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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 Natural History Nature & Ecology Science
Episodes
  • 335: Slip Slidin’ Away
    Jul 4 2025

    TWiM explains two strategies for bacterial competition for resources: by laying down a slippery lipid and pushing away competitors, or by breaking open cells with a spike, liberating essential nutrients.

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    Links for this episode:

    • Secreting a slippery lipid (mBio)

    • Lysing neighboring cells for nutrients (Science)

    • Underwater hockey (YouTube

    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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    50 mins
  • 334: Fungal Smuggle
    Jun 20 2025

    TWiM describes how microbiological analysis of the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn has revealed an antimicrobial resistance reservoir and bioremediation potential, and fungicide resistance in Fusarium graminearum, the fungus recently smuggled into the US.

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

    Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.

    Become a patron of TWiM.

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

    Links for this episode
    • Microbiology of the Gowanus Canal (J. Appl. Micro)
    • Microbes clean up Gowanus (BrooklynPaper)
    • Fungicide resistance in Fusarium (Pathogens)
    • Couple smuggles fungal pathogen into US (NBC)
    • Fusarium and wheat-management strategies (Pathogens)
    • Laboratory Biosafety (pdf)
    • NIH Biosafety (NIH)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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    57 mins
  • 333: When Mutualists Murder
    Jun 7 2025

    TWiM explains how a mutualistic model bacterium can become lethal in a non-symbiotic host, and engineering a kill switch into a tuberculosis vaccine for improved safety.

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

    Subscribe to TWiM (free) on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Android, RSS, or by email.

    Become a patron of TWiM.

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

    Links for this episode
    • When a mutualist becomes lethal (mBio)
    • A lasting symbiosis (Nat Rev Micro)
    • A kill switch for BCG (Nat Micro)
    • Engineering mycobacteria for vaccination (Nat Micro)
    • Take the TWiM Listener survey!

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

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    58 mins
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