TWiV 1349: Smallpox and mummies

TWiV 1349: Smallpox and mummies

August 16, 2026 · 2h 3m · Episode 1349

About this episode

The episode discusses liquid–liquid phase separation in phage infection and the early smallpox virus genomes from South America.

TWiV explains how liquid–liquid phase separation and a phage-encoded inhibitor cooperatively drive transcriptional transition during phage SPO1 infection, and the first smallpox virus genomes from an early outbreak in South America. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Brianne Barker, and Jolene Ramsey Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode Support science education at MicrobeTV Positions in Rosenfeld Lab (email) Fred Murphy, a pioneer in virology (J Virol) New midge-borne orthobunyavirus sickening cattle in Europe (Science) What to Know About the Vaccines Targeted by Trump’s Executive Order (NY Times) What vaccine Executive Order gets wrong (CIDRAP) Trudy Rey’s 100th post at virology blog Transcriptional transition during phage SPO1 infection (Nucl Acids Res) Phase separation 101 (Iwasa lab) Early smallpox in America (Science) Letters read on TWiV 1349 Timestamps by Jolene Ramsey. Thanks! Picks of the Week Brianne – APod August 7: Rubin’s Cosmos Field Rich – Jenner’s Inquiry Original, “annotated”; (PDF) Smallpox vaccination and opposition by anti-vaccination societies in 19th century Britain Jolene – Scott Seligmann’s web…

People in this episode

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Brianne Barker, Jolene Ramsey

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MicrobeTV, CIDRAP, NY Times, Iwasa lab, Science, J Virol, Nucl Acids Res

Products: APod

Books & works: Rubin’s Cosmos Field, Jenner’s Inquiry, Fauci Fiasco Addendum, The Proposed Changes in Childhood Vaccination: A Strongly Felt Opinion, Scott Seligmann’s web tool for searching keywords in podcast transcripts, The End of Reading is Here

More episodes of This Week in Virology

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the This Week in Virology podcast page.