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.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a novel strategy for identifying potent miniature antibodies, so-called nanobodies, against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The approach led to the discovery of ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 25, 2022
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1450
With each new SARS-CoV-2 variant that has emerged, global panic ensues to determine its level of threat. But a group of quantum biologists, engineers, and virus physicists think we already have the tools to more easily detect—and ...
Bio & Medicine
Mar 9, 2022
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106
New research by the inventors of a promising pathogen-repellent wrap has confirmed that it sheds not only bacteria, as previously proven, but also viruses, boosting its potential usefulness for interrupting the transmission ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 28, 2022
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126
In recent years, deadly infectious diseases, including Ebola and COVID-19, have emerged to cause widespread human devastation. Although researchers have developed a range of sophisticated methods to detect such infections, ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 2, 2022
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419
According to experts, bringing an end to the pandemic will require rapid screening of people attending large gatherings, such as conferences and weddings. Even those who are asymptomatic can still transmit COVID-19 to others, ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 2, 2022
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142
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the University of Basel have developed a rapid test for COVID-19. Its novel functional principle promises reliable and quantifiable results concerning a patient's COVID-19 ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 25, 2022
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240
Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Northwestern Medicine have identified natural extracellular vesicles containing the ACE2 protein (evACE2) in the blood of COVID-19 patients that can block ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 20, 2022
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1205
A novel approach to testing for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19 may lead to tests that are faster, less expensive, and potentially less prone to erroneous results than existing detection methods. Though the ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 20, 2021
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219
Researchers at Sandia have created a platform for discovering, designing and engineering novel antibody countermeasures for emerging viruses. This new process of screening for nanobodies that "neutralize" or disable the virus ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 13, 2021
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114
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new and potentially more effective way to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells. Their approach involves packing mRNA inside nanoparticles that mimic ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 30, 2021
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855
