• 323: Better Concrete With Microbes
    Dec 13 2024

    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.

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    Music used on TWiM is composed and performed by Ronald Jenkees and used with permission.

    Links for this episode
    • Construction nanobiotechnology for concrete (Appl Env Micro)
    • Self-healing concrete (Sci Tot Environ)
    • Microbe-inspired self-healing concrete (Front Struct Civil Eng)
    • Bacterial bioluminescence regulates multitrophic interactions in the soil (Cell Rep)
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    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    1 hr
  • 322: Photohydrolysis Decontamination Reduces Healthcare-associated Infections
    Nov 22 2024

    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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    Links for this episode
    • Ticagrelor and S. aureus (mBio)
    • Novel disinfectant technology (Am J Inf Control)
    • UVC-LED to inactivate foodborne pathogens (Appl Envir Micro)
    • UV disinfection systems (ACS Photonics)
    • High-touch surfaces in specialized patient care area (CDC)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    58 mins
  • 321: The Microbes in Your Food
    Nov 8 2024

    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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    Links for this episode
    • Foodborne outbreaks (CDC)
    • Race to nourish a warming world (Gates Foundation)
    • Nanopore sequencing of foods (Food Microbiol)
    • How is Oxford Nanopore used? (YouTube)
    • Introduction to Nanopore sequencing (YouTube)
    • Methods for detecting foodborne pathogens (Appl Micro Biotech)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    1 hr
  • 320: Rockstars of USAMRIID
    Oct 25 2024

    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:

    • U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
    • Threading the NEIDL (TWiV 200)
    • Unintentional importation of B. pseudomallei into US (Emerg Inf Dis)

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    Links for this episode
    • Engineering the cow for less methane emissions (WaPo)
    • Precision microbiome editing (Audacious Project)
    • Giant viruses carry antibiotic resistance genes (Nat Commun)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • 319: The Dark Side of the Rumen
    Oct 11 2024

    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.

    Become a patron of TWiM.

    Links for this episode
    • Engineering the cow for less methane emissions (WaPo)
    • Precision microbiome editing (Audacious Project)
    • Giant viruses carry antibiotic resistance genes (Nat Commun)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    52 mins
  • 318: How To Pick a Winner
    Sep 27 2024

    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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    Links for this episode
    • Microbiome picks a winner (Sci Rep)
    • Picking a Winner by Reading the Form
    • Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen Jay Gould
    • How much does it cost to breed a horse?
    • Date of birth and purchase price as foals or yearlings and race performance
    • Rarity as a sticky state (PNAS)
    • How many species on Earth? (PLoS Biol)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • 317: Bat White-nose Syndrome
    Sep 14 2024

    TWiM explains unique modifications in the energy conservation pathways linked to methanogenesis in an Archaeon, and mechanisms of white nose fungal invasion of cells from the Little Brown Bat.

    Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.

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    Links for this episode
    • Methyl-reducing methanogenesis (Nature)
    • Pathogenic strategies of Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Science)
    • Adaptive fungal invasion of bat cells (Science)
    • Little brown bat (Critter Catalog)
    • Nature Notes: Little Brown Bat (Harpswell)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    55 mins
  • 316: Food Addiction and the Gut Microbiome
    Aug 23 2024

    TWiM describes experiments to explore gut microbiota signatures of vulnerability to food addiction in mice and humans, and how a phage tail-like protein suppresses competitors in populations of bacteria of plants.

    Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, Petra Levin and Michele Swanson.

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    Links for this episode
    • Gut microbiota and food addiction (Probiotics)
    • Blautia may have probiotic properties (Gut Microbes)
    • Blautia wexlerae ameliorates obesity and type 2 diabetes (Nat Commun)
    • Phage tail–like bacteriocin suppresses competitors (Science)
    • What is a bacteriocin? (Front Micro)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

    Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

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    56 mins