The virologists who carried out the contentious experiments on influenza H5N1 transmission in ferrets have agreed to remove certain details from their manuscript, according to ScienceInsider: Two groups of scientists who carried out highly controversial studies with the avian influenza virus H5N1 have reluctantly agreed to strike certain details from manuscripts describing their work after …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, and Alan Dove Vincent, Rich, and Alan continue Virology 101 with a discussion of transcription, the process of making mRNA from a DNA template. Please help us by taking our listener survey. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV162.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 162 (56 MB .mp3, 93 minutes). …
The United States has provided a large sum of money to pharmaceutical giant Novartis to produce influenza vaccines grown in cell culture. According to CIDRAP: Novartis’s US efforts have been spurred by two major federal contracts. In 2006 the firm won a $220 million HHS contract to develop cell-based flu vaccines, and in January 2009 …
A $707 million investment in cell-based influenza vaccine Read More »
The mantle of world’s biggest virus has passed from Mimivirus to Megavirus. But in this case, size doesn’t matter. It’s the genes that these viruses share and do not share that make this story important. The discovery of Mimivirus in a French cooling tower amazed virologists. At 750 nanometers in diameter, it dwarfed all other …
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Alan Dove, and Gabriel Victora Vincent, Rich, Alan and Gabriel review the production of antibodies by B cells, and how high affinity antibodies are selected in the germinal centers of lymph nodes. Please help us by taking our listener survey. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV161.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download …
A laboratory in the Netherlands has identified a lethal influenza H5N1 virus strain that is transmitted among ferrets. These findings are under review by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to ensure that they do not constitute a threat to human health. Meanwhile both the popular and scientific press has been calling this …
