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This Week in Evolution

This Week in Evolution is a podcast on the biology behind what makes us tick.
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Now displaying: Category: general
Sep 27, 2021

Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Links for this episode

Science Picks

NelsLeading Edge Symposium
VincentEpidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2

Listener Pick

ThomasThe gene’s-eye view of evolution by J. Arvid Ågren

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Apr 22, 2021

Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels Mars rover helicopter flight!
VincentTWiN 17: Worms see the light with Michael Nitabach

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Dec 31, 2020

Nels and Vincent wrap up 2020 with a discussion of novel variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa, how to interpret the rapidly emerging genome sequence data and what to look for in the coming weeks as these variants spread across the globe.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels Katalin Karikos’ career and mRNA vaccines
VincentReverse Engineering of mRNA vaccine

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

May 20, 2020

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 evolution, including understanding recurrent mutations in the viral genome, and the potential for re-emergence of the virus from an animal reservoir.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - The Cell in Evolution
Vincent - Visual Science

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Apr 4, 2020

Nels and Vincent continue their discussion of SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, focusing on what the genome sequences tell us about the virus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - Science Mill Explorer Zone
Vincent - COVID-19 treatment and therapy tracker

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Nov 29, 2019

Rich joins Nels and Vincent for a debriefing on the 4th Ringberg Symposium on Giant Virus Biology in Tegernsee, Germany.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Rich Condit

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Science Picks

Rich - Flightradar24
Nels - Deutsches Museum Munich
Vincent - Diversify Microbiology

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Oct 31, 2019

Nels and Vincent reveal a new choanoflagellate that forms multicellular cup shaped colonies that respond to light to alternate between feeding and swimming behavior.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - How to write a great science paper by Cormac McCarthy
Vincent - Natural Selection Store

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Jun 27, 2019

At ASM Microbe in San Francisco, Nels and Vincent meet up with Paul Turner to talk about evolutionary considerations in using bacteriophages to treat infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Paul Taylor

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Science Picks

NelsScience Glass

Vincent- Phage therapy for disseminated Mycobacterial infection

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Jul 25, 2018

Nels and Vincent are astounded by the finding of an insect-derived virus in a fungus that manipulates the behavior of flies.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - Mindsuckers; getting photos; Anand Varma photos 
Vincent - Happy Birthday Gregor Mendel

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Jun 19, 2018

Matt joins Nels and Vincent to discuss the neutral theory of evolution and its rejection in light of genome-scale data.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Matt Hahn

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Science Picks

Nels - Inaugural Transposon Day
Vincent - How many human genes?

Listener Pick

Anne- Plants repeatedly lose ability to obtain nitrogen

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Mar 21, 2018

Nels and Vincent discuss the evolution of blood feeding to nonbiting in a mosquito, and evolution of bacterial virulence in the house finch caused by incomplete host immunity.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - IDEA and Impossible Foods
Vincent - it is NOT junk

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Feb 28, 2018

Sarah Tishkoff joins Nels and Vincent to explain work from her laboratory on the genetic basis of skin pigmentation in Africans.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Sarah Tishkoff

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Science Picks

Nels - In Defense of Plants (Shrew Loo)
Vincent - Contribution of NIH funding to new drug approvals

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

Mar 13, 2017

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Stephen Goff

Nels joins Vincent in New York City to speak with Stephen Goff about transmissible clam cancers and the silencing of integrated retroviral genomes.

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Science Picks

Nels - Mindsuckers
Vincent - What is a species?

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

Send your evolution questions and comments to twievo@microbe.tv

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