Infection Control Today Magazine

Viruses

Researchers Show How New Viruses Evolve and Sometimes Become Deadly

Justin Meyer, an MSU graduate student, led a team of researchers, including Devin Dobias, former MSU undergraduate student, that showed how new viruses evolve. Photo by G.L. Kohuth. In the current issue of Science, researchers at Michigan State University demonstrate how a ...More
2 weeks ago
Posted in News
NIH Scientists Identify Novel Approach to View Inner Workings of Viruses

In the background, cryo-electron micrographs of purified viruses with their inner structure bubbling from radiation damage. Overlaid, (left) 3D computer reconstruction of a virus's outer shell and tail in gray, with the inner structure in magenta; (right) blow-up of the ...More
4 weeks ago
Posted in News
Researchers Identify Novel Compound to Halt Virus Replication

A team of scientists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a novel compound that inhibits viruses from replicating. The findings, which are published online in the Journal of Virology, could lead to the development of highly targeted compounds to ...More
January 4, 2012
Posted in News
Hepatitis C Virus Hijacks Liver MicroRNA

Viral diseases are still one of the biggest challenges to medical science. Thanks to thousands of years of co-evolution with humans, their ability to harness the biology of their human hosts to survive and thrive makes them very difficult to target with medical treatment. ...More
January 2, 2012
Posted in News
Virus Hunters Tracking Down the Next HIV

It's not a matter of if a worldwide pandemic will strike but when, say experts like veterinarian and epidemiologist Jonna Mazet, a professor in the Department of Medicine and Epidemiology in the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine. That's why ...More
December 21, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Plasma-Based Treatment Goes Viral

Life-threatening viruses such as HIV, SARS, hepatitis and influenza could soon be combatted in an unusual manner as researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of plasma for inactivating and preventing the replication of adenoviruses. When exposed to plasma – the fourth ...More
December 5, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Scientists Find Potential Achilles' Heel on Lassa Fever and Related Viruses

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have determined the atomic structure of a protein that the Lassa fever virus uses to make copies of itself within infected cells. The structural data reveal an unexpected molecular crevice where the viral protein grips the viral ...More
November 15, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Scientists Report Major Advance in Human Antibody Therapy Against Hendra Virus

A team of federal and university scientists reports a breakthrough in the development of an effective therapy against a deadly virus, Hendra virus. The results of their study, "A Neutralizing Human Monoclonal Antibody Protects African Green Monkeys from Hendra Virus ...More
October 19, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Biologists Find Surprising Number of Unknown Viruses in Sewage

Although viruses are the most abundant life form on Earth, our knowledge of the viral universe is limited to a tiny fraction of the viruses that likely exist. In a paper published this week in the online journal mBio, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, ...More
October 5, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Scientists Discover How Viruses Find Their Way Into the Cell Nucleus

They have been around since the dawn of time and are a model of evolutionary success: viruses. Viruses are extremely adaptable but they have a problem: They cannot reproduce, so they smuggle their genes into suitable host cells. In the case of some viruses, the viral DNA ...More
October 3, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens

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