About

The purpose of this blog is to teach you about viruses and viral disease. This topic is not one that everyone understands, yet nearly everyone would like to. I was most disturbed when the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy G. Thompson, referred to the anthrax bacillus as a virus. That incident crystallized in my mind the need to better educate the public about viruses.

I am your host at virology blog – Vincent Racaniello Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. Why am I qualified to teach you virology? I have done laboratory research on viruses since 1975, when I entered the Ph.D. program in Biomedical Sciences at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York. My thesis research, in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese, was focussed on influenza viruses. That’s me in the black and white photo below, taken in 1977. Yes, I’ve changed.

Vincent Racaniello 1977

In 1979 I joined the laboratory of Dr. David Baltimore at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I did postdoctoral work on poliovirus. The moratorium on cloning full-length viral genomes had just been lifted, so I proceeded to make a DNA copy of poliovirus RNA, using the enzyme reverse transcriptase. I cloned this DNA into a bacterial plasmid and determined the nucleotide sequence of the poliovirus genome. In an exciting advance, I found that a DNA copy of poliovirus RNA is infectious when introduced into cells. This was the first demonstration of infectivity of a DNA copy of an animal RNA virus, and it permitted previously unthought of genetic manipulations of the viral genome. Today infectious DNA clones are used to study most viruses.

In 1982 I joined the faculty in the Department of Microbiology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City. There I established a laboratory to study viruses, and to train other scientists to become virologists. Over the years we have studied a variety of viruses including poliovirus, echovirus, enterovirus 70, rhinovirus, and hepatitis C virus. As principal investigator of my laboratory, I oversee the research that is carried out by Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows. I also teach virology to undergraduate students, as well as graduate, medical, dental, and nursing students.

Since I think about viruses every day, and I have always been interested in teaching others about viruses, this blog seemed to be an ideal forum to convey some of my knowledge on this topic.

After starting this blog, I became interested in using ‘new media’ (internet-based media) to disseminate information about viruses. I’ve summarized my use of this format in an article entitled “Social media and microbiology education“, which you can find at the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. In addition to writing about viruses on virology blog, I also host and produce five podcasts: This Week in Virology, This Week in Parasitism, This Week in Microbiology, This Week in Evolution, and Urban Agriculture. You can find them all on iTunes or at MicrobeTV. I teach a virology course each spring at Columbia University, and I post videocasts of each lecture at the course website, at YouTube, at iTunes University, and at Coursera.

If you would like to learn about our work on viruses in more detail, please visit my website at Columbia University, or my Wikipedia page. You might also like to follow me on Twitter or Google+, where I often provide links to interesting stories about viruses; on YouTube, where I posts videos about viruses; or on Instagram, or the This Week in Virology page on Facebook. I have also written about my work on this site; links to some of these articles are provided below.

Earth’s virology course

Thirty years in my laboratory at Columbia University

Edwin D. Kilbourne, MD, 1920-2011 (his influence on my career)

Thirty years of infectious enthusiasm

Transgenic mice susceptible to poliovirus

Viruses and journalism: Poliovirus, HIV, and sperm

Poliovirus on BBC radio

Viruses and journalism: Off-the-shelf chemicals

Poliovirus is IRESistable

Disclaimers

All of the opinions that I write on this blog are mine, and in no way represent the views of my employer, Columbia University. This information is provided for educational purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. If you think you are sick, see your doctor. Links to other sites do not constitute endorsements of those sites.

Vincent Racaniello

223 thoughts on “About”

  1. Hi Vince…I was searching the web and came across your blog…you make this virology stuff fun to read and I think I’m a new fan 🙂 and one that also needs some help….I’ve been doing some research on a novel Piscine Reovirus infecting farmed salmon up here in BC and they matched it to a chicken reovirus!…One of the assembled contigs with a total length of 1097bp matched the lambda A-protein (major core/inner capsid protein) of an Avian orthoreovirus (E-value 6e-71) When I googled the Evalue it took me to skyline models data base and then when I went down to the Evalue and clicked on that it took me to the novel chicken virus they matched it to…it truly was a Holy cluck moment for me when I read that it causes runting stunting syndrome in the chickens as it causes heart and muscle disease in the fish too… from most of the studies I’ve read on this, the scientists are saying PRV is equally related to both aqua and ortho genera, strongly suggesting it be made a new genus while others have decided to lump it in with that “common evolutionary origins of aqua and orthoreoviruses” I’m no expert but I don’t think a smidgen of a toenail study from 510 my ago can be compared to half chicken, half fish!..they’re claiming PRV is also acting differently in the FAST protein side of things than they thought it would, which I find rather freaky…what else has me worried is that they just put 500,000 PRV infected salmon smolts into the open net pens just up island from where I live, and while I guess our government seems to think it’s ok to grow diseased flesh for human consumption I worry if this new and improved virus could infect people?… in one of the study’s on PRV they talk about myocarditis in humans and a virus being suspected (I wonder why would they put that into a study entirely done on fish?)…when most doctors recommend to their heart patients to eat more fish and salmon do you think I have cause for concern?…has this virus jumped species….or mutated…Thanks for your time and I’m looking forward to your reply

    Angela from Quadra Island BC

  2. Dear Vincent, I am an international PhD student in one of university in Italy. I found your blog accidentally that is exactly what I needed. I have been already following your classes and It have been amazing, Thank you for share your knowledge with us

  3. Pingback: Prominent virologist defends the Chinese Hybrid H5N1-H1N1 research, calls it ‘good science’ - The Global Dispatch

  4. Vince – thanks for sharing your knowledge. I have a background in ecology and have become fascinated with viruses and infectious diseases. I no longer work in science, but I like to read (CDC Emerging Infectious Disease journal + Pro-Med updates) and learn about them – thanks for helping me get my science fix!

  5. I am a Russian I have super immunity to influenza. I work for the best distributor of newspapers in Almetyevsk, I go around the city sell the newspaper for 15 years. A flu afraid of people who play sports in the fresh air. Not sick with diabetes mellitus other type of drink a lot of water. A flu does not like people who drink a lot of water. I propose to make a flu vaccine based on my blood. phone 79046762574

  6. Dear All, I am PhD student in pharmacy, currently i am reading about HCV life cycle and it is hard to me to follow and understand the virological terms – could you please clarify to me what does it mean by trans membrane domain?

    I will appreciate if you guide me to find an easy book to help me to understand this terms

  7. Dear Vincent could you please enlighten me how to obtain bacteriophages from soil ? I am doing my Masters in Microbiology from University of Karachi . I am working on phages. I Know how to obtain phages from sewage but I need opinion of some experts how to obtain phages from soil . I can be reached at aiman.uok@hotmail.com

  8. Professor,

    I’m taking your Virology course through Coursera. I just wanted to thank you so much for everything you’re doing. I just graduated with a degree in Chemistry and unfortunately Virology never fit in my schedule. You teach in an incredibly effective manner and hold my attention the entire time you are speaking. Thanks again, keep it up.

    Best,
    Emil

  9. Hi Mr. Vincent,
    I am a college freshman with a interest in studying virology but do not know which path to take. I’ve been reading blogs and many people said to earn MD then Ph.D in virology while others said M.S, then Ph.D. I have a strong inclination towards getting a Masters in mircobio then Ph.D but I don’t want to end up making a mistake
    Thank You
    Joe

  10. This is my first comment. I’ve been reading on this site for hours. I answered the question, ‘are viruses dead or alive.’ I think they can sit on a shelf for billions of years–dead. They need a living source for life. I wonder, do they have any enjoyment? Coffee, sex, or just copy themselves like crazy. What is their purpose when invading a living body?
    Maybe they wanted to live off my liver–just diagnosed with Hep C 1 a. Have had 40 years from a blood transfusion of 2 pts. due to a wreck. Amazing. The blood to save my life can now take my life with all the monsters in it. I don’t where to go on this site for determining how the 3-drug treatment gives so many side effects. What is happening? How do these drugs cause so much distress? How does it interfere with dopamine production? I wish I were a biochemist–maybe my next life. With my viral load being huge, wonder what my changes are for getting rid of this. (SVR)
    I want to know also what the drugs do–what mechanism–to kill this virus. Do I even make sense? Thank you for the great discussions and analogies on viruses.
    I like it when people can intelligently discuss toss around ideas, brainstorm, being congenial, leaving their egos out in a non mean spirited way. I don’t mean to change the subject or distract. Should I be at a different place? Thank you and love your gift of brilliance from the source, whatever name you call it.

  11. Hi Dr Vincent,
    I am taking your online course Virology 1 and am excited about learning more. Are there any regular conferences I can attend in the USA? thanks
    farouq from Kuwait

  12. Dear dr.vincent would you kindly tell me the difference between the N1 and the N2 numbering system in influenza viruses

  13. Pankaj Upadhyay

    Hello Sir,

    My AIM and dream of my life is to find a cure for AIDS.As being a second year undergraduate student teachers didn’t help me much in research or anything but then I came across your course on coursea and its pretty amazing and easy to understand.

    You really have created a hope and hunger inside me to study more.please keep sharing because you are awesome and some day I will find a cure for AIDS , and I won’t forget to give you credit (;

    Now you are a hope for children like me who have dreams (: YOU ARE AWESOME AND I MEAN IT ( I saw your expressions in the video)

  14. Professor Racaniello – I was taking Virology through Coursera and loved every second of it. Unfortunately, my fiance got very sick and I had to stop courses to take care of him. Do you have plans to do the course again? I only made it about halfway and would love to complete it.

    Thanks,

    Andrea

  15. Dear Pro. Vincent, Recently, I am screening some bioactive constituents for
    anti-RSV(respiratory syncytial virus) activity in vitro with Hep-2
    cells, the control is ribavirin, but I found the Therapeutic Index (TI)
    of ribavirin is very low, less than 10. I searched papers, it’s a big difference. So, I wonder how about the results
    in your experiments.
    Yours,
    Yong Yang

  16. kehinde Oyeniran

    Good day to you sir! My name is Kehinde Oyeniran. I am a Master degree student in Medical Microbiology from Nigeria. Please i need your assistance concerning this virology question; ” Which of the viral diagnostic methods is most reliable (with applicable reasons)?’ I look forward to your reply.

    Thanking you!

  17. Hi Vincent,

    I wondered what thoughts you might have on this unusual cluster of polio-like symptoms around here in beautiful, lovely Silicon Valley, said paradise rendered legendary by Nobel Literature Laureate (and our very own) John Steinbeck.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/23/polio-like-illness-california/5703827/

    Conversations at the CDC include whether this outbreak may be an enterovirus. Some discussion that this illness may well be underreported.

    Hope all is well,

    Matt Dubuque, San Francisco, California

  18. Hello Pankaj my name is Arjun I am doing my 3rd year undergradute course in Microbiology.I would like to share my Ideas and informations with you.

  19. Pingback: Load Your Cold & Flu Ammo With These Two Super NutrientsNot Exactly The News | Not Exactly The News

  20. Danny Vazquez

    Mr. Racaniello I want to Know how much time norovirus can live on top of a surface

  21. Hi Vincent, I just finished reading your “pathogenesis of influenza in humans” blog, which I stumbled across on the internet while recovering (slowly) from the flu and wondering why the whole recovery process was taking so long. I don’t have a science background (high school chemistry 40 years ago – seriously) but found the article quite illuminating and understandable. It was also nice to be able to chart my recovery on the graph. Congratulations on the great educational service you are providing!

  22. I am a patient suffering from a “viral rash”for over two months and I am miserable. I am hoping you can shred some insight and thoughts on my condition. Here is my story. On March 18th I had a client dinner, late that evening I developed a hive like rash. I thought I was reacting to something I ingested that evening. I took Benadryl which helped relieve the itching. Over the next five days I continued to have a transient itchy red hive rash. I continued to self medicate with Bendrayl which made me very sleepy. I saw my first doctor on Monday(allergist) who informed me I had a viral rash??? I have never heard of this reaction to a viral infection. What was interesting, I never was acutely sick or febrile. I continue to this day to have a non painful swollen lymph node in my neck. I was put on antihistamine regimen which I am still on to this day. On Wednesday I developed severe malaise and fatigue and was exhausted for two days. But I never felt “sick” On Saturday I developed aching bone pain( another first). This prompted me to visit my GP the following Monday. He concurred my rash was probably viral. He suspects I was exposed to the flu. I did take the flu vaccine this year. One interesting symptom I experienced was aching at my injection site… Maybe it was in my head! During this time my work partner who I am constantly in contact with family developed the GI flu. There youngest daughter was diagnosised with fifth disease. Parvovirus. His wife as well is suffering from a rash??? I continue to have intense flare up of this transcient itchy rash. I have also seen a dermologist. All he did was provide a stronger cream to relieve the itching. I have researched fifth disease but there is not much literature on adult symptoms.. If that is what I have…
    Any suggestions or thoughts I would appreciate.

  23. I‘m a Chinese.I have a question,that is there some connet between the genetic material of virus and host?

  24. Professor,
    I am reading a portion of a textbook on immunology and in one paragraph the author states, “. . . antibodies can actually bind to a virus while it is still outside of a cell, and can keep the virus either from entering the cell or from replicating once it has entered.” In a paragraph a little further down the page, the author states, ” . . . there is a flaw in the antibody defense against viruses: once a virus gets into a cell, antibodies can’t get to it, so the virus is safe to make thousands of copies of itself.” The author seems to be saying the opposite about antibodies and viruses in these statements. Can an antibody prevent a virus from replicating once it has entered a cell? That is, does the antibody work inside the cell to prevent viral replication or does the antibody affect the virus when it is still outside of the cell so that it cannot replicate once it enters? In the first statement it seems that the author is saying that antibodies function inside a virus-infected cell to prevent virus replication. I’m confused. Thank you.

  25. Antibodies to viruses can inhibit replication in several ways. Once bound to the virus particle – an interaction that occurs outside of cells – the antibodies can prevent attachment; or they can enter the cell with the virus, and prevent release of the viral nucleic acid. But if a virus particle enters cells without being bound by antibodies, it will replicate – the antibodies do not follow the virus into cells. In the extracellular fluids, not all virus particles will be bound by antibodies, so some will enter cells and be able to replicate. Does that help?

  26. F Gerard Lelieveld

    Hi Vincent,
    concerned member of the public here.

    In the news article Prominent Virologist Defends The Chinese Hybrid H5N1-H1N1 Research, Calls It ‘Good Science’,
    you gave the argument that:
    “Anything a scientist does to a virus in the lab is likely to cause reduced virulence, because the scientist does not know how to tinker with the virus without causing a loss of fitness.”

    Now I wonder, has your opinion changed since this research article:
    Airborne Transmission of Highly Pathogenic H7N1 Influenza Virus in Ferrets
    showed that “transmission was not associated with loss of virulence”?

    Sutton et al. used the same method as Fouchier after he concluded that artificial mutation didn’t produce him the hell in a handbasket he was looking for: serial passages of the bird flu virus between ferrets.

    When will you join the other side?
    A simple adaptation of the ferret model renders your arguments in the above news article useless. Call it the human model. I hope you delete this post, and join the other camp for a while. Hush, hush.

  27. Pingback: Load Your Cold & Flu Ammo With These Two Super Nutrients | Collective-Evolution

  28. Dear Sir,
    I want to perform a TCID50 for different commercial lyophilized vaccines as a project. I can understand all the procedure but there is only one confusion. How to dilute the lyophilized vaccines to make a 1:10 dilution. I have seen a video on youtube stating that make 1:100 dilution of stock virus then dilute it 10 folds but i am not satisfied with logic. can u please help me out to about how to diluate a lyophilized virus for making a 10 fold serial dilution.

  29. Hello sir, I am very confused about, why some viruses adopt to be negative stranded RNA genome. What are the advantage over positive stranded RNA viruses.????

  30. I am a clinical laboratory scientist (ASCP). Although my expertise is Hematology/Hemostasis, I have long been interested in virology. During my training 40 years ago, most microbial training involved bacteria. Not much was known then about virus. It was not until the advent of HIV that I became an avid follower of viral illness and research. I am especially interested in the role of virus in cancers. As a hematologist I have learned the roles of virus in leukemia and lymphoma. Virus is suspect in breast and other cancers. Because of this interest, I own virology textbooks that associated virus as causative in cancer. The HPV group was discussed. This book is over 20 years old!!!! So my question to all of you viral experts is this; WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG TO DEVELOP A VACCINE; WHY ARENT OTHER STRAINS OF HPV [ also oncoviruses] INCLUDED IN THE 4;WHY ISNT THERE A PLAN FOR THEM; AND WHY ARENT PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS AND PHYSICIANS WARNING PARENTS AND CHI.DREN ABOUT THE DANGERS OF UNPROTECTED SEX BY TEACHING PATIENTS THAT IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT HPV.? LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOMA, BREAST CANCER, PROSTATE, ETC MAY ALL BE DUE TO VIRAL INFECTIONS!! WHY DOES THE PRESS AVOID THAT DISCUSSION AND INSTEAD PUBLISH THE JUNK SCIENCE TRYING TO ATTRIBUTE CANCER TO THE FOOD WE EAT!!!
    THE VIRAL RESEARCH COMMUNITY NEED TO STEP UP, AND TO PUT PRESSURE TOWARD ADVOCATING FOR CANCER PREVENTION! HAD I NEEN YOUNGER AND AFTER A MASTERS OR DOCTORATE, I WOULD HAVE RESEARCHED THE STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE ADVENT OF THE “PILL” AND THE RISE OF CANCERS WORLDWIDE. I SUSPECT A RETROVIRUS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BREAST CANCER (RESEARCHERS IN AUSTRALIA THINK SO), OTHERS THINK EPSTEIN BARR.
    DR RACANIELLO CAN YOU ANSWER MY QUESTIONS PLEASE?

  31. Can you discuss the “Theory” that Ebola will undoubtedly become airborne? E.g., in your opinion, the timeline for this to occur?
    Websites are advising healthcare workers to wear respirators. Since I am a healthcare worker, what kind of respirator will keep
    us safe from Ebola should it ever come to that? Thank you for creating this Blog.

  32. I can certainly understand why he didn’t answer. But I’ve got the time. HPV vaccine followed establishment of HPV as the causal agent of cervical cancer. That took time. When I began working in 1975, it wasn’t even clearly understood that cancer was generally a problem of somatic or transmission genetics. One does not develop a vaccine based on epidemiological inferences. If you precede carefully, you don’t waste time and resource pursuing dead ends. And there are more dead ends in research than there are fleas on a mutt. The most common strains of HPV found in cervical cancer are used in the vaccine. It may be an economic problem as to why others are included, or simply one of utility. Why isn’t the entire world vaccinated against rabies, for example. Vaccines are the best things ever invented for human health, but they carry risks, and may not be useful. Given that though, the HPV vaccines available may well undergo an expansion in their content. Unprotected sex is an important discussion and it is being taught, especially with HIV in view. A few human cancers are likely caused by viruses, HTLV for example, but it is highly unlikely that viral origins are responsible for most human cancers. This path was well funded and eagerly pursued during the heyday of mouse and chicken retroviral research by people like Robert Gallo to little avail. I generally ignore the press when it comes to research. Peer reviewed publications are much more informative and justified than a journalists take on research in view of what the lay public would be interested in and capable of digesting. They need to sell stuff to stay employed, and science is, let’s face it, complicated, and people get lost and bored. Food and cancer for example is easy to sell, however it is not always wrong. Mouldy peanuts, for example. The epidemiology of the long term effects of birth control pills and any other drug is fascinating and I hope you get a chance to do it. Just remember that epidemiological associations are correlative and not sound evidence for causality. Breast cancer is probably not a result of viral infection. Don’t confuse mice with human beings. If there were a clearly causal link between for example retroviruses and human breast cancer, it would have been recognized easily using molecular techniques by now. There are forms of cancer that are strongly linked to virus iinfection, for example EBV and Burkitt’s lymphoma, KS and HHV8, HPV 16 and 18 and cervical cancer, and benign papillomas and other HPV strains. If it is a DNA virus, maybe it integrate and then watch out. But the overwhemling number of human cancers are almost certainly environmental in nature – smoking and lung cancer, sporadic and heritable forms of breast cancer, age, race and diet in prostate cancer.. Given that people have a normal, low level background radiation emanating from their own tissues, it seems reasonable to assume that cancer would become more common in people as they age, and so it is. Human oncogenes, you know. They mutate.

  33. Vincent Racaniello Ph.D.,
    Professor of Microbiology & Immunology in the College of Physicians and
    Surgeons of Columbia University.

    Dear Professor Racaniello:
    Since you are an expert in the field of viruses, in particular the Polio
    virus, then you have most certainly heard the name of Frederick R. Klenner,
    M.D. before. Dr. Klenner was a top
    biology student from Pennsylvania who earned his M.D. degree from Duke
    University in 1936. He became
    fascinated by the then newly discovered
    vitamin called Vitamin C or ascorbic acid. He did much research on his own without aid
    from government agencies mostly at his own medical practice in Reidsville,
    North Carolina. He proved that Vitamin
    C is safe at high doses, of the order of grams to hundreds of grams per day and
    proved many simple, safe and cheap uses of it to aid or cure various medical
    conditions and diseases, especially some viral diseases. Dr. Klenner was the real pioneer in the use
    of Vitamin C for health and disease cure and prevention, not Linus Pauling as
    great a scientist as he was.

    Since you are an expert in this field, you have undoubtedly
    read this paper by Robert Landwehr in
    1991

    “The Orgin of the 42 year Stonewall of Vitamin C” available
    at this link:

    http://seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/199x/landwehr-r-j_orthomol_med-1991-v6-n2-p99.htm

    When did you first read this article?

    What experiments have you performed in your own laboratory
    to confirm or dispute the claims in the above article that Dr. Klenner cured
    sixty Polio patients with high dose Vitamin C, mainly injected intravenously and
    reported the results in medical journals in 1949, long before the Vaccine was
    developed and approved? What is your
    statement and conclusion on his claims?
    If he is wrong, why is he wrong scientifically and what have you
    personally done to prove it scientifically?
    If he was right, why don’t you mention this fact and advocate this
    simple, safe and cheap method to prevent this horrible disease of Polio, which
    still ravages much of the world today?
    Even the WHO has lied to the public about this. Are you a scientist or a politician?

    Winfield J. Abbe

    A.B., Physics, UC Berkeley, 1961

    M.S., Physics, California State University at Los Angeles,
    1962

    Ph.D., Physics, UC Riverside, 1966

    150 Raintree Ct.

    Athens, GA 30607, formerly raised at Sierra Madre,
    California 1943-1966, born at Cleveland, Ohio 1939.

    October 11, 2014

  34. http://www.whale.to/a/klenner1971.html

    Quote from Appendix of above article in J. Nutrition, 1971
    by Frederick R. Klenner, M.D.

    “Case History: Poliomyelitis

    Although we were able to cure many cases of polio with massive doses of
    ascorbic acid, one single instance demonstrates the value of vitamin C. Two
    brothers were sick with poliomyelitis. These two boys were given 10 and 12
    grams of ascorbic acid, according to weight, intravenously with a 50 c.c. syringe,
    every eight hours for 4 times and then every 12 hours for 4 times. They also
    were given one gram every two hours by mouth around the clock. They made
    complete recovery and both were athletic stars in high school and college. A
    third child, a neighbor, under the care of another physician received no
    ascorbic acid. This child also lived. The young lady is still wearing braces.”
    Could it be that all the so called “professors” of microbiology and immunology at College of Physicians and Surgeons Columbia University in NY must sign a secret pledge that they will not read and comprehend a mountain of scientific evidence that high dose Vitamin C actually cures many viral diseases and other horrible medical conditions safely, easily, simply and cost effectively? Could it be they are not for “truth and understanding” but they are against “truth and understanding” because they were told by other “experts” that all that Vitamin C hogwash is nonsense, but they never actually applied the true scientific method along with their own functioning brain to confirm or deny the results? All they do is remain silent so they don’t reveal their dismal ignorance to a gullible and unwitting public. I hope I am wrong in this assessment. Obviously there is something very very wrong at this cesspool of an institution. “Ignorance is bliss”.

  35. I’ve just been looking at mutation rates of viruses, and a thought occurred to me that the perceived mutation rate based on historical sequences might be partially an artifact, of only being able to detect competent viruses. That is, mutations that result in non-competent viruses would be not countable. So the estimates might be low for some viruses? That is the mutation rates are based on competent viral mutants. The failures don’t get counted. Is this possible?

  36. You are correct, absolute mutation rates cannot be calculated by looking at only the genomes of infectious viruses, because the lethal mutations will not be seen. One way around this is to assume the rate calculated in this way is a fraction of the actual rate. Another way is to actually determine the polymerase mutation rate, independent of the production of infectious viruses.

  37. Hi sachin! Not Dr. Racaniello (obviously) but I just wanted to say that “why” is a question that doesn’t really suit science – “why” implies that someone was making a decision, and viruses – nature, really – doesn’t make conscious decisions.

    How did some viruses end up with negative sense RNA genomes? The best answer is that evolution is messy, and in the early days of genes and life, some viruses ended up packing up their genomes with the proteins they needed for replication, while others just packed up their genomes and relied on proteins from other sources (nowadays, host translation machinery) to get their life cycle started. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, and the selection pressures that gave rise to each mechanism included conditions where one way was maybe better than the other for that particular virus. Now the viruses are basically locked in to their respective mechanisms (think about how wierd Hepatitis B virus is – DNA genome transcribed to RNA, that has to be reverse transcribed to DNA to get packaged again? really? why not stay DNA the whole time? – but we can’t ask why) and we get to spend our time figuring out /how/ they do all this cool stuff.

  38. Quick answer: Transmembrane domains are parts of a protein that are embedded in a membrane – like the endoplasmic reticulum, nuclear membrane, or cytoplasmic membrane. They are often what anchor a protein in a particular location – for HCV (and a lot of other viruses), the transmembrane domains of the non-structural proteins act together to get the whole replication complex in the same place so replication can occur efficiently. Likewise, some of the structural protens have transmembrane domains that anchor them in the membrane that will eventually envelop the virus.

  39. The posts below documenting that high dose Vitamin C was used by Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. to cure a number of viral diseases including polio are now about a month old. No comment or reply from the “expert” professor Vincent Racanicello, Ph.D., professor at Columbia University. But if he is a true expert and honest scientist, wouldn’t he know this vital information in his field? He did reply to another comment only 13 days ago so he evidently saw the posts. Also I sent him some by e mail. The conclusion is that either this “expert” is totally ignorant of the great work by Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. in curing most viral diseases with high dose vitamin C safely, simply and inexpensively, without enriching the corrupt pharmaceutical companies, or he is familiar with it but chooses silence like one of the three fools no hear, no see, no speak. If he were in the classroom of some other professor discussing all this, he would receive a failing grade for silence because he is ostensibly an “expert” in the subject. Observe he has not disputed anything about this either. I say shame, shame, shame on you professor Racanicello. Evidently you are in the same bed with all the other scoundrels in the corrupt non scientific community who are and have been stonewalling, in patent violation of the scientific method you purport to follow, all the scientific evidence that high dose Vitamin C cures many viral diseases and has done so long before vaccines were developed.
    So much for “experts”. Maybe this is why the great physicist Richard Feynman is quoted as saying, “I never pay attention to experts.” Professor Racanicello, it is good for you that I am not your supervisor Columbia University, because if I were you would be unemployed. Your silence is also a violation of the rules of the academy. Why would you deliberately keep youself ignorant of such a vital discovery in your own field, while at the same time bragging about your many “accomplishments” to the public? I would be delighted if you could prove my low opinion of you wrong.

  40. Pingback: Media Mining Digest 158 – 21 Nov 2014: Artificial Blood, Boarder Closing, Booker T. Washington, Brain Mapping, Bus Theft, Car Safety, Climate Change Impact, Computational Biology, Counterfeit Detection, Critical Thinking, Dark Web, Design Thinking,

  41. As-salaam alaikum By the will of Allah I have immunity against many infectious diseases. I have immunity against Ebola. By the will of Allah checked by a psychiatrist is quite adequate. At the request of the Administration of the President of Russia 2 times went to a psychiatric hospital. And thank God for the testimony of hospitalization were found.

    .Bolnoy Disabled 2 groups from childhood on two internal incurable disease By the will of Allah 17 years doing sports outdoors. Moonlighting distributor of newspapers in Almetjevsk. Sick not diabetes mellitus of other types. I drink a lot of water. On the recommendation of Allah saw on the Internet. Judging by the Internet can drink up to 20 liters of water a day, if not to take medicine. But Allah Almighty allowed me to take medicine. And with the permission of Allah, offer to make a vaccine against Ebola on my blood serum. PS. Since 2006, although not sick with influenza had often had the flu. Enter at risk as a distributor of newspapers .With Almighty Allah I have strong immunitet.Bely house and CDC sent letters to clarify I propose to make a vaccine for antibodies in my blood, not of my bloodphone +79046762574

  42. Hey, can you help me? I need some information about ebola virus, his protein, mutations. Do you know anyone that could help me?

  43. hello.. is it favourable to use plaque assay to detect viruses in raw eaten fruits and vegetables???? help plz

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