The first immortal human cell line ever produced, HeLa, originated from a cervical adenocarcinoma taken from Henrietta Lacks. The cell line grew so well that it was used in many laboratories and soon was found to contaminate other cell lines. Now HeLa RNA has made its way into human sequence ...

On episode #330 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVers explain how a protein platform assists the hepatitis C virus RNA polymerase to begin the task of making viral genomes. You can find TWiV #330 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.

The enzymes that make copies of the DNA or RNA genomes of viruses - nucleic acid polymerases - can be placed into two broad categories depending on whether or not they require a primer, a short piece of DNA or RNA, to get going. The structure of the primer-independent RNA polymerase ...

On episode #329 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiV team reviews identification of immune biomarkers in CFS/ME patients, and how a cell nuclease controls the innate immune response to vaccinia virus infection. You can find TWiV #329 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.

Viruses can be broadly classified according to whether or not the particle is enveloped - surrounded by a membrane taken from the host cell - or naked. Some naked viruses apparently are more modest than we believed. Members of the family Picornaviridae, which include Hepatitis A virus, poliovirus, and Coxsackieviruses, have non-enveloped particles that ...