Podcasts · This Week in Virology
TWiV 1349: Smallpox and mummies
· 2 h 03 min · Episode 1349
Episode TWiV 1349: Smallpox and mummies
TWiV explains how liquid–liquid phase separation and a phage-encoded inhibitor cooperatively drive transcriptional transition during phage SPO1 infection, and the first smallpox virus genomes from an early outbreak in South America.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Brianne Barker, and Jolene Ramsey
Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email
Become a patron of TWiV!
Links for this episode
• Support science education at MicrobeTV • Positions in Rosenfeld Lab (email) • Fred Murphy, a pioneer in virology (J Virol) • New midge-borne orthobunyavirus sickening cattle in Europe (Science) • What to Know About the Vaccines Targeted by Trump’s Executive Order (NY Times) • What vaccine Executive Order gets wrong (CIDRAP) • Trudy Rey’s 100th post at virology blog • Transcriptional transition during phage SPO1 infection (Nucl Acids Res) • Phase separation 101 (Iwasa lab) • Early smallpox in America (Science) • Letters read on TWiV 1349 • Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks!
Picks of the Week
Brianne – APod August 7: Rubin’s Cosmos Field Rich – Jenner’s Inquiry Original, “annotated”; (PDF) Smallpox vaccination and opposition by anti-vaccination societies in 19th century Britain Jolene – Scott Seligmann’s web tool for searching keywords in podcast transcripts Vincent – The End of Reading is Here
Listener Picks
Tony – Fauci Fiasco Addendum Charles – The Proposed Changes in Childhood Vaccination: A Strongly Felt Opinion
Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees
Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv
Content in this podcast should not be construed as medical advice.
Links in the notes 20
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Racaniello
- https://mgm.ufl.edu/profile/condit-rich/
- https://bbarkerdrew.com/
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-virology/id1176779065
- https://www.microbe.tv/contribute
- https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/RosenfeldA@mlhs.org
- https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jvi.01078-26
- https://www.science.org/content/article/newly-discovered-virus-sickening-cattle-western-europe
- https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/well/cdc-vaccine-schedule-recommendations.html
- https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-vaccines/cidrap-op-ed-what-vaccine-executive-order-gets-wrong-and-what-it-will-cost-us
- https://virology.ws/2026/08/06/virology-without-borders/
- https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/54/14/gkag742/8741788
- https://animationlab.utah.edu/phase-separation
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aee6957
- https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-1349-letters/
- https://ramseylab.vercel.app/
- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260807.html
- https://wellcomecollection.org/works/krgb7nyy
- https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fpublication%2F233898083_Smallpox_vaccination_and_opposition_by_anti-vaccination_societies_in_19th_century_Britain%23pf5&data=05%7C02%7Ccondit%40UFL.EDU%7C8e98024db3ba4f0c908508def9eb1252%7C0d4da0f84a314d76ace60a62331e1b84%7C0%7C0%7C639222985248200276%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4sphf1SsrfvUXZOSE5sNWCC%2FfYtNI1MG0rTjINmnooI%3D&reserved=0
- https://seligman.github.io/podcasts/twiv/twiv.html
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.