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PODCAST

This Week in Microbiology

Vincent Racaniello

This Week in Microbiology is a podcast about unseen life on Earth hosted by Vincent Racaniello and friends. Following in the path of his successful shows "This Week in Virology" (TWiV) and "This Week in Parasitism" (TWiP), Racaniello and guests produce an informal yet informative conversation about microbes which is accessible to everyone, no matter what their science background.

science life sciences

All Episodes

01:09:49

293: Aerosol phage therapy, alpha-gal aptamers for MRSA

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/08/23

TWiM explains personalized aerosilized phage therapy for a chronic lung infection, and using the combination of antibiotic and a DNA molecule that binds alpha-gal to reduce S. aureus infection in vivo. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a Patron of TWiM! Links for this episode: Aerosolized phage therapy (Nat Comm) Alpha-gal aptamer and vancomycin for MRSA (Microorg)

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58:47

292: Breast Milk Bioactives

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/08/11

TWiM reveals that breast milk bioactives are essential for development of the infant microbiome and immunity, and how capsule mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae can affect bacterial pathogenesis. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin, Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Diet-microbe-host interaction in early life (Science) Human Milk: An Ideal Food (Front Ped) Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (Ann NY Acad Sci) Gut microbiome in early childhood

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01:01:11

291: Biogeography of Tectonics and Teeth

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/07/29

TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin, Guest: Mark O. Martin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Bacteria initiated plate tectonics (Geophys Res Lett) Medea hypothesis (Sci Am) Earth’s

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47:03

290: Houston, We Have Mimi Goldschmidt

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/07/14

From ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston, TWiM speaks with Mimi Goldschmidt about her remarkable career in microbiology which included training astronauts to safely bring moon rocks back to Earth. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin. Guest: Mimi Goldschmidt Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Mimi Goldschmidt (Wikipedia) Dr. Millicent “Mimi” Goldschmidt - Women in Microbiology (YouTube) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees Send your

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57:35

289: Viral Defense and Counter-Defense

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/06/30

TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Ubiquitin-like conjugation by bacterial cGAS (Nature) Jumpin’ Jack Flash (TWiV 222) Viral sponges inactivate anti-phage immunity (Trends Micro) cGAS and CD-NTase enzymes (Curr Opin Struct Biol) Take the

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01:06:49

288: Cancer and E. coli

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/06/09

TWiM describes a potential connection between a bacterial protein that damages DNA, and human cancers, and how to synthesize antimicrobial natural products from reconstructed bacterial genomes of the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin Become a patron of TWiM Links for this episode Colorectal cancer and E. coli (Nature) Natural products from ancient bacterial genomes (Science) Underexplored bacteria reservoirs of antimicrobial

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51:29

287: When Replicas Do Not Replicate

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/05/20

TWiM investigates the high variability in the rate and amount of current production from microbial fuel cells, and how bacteria link their growth rate to external nutrient conditions via a protein that functions as a cellular rheostat. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Variability in microbial fuel cells (Appl Environ Micro)

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52:46

286: Integrons and Invasion

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/05/05

TWiM reveals environmental integrons, bacterial genetic elements notorious for their role in spreading antibiotic resistance, and how Salmonella invasion is controlled by competition among intestinal chemical signals. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Environmental integrons (Trends Micro) Integrons: agents of bacterial evolution (Nat Rev Micro) Rethinking microbial infallibility in the metagenomics era (Fems Micro

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01:11:16

285: How Plague Got Deadly

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/04/23

TWiM reveals a new type of satellite virus that requires only phage tails for producing infectious virus particles, and that highly virulent plague bacteria differs from its innocuous enteric predecessor by its resistance to lysis by human complement. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Michael Schmidt. Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Viruses that steal bacteriophage tails (Cell Host Microbe)

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55:09

284: Flies, Pigs, and Squid

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/04/08

TWiM reveals housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant bacteria, and a reproductive organ in squid linked to symbiotic bacteria. Become a patron of TWiM Links for this episode Housefly dispersal of antimicrobial resistant E. coli (Appl Micro Int) Antibiotic use in farming (Nature) Antimicrobial use in food producing animals (PLoS Glob Pub Health) Reproductive organ linked to symbiotic bacteria (mBio) Skype a Scientist Take the TWiM Listener survey! Music used on TWiM is composed and

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58:07

283: Quorum Sensing In The Gut

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/03/24

TWiM reveals quorum-sensing systems that regulate intestinal inflammation and permeability caused by P. aeruginosa, and how plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior through translational regulatory crosstalk. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Quorum-sensing in the intestine (mBio) Block quorum sensing, block biofilm (Antimicrob Agents Chemother) Plasmids manipulate bacterial behavior (PLoS Biol) Regulatory genes

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54:03

282: At-home evolution with yeast

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/03/10

TWiM presents a protocol for evolving caffeine-tolerant yeast by high school students in the home, and how predator-prey dynamics change when multiple bacteria grow together in biofilms. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, Petra Levin. Guest: Mark O. Martin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Caffeine-tolerant yeast selected at home (microPub Biology) yEvo Lab

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59:57

281: Microbes Making Jet Fuel

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/02/17

TWiM explains the synthesis in bacteria of new energy-dense biofuels that can replace rocket and jet fuels, and the use of nanopore sequencing to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with serious infections. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode: Biosynthesis of high energy biofuels (Joule) Polyketide synthases in bacteria (PNAS) Sequencing for diagnosis of serious infections (mBio) Nanopore sequencing video (YouTube) Emerging human pathogen Kodamaea ohmeri

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58:49

280: They Forget To Divide

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/01/28

TWiM explains how magnesium modulates cell division frequency of a soil bacillus, and killing of fungi by Acinetobacter baumannii via a Type VI DNase Effector. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a Patron of TWiM! Links for this episode: •Magnesium modulates cell division frequency (J Bacteriol) •A. baumannii kills fungi (mBio) Music used on TWiM is

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01:01:47

279: A Road Map For Successful Phage Therapy

This Week in Microbiology ·

2023/01/13

TWiM describes successful phage therapy against a mycobacterial lung infection, and how encapsulation of the cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from its major peptidoglycan hydrolase and host defenses. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode: Phage therapy against M. abscessus lung infection (Cell) Encapsulation of the septal cell wall protects S. pneumoniae from host defenses (PLoS Path) Letters read on TWiM 279 Music used on TWiM is by Ronald Jenkees. Send your microbiology questions

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59:29

278: Bacteria Sing The Blues

This Week in Microbiology ·

2022/12/29

TWiM explores the relationship between the gut microbiome and depressive symptoms, and how purine nucleotides act as adjuvants to antibiotics. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Android, RSS, or by email. Become a Patron of TWiM! Links for this episode: Gut microbiota and depressive symptoms one and two (Nat Commun ) Microbiome influences depression (Phys.org) Gut bacteria and depression (Med Press)

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58:35

277: To Stop or Not To Stop

This Week in Microbiology ·

2022/12/08

On this episode of TWiM, we reveal widespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages that may regulate translation of lytic genes, and how Staphylococcus aureus inhibits Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Stop codon recoding in bacteriophages (Nat Micro) How S. aureus inhibits P. aeruginosa growth (J Bact) S. aureus small colony variants (Front Cell Infect Micro) Ken Timmis retires as journal

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01:06:33

276: Bacterial Multicellularity Near An Underground...

This Week in Microbiology ·

2022/11/24

TWiM presents evidence that over half of human pathogenic diseases are impacted by climate change, and considers how a novel prokaryote discovered next to an underground stream illuminates the pathway to multicellularity. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Mark Martin. Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Climate change and pathogenic diseases (Nat Climate Change) Impacts of climate change on human diseases (MoraLAB) Cave bacteria illuminate pathway to

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01:05:37

275: The Myth of Clonality

This Week in Microbiology ·

2022/11/11

TWiM reveals high rates of co-transformation of plasmids in E. coli overturns the clonality myth, and bacterial membrane vesicles as a novel strategy for extrusion of the antimicrobial bismuth in H. pylori. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin Links for this episode The myth of clonality (Sci Rep) Bacterial membrane vesicles extrude bismuth (mBio) Gastric acid levels must decrease (World J Gastroenterol) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Become a patron of TWiM. Music used on

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57:55

274: Bacterial Endosymbionts Block Giant Viruses

This Week in Microbiology ·

2022/10/20

Mark Martin returns to TWiM to join the discussion of how to design a complex gut microbiome, and protection of protists from virus infection by intracellular bacterial symbionts. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson, and Petra Levin Become a patron of TWiM. Links for this episode Design of a complex gut microbiome (Cell) Defensive symbiosis against giant viruses (PNAS) Take the TWiM Listener survey! Music by Ronald Jenkees. Send your microbiology questions and comments

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354 results

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