Learning about Virology

After watching a few YouTube video podcasts¹ by Vincent Racaniello, Ph.D., Columbia University, including both his This Week in Virology (especially liked TWIV 720 with Paul Offit), TWIV Answering Your COVID-19 Questions and TWIV Clinical Update with Dr. Daniel Griffin, I decided to start watching from the beginning, his course called Virology 2021.² I’ve seen the first eleven, amounting to about 12.9 hours of video, and I’m enthralled. He does a great job of explaining the science of virology with pictures, graphics and animations that amaze me. Racaniello wants to teach as many people as possible about virology, and with all the challenges about SARS-CoV2 and the COVID-19 infection that it causes, such a goal is laudable, though he could teach a more simplified and shorter course to get people on board with most of the concepts important in understanding SARS-CoV2 virology.

See some great animations shown in this lecture about Virus Attachment & Entry Lecture #5 (see positions 41:21, 45:10, 51:44, 59:10).

References

1. “Vincent Racaniello – YouTube Channel” Accessed March 29, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/.
2. Vincent Racaniello. Virology Lectures 2021 #1: What Is a Virus?, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX3MhWWi6n4&list=PLGhmZX2NKiNm0vqVhoYB_xZP6E6tGT6rU.