This Week in Microbiology
This Week in Microbiology is a podcast about unseen life on Earth hosted by Vincent Racaniello and friends. Following in the path of his successful shows 'This Week in Virology' (TWiV) and 'This Week in Parasitism' (TWiP), Racaniello and guests produce an informal yet informative conversation about microbes which is accessible to everyone, no matter what their science background.
- Update frequency
- every 15 days
- Average duration
- 63 minutes
- Episodes
- 341
- Years Active
- 2011 - 2025
TWiM #41: ICAAC live in San Francisco
Vincent and Michael travel to San Francisco for the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), where they meet with Bill, John, and Victor to discuss tuberculosis,…
TWiM #40: A mecca for microbiology
**MicrobeWorld app users, click the "e" symbol in the bottom right corner of this description to watch a bonus video version of this episode!**
Vincent and Stanley meet with Waclaw Szybalski and Joh…
TWiM #39: What Darwin never knew
Vincent, Michael, and Elio reviews chapters from Microbes and Evolution, a collection of short, personal essays by microbiologists.
TWiM #38: The sound of whooping cough
Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio review an outbreak of pertussis in Washington, and how culturing can reveal rare members of the soil biosphere.
TWiM #37: Microbial Jekyll and Hyde
Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio discuss two examples of dynamic microbial symbioses that switch between mutualistic and pathogenic states.
TWiM #36: Domesticating a pathogen
Vincent, Michael, and Elio explore the origin of Mycoplasma pathogens of ruminants, and share their thoughts on the recent ASM General Meeting.
TWiM #35: Ohne hauch
Vincent, Michael, and Elio review necrotizing fasciitis, and a link between surface remodeling in gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
TWiM #34: Doing the DISCO with Emiliania
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt, and Elio Schaechter
Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss changing populations of Emiliania huxleyi and their viruses in the North and Black Seas.
Right click…
TWiM #33: Tuning the immune organ
Vincent, Michael, and Ivo review the requirement for segmented, filamentous bacteria for the induction of a specific type of helper T cell in the gut.
Links for this episode:
TWiM #32: Not the shadow biosphere
Rosie Redfield talks about her evidence that a bacterium cannot grow on arsenic instead of phosphorus.
TWiM 31: Screen door on a submarine
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Jo Handelsman, and Michael Schmidt
Vincent, Jo, and Michael discuss an archetypal protein transport system in bacterial outer membranes, and evidence that gut microbial ent…
TWiM #30: Unraveling melioidosis and insulin resistance
On episode #30 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how a toxin from Burkholderia pseudomallei inhibits protein synthesis, and the role of the gut microbiome in modulating insulin resist…
TWiM #29: Death and an iron-loaded spike
On episode #29 of the podcast, Vincent and Stanley review how a phage pierces the cell membrane with an iron-loaded spike, and two programmed cell death systems in E. coli.
TWiM #28: Not unorganized bags of enzymes
Vincent, Michael, and Elio review how competition within a host drives virulence of Streptococcus pneumoniae, and the expanding universe of the bacterial cytoskeleton.
TWiM #27: An inflamed gut is good for Salmonella
Vincent, Elio, and Michael review how inflammation allows Salmonella to compete with fermenting gut microbes, and a riboswitch in bacterial and Archeal species that is triggered by fluoride.
TWiM #26: Suum cuique
Vincent, Elio, and Michael discuss the finding of Sutterella species in the gut of autistic children, and methods for cultivating oral bacteria.
TWiM #25: Magnetotactic bacteria and totally drug resistant TB
On episode #25 of the podcast, Vincent, Elio, and Michael review bacteria that use the earth’s magnetic field for navigation, and identification of totally drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
TWiM #24: This year in microbiology
Vincent, Michael, and Cliff review ten compelling microbiology stories from 2011.
TWiM #23: Fighting antibiotics with toxic gas and starvation
Vincent, Jo, Elio, and Michael explain how a swarming bacterium helps disperse a non-motile fungus, and bacterial antibiotic tolerance mediated by hydrogen sulfide and starvation responses.
TWiM #22: Microbiology 911
Vincent and Michael speak with Alfred Sacchetti, MD, Chief of Emergency Services at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, about microbial infections encountered in the emergency room.