Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, and Josef Sabo

Vincent, Dickson, and Josef discuss tetraspanins on the surface of schistosomes as vaccine candidates and immune evasion proteins.

Links for this episode:

• S. japonicum tetraspanin-2 as a vaccine target (PLoS NTP)
• Protection with S. mansoni tetraspanin-2 (PLoS NTP)
• S. mansoni tetraspanins confer protection (Nat Med)
• Tetraspanins
• Letters read on TWiP 48

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Subscribe (free)

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, by the RSS feed or by email

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review evidence that a virus of the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis may exacerbate disease.

Links for this episode:

• Endobiont viruses sensed by the human host (PLoS One)
• Letters read on TWiP 47

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson meet with Judith Straimer and Marcus Lee to discuss their method for site-specific genome editing in Plasmodium falciparumusing zinc finger nucleases.

Right-click to download TWiP #46 (46 MB .mp3, 64 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• Judith Straimer and Marcus Lee
• Genome editing in P. falciparum with zinc finger nucleases (Nature Methods)
• Zinc finger nucleases (Sigma-Aldrich)
• Gene-editing nucleases (Nature Methods)
• Illustration by Andrew Lee

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss Toxoplasma biology with Stanford University Professor John Boothroyd.

Links for this episode:

• T. gondii and free range animals
• Kiss and spit: Toxoplasma rhoptries (Nat Rev Micro)
• Toxoplasma cell invasion (Curr Opin Micro)
• Loading of IRG onto parasitophorous vacuole (Cell Micro)
• Toxoplasma gondii on TWiP #12

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Subscribe (free)

Subscribe to TWiP (free) in iTunes, at the Zune Marketplace, by the RSS feed or by email

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson explain how a nematode manipulates cricket behavior and alters the food web of a stream.

Links for this episode:

• Nematomorph parasites alter food web of streams (Ecol Lett)
• Manipulation of cockle behavior by a trematode (Parasitology)
• Cockles infected by one parasite are more susceptible to a second (J Parasitol)
• Letters read on TWiP 44

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Vincent and Dickson review how sickle cell microRNAs contribute to malaria resistance, and inhibition of innate immune responses by an enzyme from trypanosomes.

Links for this episode:

• microRNAs involved in sickle cell resistance to Plasmodium (Cell Host Microbe)
• Trypanosome adenylate cyclases modulate innate immune response (Science)
• Letters read on TWiP 43

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson answer listener emails about Leishmania, dual infection of vectors, tapeworms, liver flukes, toxoplasmosis, and much more.

Links for this episode:

• Metabolic pathways required by Leishmania (Ann Rev Micro)
• Tapeworms in people's brains (Carl Zimmer)
• Poison Ivy
• Bovine tuberculosis disguised by liver fluke (Nature)
• Giant kidney worm (YouTube)
• Crowd-sourced games for telepathology
• Ivermectin for alcohol abuse
• Ivermectin and alcohol abuse in mice (Neuropharm)
• Etymology of Loa
• Worm removed from man's eye (BBC)
• Ticks keep on ticking (PLoS One article)
• Letters read on TWiP 42

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review medically important arthropods.

Links for this episode:

• Thomas Eisner
• Incomplete metamorphosis in insects (jpg)
• Complete metamorphosis in an insect with aquatic immature stages (jpg)
• Complete metamorphosis in an insect with terrestrial immature stages (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 41

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss loaiasis caused by the filarial nematode Loa loa.

Right-click to download TWiP #40 (52 MB .mp3, 73 minutes).

Links for this episode:

• Albendazole therapy for US-bound refugees (NEJM)
• Microfilaria of Loa loa (png)
• Loa loa life cycle (png)
• Letters read on TWiP 40

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson review the biology and pathogenesis of the amoebae Naegleria fowlerii and Acanthamoeba castellani.

Links for this episode:

• N. fowlerii life cycle (CDC)
• N. fowlerii at Artful Amoeba
• Naegleria and amoebic meningoencephalitis (MDPH)
• First case of Naegleria PAM in Italy (Emerg Inf Dis)
• N. fowlerii in well water (Emerg Inf Dis)
• Recent N. fowlerii case in Minnesota (Clin Inf Dis)
• Beat the holiday bug (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Is your neti pot safe? (Dallas News)
• Acanthamoeba keratitis fact sheet (CDC)
• Letters read on TWiP 39

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson tackle the backlog of listener email, then consider the life cycle and pathogenesis of Trichomonas vaginalis, the flagellated protozoan transmitted by sexual contact.

Links for this episode:

• T. vaginalis life cycle (jpg)
• T. vaginalis hydrogenosome (jpg)
• Letters read on TWiP 38

Contact

Send your questions and comments (email or mp3 file) to twip@twiv.tv.

Vincent and Dickson review how gut bacteria help establish T. muris in the large intestine of mice.

Vincent and Dickson discuss control of malaria with their Columbia University colleague David Fidock.