When infection with hepatitis C virus goes from acute to chronic, severe liver disease may occur which requires organ transplantation. Nearly 200 million people are chronically infected with HCV, necessitating approaches to preventing and treating infections. No HCV vaccine is available, and current antiviral therapy consists of administration of interferon plus ribavirin, a combination that …
Robert H. Silverman, one of the authors on the study implicating the new human retrovirus XMRV as an etiologic agent of chronic fatigue syndrome, has written an excellent review article on the current status of research on the virus. The article is behind a paywall at Nature Reviews Urology, so I’ll provide a summary of …
XMRV, prostate cancer, and chronic fatigue syndrome Read More »
One property of viruses that is difficult to conceptualize is their small size. I can tell you that viruses can be anywhere from 20 to 750 nanometers in diameter, but that’s not easy to visualize, even for those of us who routinely work with small measurements. One way to demonstrate how small viruses are is …
A serious shortcoming of current influenza virus vaccines is the need to reformulate them every year or two as the virus undergoes antigenic drift. Many virologists have been captivated by the idea of a more universal vaccine that would endure longer, perhaps a decade or more. The identification of a conserved domain in the stalk …
I joined Marc Pelletier on episode 60 of Futures in Biotech for a conversation with Dave Brodbeck, George Farr, and Andre Nantel. We talked about primate face recognition, discovery of a new antiviral compound to treat hepatitis C virus infection, changing the length of a codon from three to four bases, and the sequence of …
Futures in Biotech 60: Do you come to this cave often? Read More »
In the final lecture of my virology course, Professor Dickson Despommier weaves a story about the arrival of West Nile virus to the United States in the summer of 1999. This is a special treat that you won’t want to miss, as Prof. Despommier is a wonderful storyteller. Download: .wmv (422 MB) | .mp4 (108 …
