Here at virology blog we have been speculating for a week why sequences of the Mexican influenza virus isolates have not been available. Today we received a comment from Dr. Ruben Donis, who we quoted in a previous post. Dr. Donis wrote: Thank you for the nice vignette about the ScienceInsider ...

We've briefly considered the structure of influenza virions and how the viral RNAs can encode one or more proteins. Now we'll consider how influenza viruses multiply. Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites: they cannot reproduce outside of a cell. The production of new infectious particles must take place within a cell. ...

Here is an update on the global swine flu situation as of 4 May 2009, and comments on interesting unresolved questions. There have been laboratory confirmed cases of infection in over half of the United States (30), with a total of 226 cases and the one death in Texas last ...

Marc Pelletier of Futures in Biotech and Vincent Racaniello of This Week in Virology discussed the current influenza situation in a live video broadcast hosted on the TWiT network this past Friday. We are very grateful to Leo LaPorte and the TWiT network for providing the video feed for the ...

Here are my answers to questions about the currently circulating influenza H1N1 strain (formerly swine flu) sent by readers of virology blog. Q: I am concerned about any changes the current AH1N1 virus may undergo as we enter the flu season in the Southern Hemisphere, and when it gets to ...