• 354: How a Gut Microbe Worsens Heart Disease
    Apr 24 2026

    TWiM explains a candidate signature of health in the gut microbial community, and how an intestinal bacterium exacerbates cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury.

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

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

    Links for this episode
    • A candidate signature of health in the gut microbiome (Cell Host Microbe)
    • 204,938 reference genomes from the human gut microbiome (Nat Biotech)
    • A human gut metagenome-assembled genome catalogue spanning 41 countries (Nat Micro)
    • A comprehensive ruminant microbial catalog (Gigascience)
    • Bacteroides acidifaciens exacerbates cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury (Cell Host Microbe)
    • The Great Ozempic Experiment (NY Times, paywall)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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    59 mins
  • 353: Microbial Metabolism of Food Allergens
    Apr 11 2026

    TWiM explains how to use microbes to enhance maize yield and reduce corn rootworm damage, and how the human microbiota modulates IgE-mediated reactions to foods through allergen metabolism.

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

    Guest: 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
    • Harnessing Microbes for Crop Production (Phytobiome J)
    • Microbes take on corn rootworm (Science)
    • Microbial metabolism of food allergens (Cell Host Microbe)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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    47 mins
  • 352: Microbial Gut Biosensors
    Mar 28 2026

    TWiM reveals the archaeal roots of eukaryotic life, and a building a gut malabsorption biosensor with bacteria.

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

    Links for this episode
    • The archaeal roots of eukaryotic life (PNAS)
    • Building a malabsorption biosensor (Cell)
    • Engineering gut biosensors with microbes (Natuer)
    • 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
  • 351: Resistance Reboot
    Mar 6 2026

    TWiM discusses the use of bacteriophage-loaded microneedle patches for targeted and minimally disruptive foodborne pathogen decontamination, and a conjugal gene drive-like system that efficiently suppresses antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

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    Links for this episode:

    • Bacteriophage-loaded microneedle patches for food (Sci Adv)

    • Gene drive to suppress antibiotic resistance (npj antimicrob and resistance)

    • CRISPR gene drives (Syntego)

    • Bier laboratory

    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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    59 mins
  • 350: TWiM Goes to College
    Feb 14 2026

    Nancy and Maggie join TWiM to share how and why they created a freely available ebook of TWiM-based science literacy resources and classroom exercises that support teaching across key microbiology and molecular biology topics.

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    Links for this episode:

    • Podcast annotation and resources in microbiology (Iowa State U)

    • Curriculum guidelines for undergraduate microbiology (ASM)

    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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    53 mins
  • 349: Punctured to Death by Spikes
    Feb 1 2026

    TWiM explains how mechano-bactericidal surfaces made from diverse materials and patterned with spikes kill bacteria on contact, and virus-host evolution is reshaped by microgravity aboard the International Space Station.

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    Links for this episode:

    • Mechano-Bactericidal Surfaces (Adv Sci)

    • Piercing pathogens (ASM)

    • Natural bactericidal surfaces (Small)

    • Virus-host evolution in microgravity (PLoS Biol)

    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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    59 mins
  • 348: The Bark Side of the Microbiome
    Jan 21 2026

    TWiM explains the finding that owning a dog during adolescence alters the microbiota and improves mental health, and the molecular basis for multidrug efflux by an anaerobic-associated resistance-nodulation-cell division transporter.

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

    Become a patron of TWiM.

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

    Links for this episode
    • Dog ownership and the microbiome during adolescence (iScience)
    • Molecular basis for multidrug efflux (Nat Comm)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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    54 mins
  • 347: At Wound's Edge
    Jan 5 2026

    TWiM explains how S. aureus pathogenicity is a dynamic, niche-specific choreography that constantly recalibrates in response to the host microenvironment, and short chain fatty acids produced by commensal microbiota reduces its competitive fitness.

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    Links for this episode:

    • Niche-specific fitness of S. aureus at the wound edge (Nat Comm)

    • Commensal derived short chain fatty acids attenuate S. aureus (mBio)

    • Ditch the term pathogen (Nature)

    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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    55 mins