Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss the finding that immunity to a sandfly salivary protein protects against fatal visceral leishmaniasis in hamsters.

Links for this episode:

• Immunity to a salivary protein protects against leishmaniasis (PNAS)
• Image of blood-fed Lutzomyia longipalpis (right) credit
• Short history of Leishmania vaccines
• Leishmania on TWiP #14
• Letters read on TWiP 53

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 life cycle and pathogenesis of the giant kidney worm, Dioctophyme renale.

Links for this episode:

• Dioctophymiasis (CDC)
• Dioctophyme renale (Wikipedia)
• Fatal bilateral dioctophymiasis (J Parasitol)
• Clinical Parasitology by Paul C. Beaver
• D. renale in a dog (Vet. Parasitol.)
• Surgical removal of D. renale (YouTube)
• Letters read on TWiP 52

Contact

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

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Guest: Anthony A. James

Special guest Anthony A. James joins Vincent and Dickson to discuss how mosquitoes can be genetically modified to control infectious diseases.

Links for this episode:

• Field cage studies of modified mosquitoes (PLoS NTD)
• Flightless mosquitoes (PNAS)
• When mutant mosquitoes attack (NY Times)

Contact

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

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson reveal how malaria parasites avoid lysis by complement in the mosquito.

Links for this episode:

• Malaria parasites co-opt factor H (Cell Host Microbe)
• Complement system (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiP 50

Contact

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

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier

Vincent and Dickson discuss innate immune sensing of Toxoplasma gondii in mice, and heme metabolism in protozoan parasites.

Links for this episode:

• Sensing Toxoplasma in mice (Cell Host Microbe)
• Make it, take it, or leave it (PLoS Path)
• Heme (Wikipedia)
• Letters read on TWiP 49

Contact

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

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.