Virology

Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents: their structure, classification and evolution, their ways to infect and exploit cells for virus reproduction, the diseases they cause, the techniques to isolate and culture them, and their use in research and therapy.

What is Virology?

Virology is the study of viruses and virus-like agents, including, but not limited to, their taxonomy, disease-producing properties, cultivation and genetics.

Viral Diseases

Virology History

Virology Molecular Biology & Viral Therapy

The Baltimore Classification System

How HIV Evades the Immune System

Influenza A Infection

Poliovirus Infection

Poliovirus Structure

Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV)

What is Antigenic Shift?

What is Antigenic Drift?

See more featured articles »

Enterovirus 71 Infection

Enterovirus 71 Structure

Enterovirus 72 Method of Infection

What are Baculoviruses?

The Role of the CD38 Receptor in the Progression of HIV

Latest Virology News and Research

High mutation count in new COVID-19 variants does not increase immune evasion, study finds

New research from UNC Charlotte's Center for Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) has found that the two recent and prevalent strains of the virus that cause COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.2.86 and JN.1, are not significantly better than their predecessor Omicron at evading immune responses and causing infections despite having a high number of mutations compared to Omicron.

19 Jul 2024

Discovery of key RSV immune evasion mechanism offers hope for new treatments

Irish scientists led by a group from Trinity College Dublin have discovered how the dangerous Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) defuses our immune response and, in doing so, they have pinpointed an exciting new target for drug developers.

19 Jul 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': At GOP convention, health policy is mostly MIA

The Republican National Convention highlighted a number of policy issues this week, but health care was not among them.

18 Jul 2024

Autoantibodies against type 1 interferons linked to higher susceptibility to viral disease

A new study shows that about two percent of the population develop autoantibodies against type 1 interferons, mostly later in life.

18 Jul 2024

Flu viruses can use a second entry pathway to infect cells

Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells' surface. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the immune system, to infect cells.

18 Jul 2024

5 cases of bird flu reported in Colorado poultry workers, doubling this year’s US tally

Five people who work at a poultry farm in northeastern Colorado have tested positive for the bird flu, the Colorado public health department reported July 14. This brings the known number of U.S. cases to nine.

15 Jul 2024

Groundbreaking mRNA vaccine administered to captive elephant to fight EEHV

Colossal, the de-extinction company, announces that the mRNA vaccine it helped to provide research support and acceleration funding for has been administered to the first elephant in captivity.

13 Jul 2024

Optical metabolic imaging reveals how Toxoplasma infection changes host cell metabolism

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis, a lifelong chronic infection prevalent in about 30% of the human population.

12 Jul 2024

Finland is offering farmworkers bird flu shots. Some experts say the US should, too.

As bird flu spreads among dairy cattle in the U.S., veterinarians and researchers have taken note of Finland's move to vaccinate farmworkers at risk of infection. They wonder why their government doesn't do the same.

11 Jul 2024

New HIV test targets neglected strains in global cure hunt

A multinational team led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators developed a test that will help measure the persistence of HIV in people affected by viral strains found predominantly in Africa-;a vital tool in the search for an HIV cure that will benefit patients around the world.

3 Jul 2024

LJI study details measles virus neutralization

What happens when measles virus meets a human cell? The viral machinery unfolds in just the right way to reveal key pieces that let it fuse itself into the host cell membrane.

28 Jun 2024

Advances in organoids and embryonic models pose no risk to personhood, expert argues

Advances in organoids and embryonic models of human development have the potential to prompt social and existential questions-;e.g., what defines human individuality? However, bioethicist Insoo Hyun of Harvard Medical School and the Museum of Science in Boston says that these models have the potential to strengthen rather than weaken the concept of human individuality when considered within the philosophical frameworks of "personhood" and sentience.

20 Jun 2024

‘We’re flying blind’: CDC has 1M bird flu tests ready, but experts see repeat of covid missteps

It's been nearly three months since the U.S. government announced an outbreak of the bird flu virus on dairy farms.

20 Jun 2024

AI-driven alerts improve patient care escalation and survival rates in hospitals

Deploying and evaluating a machine learning intervention to improve clinical care and patient outcomes is a key step in moving clinical deterioration models from byte to bedside, according to a June 13 editorial in Critical Care Medicine that comments on a Mount Sinai study published in the same issue.

13 Jun 2024

Mount Sinai researchers use AI to identify 17 key genes in heart disease

Using an advanced artificial intelligence tool, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified rare coding variants in 17 genes that shed light on the molecular basis of coronary artery disease (CAD), the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

11 Jun 2024