Influenza H7N9 gain of function experiments on Dispatch Radio
I spoke with Robert Herriman, executive editor of The Global Dispatch, about the proposed avian influenza H7N9 virus gain of function experiments on Dispatch Radio.
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Virologists plan influenza H7N9 gain of function experiments
A group of virologists lead by Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Ron Fouchier have sent a letter to Nature and Science outlining the experiments they propose to carry out with influenza H7N9 virus. Avian influenza H7N9 virus has caused over 130 human infections in China with 43 fatalities. The source of the virus is not known but …
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Pandoravirus, bigger and unlike anything seen before
The discovery of the giant Mimivirus and Megavirus amazed virologists (and also many others). Their virions (750 nanometers) and DNA genomes (1,259,000 base pairs) were the biggest ever discovered, shattering the notions that viruses could not be seen with a light microscope, and that viral genomes were smaller than bacterial genomes. Now two even bigger viruses have been discovered, …
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Poliovirus silently (and not so silently) spreads
Poliovirus has been found in sewage in Israel. The virus detected is not vaccine-derived poliovirus; it is wild-type 1 poliovirus, the strain that occurs naturally in the wild and which the World Health Organization is trying very hard to eradicate from the planet. As part of the global effort to eradicate poliovirus, environmental samples from …
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David Bhella on electron-cryomicroscopy
I interviewed structural virologist David Bhella in Manchester, England at the spring meeting of the Society for General Microbiology. MWV Episode 74 – David Bhella – Electron-cryomicroscopy from microbeworld on Vimeo.
Dual virus-receptor duel
Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites: they must enter a cell to reproduce. To gain access to the cell interior, a virus must first bind to one or more specific receptor molecules on the cell surface. Cell receptors for viruses do not exist only to serve viruses: they also have cellular functions. An example is the transferrin …