Category Archives: Molecular Virology

A different alphabet, a different treatment?

Posted on March 22, 2011 by David Esteban

Contributed by Guest Blogger: Sean Koerner ’11
It’s easy to think of viruses as alien or lifeless – after all, they can’t reproduce on their own, eat anything, or even move around without assistance. However, viruses have evolved to use the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Antiviral Drugs, Guest Blogger, Molecular Virology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Curing infected cells instead of killing them

Posted on November 27, 2010 by David Esteban

Once a cell is infected, our immune system clears the infection not by targeting the virus, but by simply killing the infected cell.  Antibodies are also an important part of our defense against viral infections, but their function is limited … Continue reading →

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Posted in Immunology, Molecular Virology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

1918 and 2009

Posted on October 12, 2010 by David Esteban

The 1918 influenza pandemic (the “Spanish Flu”), by some estimates, killed as many as 100 million people in a very short period of time.  The 2009 “Swine Flu” pandemic didnt kill so many, but it spread rapidly and widely across … Continue reading →

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Posted in Epidemics, Evolution, Immunology, Molecular Virology | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Ebola Virus Entry

Posted on September 20, 2010 by David Esteban

Viruses can enter cells through a variety of different pathways.  Many enter through endocytosis, and there are actually several endocytic pathways: clathrin mediated, caveolin mediated, phago- and pinocytosis, and the rather mysterious “non-clathrin, non-caveolin mediated endocytosis.”
Ebola virus causes a severe … Continue reading →

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Posted in Molecular Virology | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Distant Evolutionary Relationships

Posted on September 17, 2010 by David Esteban

We’ve been talking about protein structure and folding in my Biol 105 class.  Proteins are made of chains of amino acids and the sequence of amino acids, or primary structure, dictates the way the protein will fold into its final … Continue reading →

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Posted in Evolution, Molecular Virology | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Sputnik: Hijacking the Big Mama

Posted on August 24, 2010 by David Esteban

A question I often get in class is: “Are there viruses that infect other viruses?”
The answer is still “no” but a recent discovery reported in Nature does starts to blur that line.  A newly identified virus, called Sputnik, tags along … Continue reading →

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