virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
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.
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Download TWiV 563 (55 MB .mp3, 91 min)
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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 pathogens infect other cell types. When human lung tissue is introduced into BLT mice, a lung implant develops that is populated with immune cells and can be used to study infection with a variety of human pathogens.
Vincent travels to Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA to speak with Nick Buchkovich and Leslie Parent about their careers and their work on human cytomegalovirus and retroviruses.
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Download TWiV 518 (53 MB .mp3, 86 min)
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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
In the first of two shows recorded at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Vincent meets up with faculty members to talk about how they got into science, their research on DNA viruses, and what they would be doing if they were not scientists.
You can find TWiV #407 part one at microbe.tv/twiv. Or watch the video above, or listen below.
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Download TWiV 407a (43 MB .mp3, 71 min)
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