A virus is a microscopic infectious agent that can reproduce only inside a host cell. Viruses infect all types of organisms: from animals and plants, to bacteria and archaea. Since the initial discovery of tobacco mosaic virus by Martinus Beijerinck in 1898, more than 5,000 types of virus have been described in detail, although most types of virus remain undiscovered. Viruses are ubiquitous, as they are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth, and are the most abundant type of biological entity on the planet. The study of viruses is known as virology, and is a branch of microbiology.
The DNA of symbiotic creatures living within reef-building corals has been found to contain the remains of ancient RNA viruses by an international team of marine researchers.
Acting as a team, twin stem cells activate the immune system to suppress tumor growth and prolong survival in representative preclinical models.
By 2050, one in 10 individuals are expected to live with some form of hearing loss. Of the hundreds of millions of cases of hearing loss affecting individuals worldwide, genetic hearing loss is often the most difficult to treat.
A population of unconventional white blood cells has recently captured the attention of immunologists and clinicians alike.
Antiretroviral cocktails can make human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, undetectable and untransmittable, but both the virus and its treatment can also accelerate aging of bone and muscle.
A compound called honokiol, which is found in the bark of multiple species of magnolia tree, inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 virus in several types of cells, according to a team of researchers in the Netherlands.
Genetic alterations that give rise to a rare, fatal disorder known as MOGS-CDG paradoxically also protect cells against infection by viruses.
A researcher at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine has created a novel, more effective therapy for acute respiratory viral infections, a significant global cause of illness each year.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting tens of millions of people worldwide, and it is the most common cause of dementia.
As the northern hemisphere heads into summer, we may be in for a COVID-19 reprieve. Not because the pandemic is over; the Omicron subvariant 'Arcturus' is still creeping upward and causing new symptoms.
Gene editing is a powerful method for both research and therapy. Since the advent of the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR/Cas9 technology, a quick and accurate tool for genome editing discovered in 2012, scientists have been working to explore its capabilities and boost its performance.
University of Queensland researchers have used artificial intelligence to build a 3D map of key cell components to better understand dementia and infectious diseases including COVID-19.
Scientists have collaborated to produce the first gene-edited calf with resistance to bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), a virus that costs the U.S. cattle sector billions of dollars annually.
Public health experts discovered an increase in cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of heart muscle, after the introduction of the new COVID-19 vaccinations two years ago, particularly in young males who had received mRNA vaccines.
A team of researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently published the most comprehensive study of global COVID-19 variant transitions, which showed significant diversity in variant spread around the globe related to vaccination rates, number of co-circulating variants and immunity from previous infection.
Researchers have proposed a new evolutionary model for the origin of a kingdom of viruses called Bamfordvirae, suggesting a billion-years evolutionary arms race between two groups within this kingdom and their hosts.
Results could speed development of new antivirals or vaccines that could counter many different coronavirus variants.
A new study has identified potential broad-spectrum antiviral agents that can target multiple families of RNA viruses that continue to pose a significant threat for future pandemics.
A new approach to the genetic engineering of cells promises significant improvements in speed, efficiency, and reduction in cellular toxicity compared to current methods.
While the coronavirus continues to infect people around the world, researchers at the University of Missouri have identified a specific protein inside the human body that plays a critical role in how the virus spreads from cell to cell after infection -; a discovery that will help better understand the COVID-19 disease and could lead to the development of new antiviral drugs in the future.