Racaniello | | Information
The new human retrovirus XMRV, first detected in malignant prostate tissue, was subsequently identified in a high percentage of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The virus was not detected in four independent studies of CFS patients in Europe or the United States. The results of a second American study, whose publication was blocked for …
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Viral bioinformatics: Recombination
By Vincent Racaniello | | Toolbox
This week€™s addition to the virology toolbox was written by Danielle Coulson and Chris Upton Comparing genomes of viral strains can provide very useful insight into evolutionary relationships. Recombination, defined by Posada et al (2001) as the exchange of genetic information between two nucleotide sequences, is quite common in many viruses. Because recombination accounts for …
TWiV 97: California virology
By Vincent Racaniello | | This Week in Virology
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Peter Sarnow, and Bert Semler On episode #97 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent visited Peter Sarnow and Bert Semler during a trip to California, and spoke with them about their work on internal ribosome entry, and the requirement for a cellular microRNA for hepatitis C virus replication. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV097.mp3″] Click …
TWiV 96: Making viral DNA
By Vincent Racaniello | | This Week in Virology
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Rich Condit On episode #96 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Dickson, and Rich continue Virology 101 with a discussion of how viruses with DNA genomes replicate their genetic information. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV096.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #96 (65 MB .mp3, 90 minutes) …
David Tuller
Trial By Error: Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored
By David Tuller, DrPH When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published …
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Trial By Error: Is Professor Crawley Retired from Bristol, or Isn’t She?
By David Tuller, DrPH Professor Esther Crawley, the methodologically and ethically challenged pediatrician and former grant queen at the University of Bristol, retired from medical practice and, apparently, from academia at some point in the recent past. So why does her name still appear on websites as if she were an active participant in research …
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Trial By Error: Norway Disability Case Exposes Flaws in Draft Guideline for “Long-Term Fatigue–including ME/CFS”
By David Tuller, DrPH A recent disability case in Norway provides a good example of why the draft of a new guideline for “long-term fatigue—including ME/CFS” is so problematic. As I reported last week, the draft guideline, produced by the Norwegian Directorate of Health*, generally favors the biopsychosocial approach. The guideline offers few specifics about …
Trial By Error: Why is Professor Crawley Still on the COFFI Steering Committee?
By David Tuller, DrPH Several years ago, the leaders of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades decided to create the Collaborative On Fatigue and related symptoms Following Infection, or COFFI. According to its website, COFFI’s “overarching aim” is “to investigate factors influencing the development of long-term symptoms (in particular fatigue) following certain infectious diseases.” Akershus University Hospital …
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Trial By Error: Aussie GPs Still Push Graded Exercise Therapy
By David Tuller, DrPH When I was in Australia for the first time in 2018, it was clear that the country’s general practitioners were fervent supporters of the biopsychosocial ideology when it came to ME/CFS. That hasn’t changed, according to a recent exchange of views published in the Australian Journal of General Practice. The debate …
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Trial By Error: Dutch Agency Funds CBT Training Program Based on Flawed Long COVID Trial
By David Tuller, DrPH Here is how bullshit replicates itself in today’s medical world: Conduct a flawed trial, declare success despite serious questions, then develop health policy based on these hyped-up claims. ZonMW, a major Dutch healthcare funding agency, is supporting a new program led by Professor Hans Knoop, a longtime supporter of the fraudulent …
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