Arthro-Pod: September 2023

Friday, September 29, 2023

Arthro-Pod 145: A Deep Dive into West Nile VIrus

Hello bug lovers! Today, we're guided by Mike Skvarla into a deep dive on West Nile virus. A mosquito borne illness, West Nile is something the Arthro-Pod crew has learned a lot about over the course of their lives and careers. In fact, one of them even tested positive for it after trying to give blood... Mike was inspired by Episode 1031 of the This Week in Virology podcast, where they discussed a recent paper on the subject. The paper is “Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs underlie West Nile virus encephalitis in ∼40% of patients”, by Gervais et al. published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Tune in to learn about the history of WNV and the current research focused on it.

The virus of concern

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Howdy bug lovers! Last episode, we started our discussion of insect locomotion by getting up close and personal with insect legs. Today, we'll be a little more airborne as we discuss insect wings. Insects are the only invertebrates with the power of flight and there have long been questions about the origin of insect wings in the evolutionary record. Tune in to hear about the multiple theories on the origin of wings, how wings help with insect identification, and just how bugs take flight.