W. Allen Miller, molecular virologist
@wallenmiller.bsky.social
Professor: Plant Pathology, Entomology & Microbiology (and Biochem, Biophys & Mol Biol) Iowa State University
Research: Positive strand RNA viruses, bizarre translation mechanisms
Research: Positive strand RNA viruses, bizarre translation mechanisms
Reposted by W. Allen Miller, molecular virologist
As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Read our statement: asm.org/press-releas...
Joint Statement Calling for Secretary Kennedy Resignation
The American Society for Microbiology released a joint statement calling for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
asm.org
September 3, 2025 at 11:10 PM
As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Read our statement: asm.org/press-releas...
Finally! Translon: A term for the sequence that actually gets translated. ORF or CDS just won't do when you work with viruses that break the rules by frameshifting, readthrough, non-AUG starts, etc. Thank you Pavel Baranov et al! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Translon: a single term for translated regions - Nature Methods
Nature Methods - Translon: a single term for translated regions
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Finally! Translon: A term for the sequence that actually gets translated. ORF or CDS just won't do when you work with viruses that break the rules by frameshifting, readthrough, non-AUG starts, etc. Thank you Pavel Baranov et al! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by W. Allen Miller, molecular virologist
Virology as a field is facing hard times ahead. I’m grateful to my friend and colleague @shanluliu.bsky.social for stepping up to lead our community as we face this challenge. Lfg, Shan-Lu! 💪🏻✊🏻
I am honored to serve as president of the American society for Virology, thank you for your support. I wish to thank our past president Hector Aguilar-Carreno for a wonderful service and look forward to working with everyone.
July 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Virology as a field is facing hard times ahead. I’m grateful to my friend and colleague @shanluliu.bsky.social for stepping up to lead our community as we face this challenge. Lfg, Shan-Lu! 💪🏻✊🏻
Pleased to see that, despite extreme belt-tightening budgets year upon year, my CALS ranks #12 in the world! www.topuniversities.com/university-s...
QS World University Rankings for Agriculture & Forestry 2025
Discover the world's top universities for Agriculture & Forestry 2025. Explore the QS World University Rankings by Subject in various disciplines.
www.topuniversities.com
June 19, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Pleased to see that, despite extreme belt-tightening budgets year upon year, my CALS ranks #12 in the world! www.topuniversities.com/university-s...
Didn't know we are still planting elm trees this century. I have a couple healthy old ones in my yard, but park my car right near this one. 😬 www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2RM...
Dutch Elm Disease Explained: A Tree's Tragic Decline
YouTube video by Integrated Pest Management
www.youtube.com
June 17, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Didn't know we are still planting elm trees this century. I have a couple healthy old ones in my yard, but park my car right near this one. 😬 www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2RM...
How to win the war against science. Call experts "so-called experts". www.nature.com/articles/d41...
NIH killed grants on orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE
Court documents and internal correspondence show the cost-cutting force has broad control over the world’s largest public biomedical funder.
www.nature.com
May 22, 2025 at 8:51 PM
How to win the war against science. Call experts "so-called experts". www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by W. Allen Miller, molecular virologist
Nobel Prize winning science.
Moderna's combo Covid and flu mRNA shot outperforms current vaccines in large trial
A combination shot would make it easier for people to get vaccinated against Covid and the flu at the same time.
www.nbcnews.com
May 10, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Nobel Prize winning science.
Reposted by W. Allen Miller, molecular virologist
In light of the skinny budget (55.8% reduction), 6 past NSF directors and 7 NSB chairs have sent the House Committee on Appropriations a letter advising doubling the NSF budget.
"We face a fork in the road. Do we want to win or concede the race for new knowledge and a competitive STEM workforce?"
"We face a fork in the road. Do we want to win or concede the race for new knowledge and a competitive STEM workforce?"
May 4, 2025 at 2:18 AM
In light of the skinny budget (55.8% reduction), 6 past NSF directors and 7 NSB chairs have sent the House Committee on Appropriations a letter advising doubling the NSF budget.
"We face a fork in the road. Do we want to win or concede the race for new knowledge and a competitive STEM workforce?"
"We face a fork in the road. Do we want to win or concede the race for new knowledge and a competitive STEM workforce?"
From the CDC: In the last 6 months in the US, there were: 8-13 million illnesses and 26,000-44,000 deaths from COVID-19. Yet HHS "will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago”. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: NIH to cut grants for COVID research, documents reveal
Studies on climate change and South Africa are also on the latest list of grants to be terminated, according to updated documents obtained by Nature.
www.nature.com
April 10, 2025 at 9:50 PM
From the CDC: In the last 6 months in the US, there were: 8-13 million illnesses and 26,000-44,000 deaths from COVID-19. Yet HHS "will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago”. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Enjoyed fantastic seminar on intra/inter cellular communication via plasmodesmata by my academic granddaughter Tessa Burch-Smith, keynote speaker at the student-run Stupka Symposium here at ISU. Her Focused Ion Beam scanning EM images are amazing!
April 4, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Enjoyed fantastic seminar on intra/inter cellular communication via plasmodesmata by my academic granddaughter Tessa Burch-Smith, keynote speaker at the student-run Stupka Symposium here at ISU. Her Focused Ion Beam scanning EM images are amazing!
I will miss Ann Palmenberg, my de facto mentor when I was a grad student. I learned so much from her about viruses, how to write a scientific paper, and more. Plus she was a lot of fun. Always enjoyed her presence at ASV meetings. www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituaries/a...
Ann Carol Palmenberg, Ph.D Obituary February 20, 2025 - Cress Funeral and Cremation Services
View Ann Carol Palmenberg, Ph.D's obituary, find service dates, and sign the guestbook.
www.cressfuneralservice.com
March 1, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I will miss Ann Palmenberg, my de facto mentor when I was a grad student. I learned so much from her about viruses, how to write a scientific paper, and more. Plus she was a lot of fun. Always enjoyed her presence at ASV meetings. www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituaries/a...
Reposted by W. Allen Miller, molecular virologist
NSF-funded research is used by the private sector in product development. Researchers buy stuff, hire people, & provide financial resources for their institutions. This is bad for universities, bad for university communities, and bad for industry. It’s just bad.
www.eenews.net/articles/sci...
www.eenews.net/articles/sci...
Science funding agency threatened with mass layoffs
National Science Foundation staff heard the plans at a meeting Tuesday.
www.eenews.net
February 5, 2025 at 3:44 AM
NSF-funded research is used by the private sector in product development. Researchers buy stuff, hire people, & provide financial resources for their institutions. This is bad for universities, bad for university communities, and bad for industry. It’s just bad.
www.eenews.net/articles/sci...
www.eenews.net/articles/sci...
From a bunch of unstudied viral sequences gathering digital dust in GeneBank, here's a bizarre new genus of twelve (so far) tombusviruses, from organisms ranging from maize to tuatara. Raise your hand if you know what a tuatara is! www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir...
Frontiers | A proposed new Tombusviridae genus featuring extremely long 5’ untranslated regions and a luteo/polerovirus-like gene block
www.frontiersin.org
January 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM
From a bunch of unstudied viral sequences gathering digital dust in GeneBank, here's a bizarre new genus of twelve (so far) tombusviruses, from organisms ranging from maize to tuatara. Raise your hand if you know what a tuatara is! www.frontiersin.org/journals/vir...
Why we do basic research. In my lab, grad student Liz Carino showed that MCMV RNA binds eIF4E for cap-independent translation. Who cares? Here's what followed: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Edited eukaryotic translation initiation factors confer resistance against maize lethal necrosis
Maize lethal necrosis (MLN), which is caused by maize chlorotic mottle virus along with a potyvirus, has threatened the food security of smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa. Mutations in eukaryotic tr...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 29, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Why we do basic research. In my lab, grad student Liz Carino showed that MCMV RNA binds eIF4E for cap-independent translation. Who cares? Here's what followed: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...