This Week in Microbiology
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.
Episodes
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TWiM explains two strategies for bacterial competition for resources: by laying down a slippery lipid and pushing away competitors, or by breaking open cells with a spike, liberating essential nutrients.
TWiM describes how microbiological analysis of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn has revealed an antimicrobial resistance reservoir and bioremediation potential, and fungicide resistance in Fusarium graminearum, the fungus recently smuggled into the US.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin.
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TWiM explains how a mutualistic model bacterium can become lethal in a non-symbiotic host, and engineering a kill switch into a tuberculosis vaccine for improved safety.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and use...
TWiM explains a study of the unique and extreme microbial and chemical environment on the International Space Station, and the connection between the gut microbiome and pain in fibromyalgia.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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TWiM describes isolation of a novel bacterial species isolated from the China Space Station, and how a chemical radar allows bacteria to detect and kill predators.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Petra Levin.
Guest Mark O. Martin.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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TWiM explains how to recode E. coli so it uses only one stop codon, and an exploration of the mechanisms of bacterial adhesion within dental plaque.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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- Engineering E. coli with one stop codon (Nat...
TWiM explains Pasteur’s relentless hunt for microbes in the air, and how bacteria hunt for prey by ixotrophy - using grappling hooks!
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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- Pasteur’s hunt for microbes in the air (NYTimes)
- Bacterial p...
TWiM describes Shigella infection is facilitated by interaction of human enteric α-defensin 5 with a colonic epithelial receptor, and an amino acid change in RNA polymerase that leads to resistance to β-lactams by preventing dysregulation of amino acid and nucleotide metabolism
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
...TWiM explains the remarkable abilities of bacterial ice nucleating proteins to promote freezing of water, and cryoprotective proteins produced by worm microbiomes that prevent freezing.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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TWiM explores the discovery of microbial enzymes, PETases, that can degrade ubiquitous plastics, and how exogenous peptidoglycan is a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson.
Guest Mark O. Martin.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald J...
TWiM reveals that record high atmospheric methane growth has been driven by microbes, and the cecum as an adaptive niche for Salmonella typhi.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.
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From ASMCUE 2024, the conference on undergraduate education, TWiM speaks with Becky, Melanie, and Katriana about their careers and how they use TWiM in undergraduate microbiology education.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt and Mark O. Martin
Guests: Becky Seipel-Thiemann, Melanie Melendrez-Vallard, and Katriana Popichak
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TWiM describes how to make concrete more ‘green’ by using microbes, and bacterial bioluminescence as an important regulator of multitrophic interactions in the soil.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Michele Swanson and and Mark O. Martin.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RSS, or by email.
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Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with...
TWiM explains how ticagrelor alters the membrane of S. aureus and enhances the activity of vancomycin and daptomycin without eliciting cross-resistance, and the development of a novel continuous disinfectant technology that decreases healthcare-associated infections in ICUs by 70%.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Michele Swanson.
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TWiM focuses on recent foodborne outbreaks of bacterial infections, and how nanopore sequencing technology can be used to identify pathogenic microbes and antimicrobial resistance genes in food products.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
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- Foodborne outbreaks (CDC)
- Race to nourish a warming world (Gates Foundation)
- Na...
TWiM travels to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases to learn how research conducted at USAMRIID leads to vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and training programs that protect both warfighters and civilians.
Hosts: Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Guests: Norman Kreiselmeir, Christopher K Coat, Keersten Ricks, and Eric Nguyen
Links for this episode:
TWiM explains a project to engineer the cow microbiome to reduce emissions of methane, and the finding of antibiotic resistance genes in the genomes of giant viruses.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.
Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.
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TWiM explains how bacterial community structure can be used to predict athletic performance in racehorses, and the idea that a tiny fraction of all species forms most of Nature.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Mark O. Martin.
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