Virology
Category archives for Virology
What better place to find new organisms than a boiling pit of acid, amirite??
Posted by ERV on March 5, 2012 SWEEEEET! Scientists found a brand new branch of organisms in the boiling acid pools or Yellowstone National Park! Identification of novel positive-strand RNA viruses by metagenomic analysis of archaea-dominated Yellowstone Hot Springs HA! Before we had only found DNA viruses in these pools, DNA viruses infecting archaea. Youngs troupe of scientists thought there might be…
Evolution is a dirty mess. Dont always ‘think positively’.
Posted by ERV on March 2, 2012 ‘Thinking positively’: Thinking any and all observed phenotypes are observable phenotypes because of some evolutionary reason. Phenotype X must have an evolutionary advantage! Even if Phenotype X appears detrimental/neutral, if Phenotype X wasnt advantageous, it wouldnt exist, right? Survival of the fittest! Evolution! YAY!!! No, not always. Evolution is a dirty, messy process. Sometimes shit…
XMRV Update: The science
Posted by ERV on February 9, 2012 Even though XMRV has joined the choir invisible (rather than the list of human pathogens), scientists all over the world have still been publishing on it. Some of these studies were started before XMRVs demise, some were initiated to figure out how/why XMRV died, and some were done just to be on the safe side.…
New Hepatitis C treatment, yet again, maybe!
Posted by ERV on January 20, 2012 Novel treatment and treatment stratagies for Hepatitis C infection is something I have written about on ERV a couple of times before: New Hepatitis C treatment, maybe! New Hepatitis C treatment, again, maybe! To briefly summarize, Hepatitis C sucks. It has infected lots of people. It kills lots of people. And we have extremely limited…
Norovirus: Well, shit.
Posted by ERV on January 18, 2012 Well this is shitty! A cruise headed for the Falkland Islands was turned away from dock because of a norovirus infection on board: The Falkland Islands came under further criticism Tuesday for refusing to allow a cruise ship with an outbreak of stomach flu to dock, as passengers complained about their missed travel plans and…
Always make sure your illegal monkey meat is cooked thoroughly…
Posted by ERV on January 12, 2012 A *very* common exchange I have with the general public regarding HIV-1: Person– Where did HIV-1 come from? Me– HIV-1 is related to a virus we can find in African primates, SIV. SIV crossed over from chimpanzees to the human population to make ‘HIV’ sometime in the late 1800s, early 1900s. This event happened at…
Gene therapy for Hemophilia B
Posted by ERV on December 14, 2011 For the millionth time– Viruses are not just pathogens that make us sick. In the modern world, viruses have been domesticated, and are now used to treat/cure diseases. Example #gazillion: Hemophilia B: Adenovirus-Associated Virus Vector-Mediated Gene Transfer in Hemophilia B This study is far from perfect, and of course very preliminary, but still very exciting.…
Scientists create ‘super-scary’ flu. Lets pretend they didnt?
Posted by ERV on December 1, 2011 Link (you might want to play some scary music while you read this): Locked up in the bowels of the medical faculty building here and accessible to only a handful of scientists lies a man-made flu virus that could change world history if it were ever set free. This isnt an intro to some Michael…
For my next pet, Im going to adopt a megavirus.
Posted by ERV on October 11, 2011 LOOK AT THE FUZZY VIRUS!! I want to flop its ears! Or… ‘cowlicks’… whatever… The French have found yet another HUGE virus, this one even bigger than the previous hugeliest Mimiviruses (random link: Mimis virophage)! This one? They call him MEGAVIRUS! Distant Mimivirus relative with a larger genome highlights the fundamental features of Megaviridae 1,259,197…
[insert generic Pittsburgh/Shittsburgh joke here]
Posted by ERV on October 6, 2011 I dont know why so many people bag on Pittsburgh. Maybe people who grew up In The Big City dont like it, but to a country bumpkin like me, it is a magical city full of hot boys and glitter. *shrug* Its also home to some of the best virology work in the country. Example:…