The second of two papers on avian influenza H5N1 virus that caused such a furor in the past year was published today in the journal Science. I have carefully read the paper by Fouchier and colleagues, and I assure you that it does not enable the production of a deadly biological weapon. The results describe …
On episode #188 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent travels to Scotland to meet with members of the Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow to discuss their work on hepatitis C virus and jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus. You can find TWiV #188 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Aaron J. Shatkin was well known for his work on reoviruses beginning in the 1960s in his laboratory at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in Nutley, NJ and then at Rutgers University. He was among the first to appreciate that virus particles contained many different enzymes, such as RNA polymerase and poly(A) polymerase, that could …
On episode #187 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent and Rich discuss recovery of a hepatitis B viral genome from a 16th century Korean mummy, and personal omics profiling of an individual over a 14 month period. You can find TWiV #187 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
While on a business trip to Washington DC I took time to visit Artomatic 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. Artomatic is a month-long festival of over 1,000 artists who create visual art, music, performance, film, fashion, and more. I went because Forrest McCluer was showing his work there – he makes models of viruses from computer parts. We …
India has been free of polio for over one year. This is a remarkable accomplishment, considering that just 30 years ago the country recorded 200,000 cases of the disease annually, or one every three minutes. With polio endemic in two neighboring countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in the more distant Nigeria (figure), can India remain …
