This Week in Microbiology

• 342: The Microbiome, Pancreatic Cancer, and Sleep Quality

  TWiM explains studies that show that the oral bacterial and fungal microbiome are risk factors for pancreatic cancer, and the gut microbiome and pyruvate metabolism of older adults are a link between sleep quality and frailty.

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

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

  Links for this episode

  • Oral microbiome and pancreatic cancer risk (JAMA Oncol)
  • 2025 Cancer Facts & Figures (ACS)
  • Periodontal Disease: The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown (Front Cell Infect Micro)
  • Socransky’s disease complexes (Microorg)
  • Microbiome, pyruvate metabolism, sleep quality, and frailty (Cell Rep)
  • Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (pdf)
  • How to score the sleep quality index (pdf)
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  Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

• 341: Sea Star Wasting Disease

  TWiM reveals a Vibrio as the causative agent of sea star wasting disease, and using microcolony-seq to uncover phenotypic inheritance from single cells.

  Hosts:  Michael Schmidt and Michele Swanson

  Guest: Mark O. Martin

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  Links for this episode:

  • Agent of sea star wasting disease (Nat Ecol Evol)

  • Sea star wasting mystery solved (Nat Ecol Evol)

  • Phenotypic inheritance from single cells (Cell)

  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

• 340: Microbes in Trees and Plants

  TWiM explores the varied and distinct microbiome of trees, and an array of biopesticidal metabolites against mosquito larvae isolated from a Mediterranean island.
  
  

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  Links for this episode:

  • Microbiome of trees (Nature)

  • Biopesticides from a Mediterranean island (Appl Environ Micro)

  
  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

• 339: Missing the Company of Elio

  TWiM pays tribute to Elio Schaechter, former TWiM host, blogger, and microbiologist extraordinaire, then reviews the finding that Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria - a form of competition.

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

  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

  • Elio Schaechter (Wikipedia)
  • Elio Schaechter Funeral Service (video)
  • Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria (PLoS Biol)
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  Send your microbiology questions and comments (email or recorded audio) to twim@microbe.tv

• 338: Rewriting the Code of Life

  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.