Hokies go Viral II: This Week in Virology

This Week in Virology (TWIv), the podcast about viruses -- the kind that makes you sick-- filmed its #1271 episode on location at Virginia Tech.

The Hokies go viral II podcast features XJ Meng and Kylene Kehn-Hall about their research on hepatitis E virus and Rift Valley fever virus. 

As one of the co-founders and host of TWiV, Vincent Racaniello had the opportunity to interview Meng and Kehn-Hall while visiting campus as the keynote speaker for the annual Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens symposium on Oct. 16. 

"It was an honor to be on TWiV and discuss my lab's research on Rift Valley fever virus with Dr. Racaniello," said Kehn-Hall. "From my section of the podcast, I discussed our research on the Rift Valley fever virus NSs protein - which is a multifunctional viral protein that is essential for evading the immune system."

Kehn-Hall and her student, Kaylee Petraccione, recently published a review article on where Petraccione coined the NSs protein -  the "viral Houdini".   

TWIv began in September 2008 with Racaniello and Dickson Despommier, two Columbia University Medical Center science professors. Their goal was to have an informal yet informative conversation about viruses which would be accessible to everyone, no matter what their science background.