Viruses are acellular infectious agents that depend entirely on host cellular machinery for replication and are therefore studied as a central topic in microbiology, virology, and infectious disease research. They consist minimally of a nucleic acid genome (DNA or RNA, single- or double-stranded, linear or circular) enclosed in a protein capsid, and in many cases a host-derived lipid envelope containing viral glycoproteins. Viral classification and research focus on genome organization, replication strategies, host range, tropism, mechanisms of cell entry and egress, immune evasion, and evolutionary dynamics, as well as their roles in pathogenesis, horizontal gene transfer, and biotechnology applications such as vectors and phage therapy.
Scientists have developed a world-first diagnostic test, powered by artificial intelligence, that can identify known respiratory viruses within five minutes from just one nasal or throat swab. The new diagnostic test could ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 10, 2023
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To many, EV stands for "electric vehicle." To researchers at Harvard University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, it's shorthand for another vehicle—this one nanoscopic—that might help streamline the development and ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 30, 2023
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Researchers at Kanazawa University report in Nano Letters how high-speed atomic force microscopy can be used to assess the effectivity of spike-neutralizing antibodies for preventing COVID-19. The use of such antibodies offers ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 20, 2023
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Cambridge researchers have developed a new test that "fishes" for multiple respiratory viruses at once using single strands of DNA as bait and gives highly accurate results in under an hour.
Bio & Medicine
Jan 16, 2023
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The current rapid tests for diagnosing infectious diseases are speedy, but not really fast. For example, antigen self-tests, PCR tests or ELISA tests for coronavirus take 15 minutes to several hours before a reliable result ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 21, 2022
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Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) recently announced that plants could be used to produce nanobodies that quickly block emerging pathogens in human medicine and ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 1, 2022
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Scientists have shown that they can detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the air by using a nanotechnology-packed bubble that spills its chemical contents like a broken piñata when encountering the virus.
Bio & Medicine
Oct 25, 2022
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Tiny nets woven from DNA strands can ensnare the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19, lighting up the virus for a fast-yet-sensitive diagnostic test—and also impeding the virus from infecting cells, opening a ...
Bio & Medicine
Sep 23, 2022
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An important component of the vaccines protecting people against SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants are lipid nanoparticles, or LNPs. These circular particles carry therapeutic mRNA payloads, the snippets of genetic material ...
Bio & Medicine
Sep 23, 2022
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A team of UCF researchers have proven the efficacy of a nanomaterial-based disinfectant they developed to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Through their experiments, they found that the disinfectant was able to kill ...
Bio & Medicine
Sep 21, 2022
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