virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
From ASM Microbe 2017 at New Orleans, Vincent and Rich meet up with Kate Rubins to talk about becoming an astronaut, space travel, and doing science in space.
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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
Possible sexual transmission of Zika virus, and a cell protein that allows hepatitis C virus replication in cell culture by enhancing vitamin E mediated protection against lipid peroxidation, are the subjects discussed by the TWiVerati on this week’s episode of the science show This Week in Virology.
You can find TWiV #393 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below.
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In this episode of Virus Watch, I show how to do my favorite assay in all of virology – the plaque assay.
On episode #373 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent speaks with Julius about his long career in virology, including his crucial work as part of the team at the University of Pittsburgh that developed the Salk inactivated poliovirus vaccine.
You can find TWiV #373 at microbe.tv/twiv. Or you can watch the video below.
Back in 2013 I built a Wall of Polio in my laboratory – a large stack of six-well cell culture plates that have been used to measure the concentration of polioviruses in various samples by plaque assay. It became a focal point of the lab at which many guests came to have their photographs taken. Sadly, the Wall fell twice. Now a new Wall – version 3.0 – has been completed.
The new Wall of Polio is in my office at Columbia University Medical Center, where it will not annoy the Fire Inspector (the former Wall partially blocked an aisle). Furthemore, the new Wall is glued together, so it will not come apart. Its construction is documented in the photographs below. The Wall of Polio 3.0 is built with 1,464 six-well plates of HeLa cells that were used to determine the titer of poliovirus. We have also already had a number of visitors to Wall 3.0.
Because the Wall is impressive, it attracts attention, which can then be used to explain the plaque assay and determining virus titer. Therefore it is simply another tool that I used to teach the world about virology.
When you visit, expect that I will ask to photograph you before the Wall. Only a few have refused.
On episode #312 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVbolans discuss the finding that human noroviruses, major causes of gastroenteritis, can for the first time be propagated in B cell cultures, with the help of enteric bacteria.
You can find TWiV #312 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.