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This Week in Microbiology

This Week in Microbiology

By: Vincent Racaniello
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This Week in Microbiology is a podcast about unseen life on Earth.Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Biological Sciences Nature & Ecology Science
Episodes
  • 338: Rewriting the Code of Life
    Aug 16 2025

    TWiM discusses outbreak of Legionnaires disease in Harlem NY, an automated whole genome sequencing platform for bacterial strain typing in clinical microbiology laboratories, building E. coli with a 57-codon genetic code.

    Links for this episode

    • Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in NY (NY Health)
    • Automated whole genome sequencing for clinical labs (J Clin Micro)
    • Sequencing workflow for outbreaks (J Clin Micro)
    • Rewriting code of life (NYTimes)
    • E. coli with a 57-codon genetic code (Science)
    • E. coli with one stop codon (TWiM 330)

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

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    53 mins
  • 337: Lifestyles of the Plasmids
    Jul 31 2025

    TWiM explains a study that examines pathogen presence in ancient humans and concludes that zoonoses emerged 6500 years ago with the domestication of livestock, and determination of universal rules that govern plasmid copy number.

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

    Guests: Mark O. Martin

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    Links for this episode:

    • Human pathogens in ancient Eurasia (Nature)

    • What once ailed us (NY Times)

    • Rules of plasmid copy number (Nature Comm)

    • Scaling laws of plasmids (Nature Comm)

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

    Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • 336: The Volatilome of Biofluids
    Jul 19 2025

    TWiM explores the use of gas sensors and machine learning to identify microbes and antimicrobial resistance in clinical specimens, and how a harmful algal bloom species releases thiamin antivitamins to suppress competitors.

    Become a patron of TWiM.

    Links for this episode:

    • Microbial and antimicrobial resistance diagnostics (Cell Biomaterials)

    • Thiamin antivitamins suppress algal competitors (mBio)


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

    Send your microbiology questions and comments to twim@microbe.tv

    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
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