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.
At the simplest of levels, nanopores are (nanometre-sized) holes in an insulating membrane. The hole allows ions to pass through the membrane when a voltage is applied, resulting in a measurable current. When a molecule passes ...
Nanomaterials
Aug 19, 2021
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89
SARS-CoV-2 nanobodies—microscopic molecules developed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine that neutralize the virus in animals—are remarkably active against mutations found in variants, including Delta, according ...
Bio & Medicine
Aug 4, 2021
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795
A pond in summer can reveal more about a fish than a pond in winter. The fish living in icy conditions might remain still enough to study its scales, but to understand how the fish swims and behaves, it needs to freely move ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 30, 2021
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190
Scientists have developed a "nanobody"—a small fragment of a llama antibody—that is capable of chasing out human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) as it hides away from the immune system. This then enables immune cells to seek out and ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 22, 2021
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122
To date, there are no effective antidotes against most viral infections. An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed a new approach: they engulf and neutralize viruses ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 15, 2021
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2281
Antimicrobials are used to kill or slow the growth of bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. They can be in the form of antibiotics, used to treat bodily infections, or as an additive or coating on commercial products ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 13, 2021
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146
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have successfully used graphene—one of the strongest, thinnest known materials—to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in laboratory experiments. The researchers say the discovery ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 16, 2021
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880
Professor Ángel Serrano, principal investigator at the Biomaterials and Bioengineering Laboratory of the Catholic University of Valencia (UCV), recently published an article in journal ACS Nano, from the American Chemical ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 10, 2021
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81
Viruses can spread not only via droplets or aerosols like the new coronavirus, but in water, too. In fact, some potentially dangerous pathogens of gastrointestinal diseases are water-borne viruses.
Bio & Medicine
Jun 3, 2021
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2134
