The Machinery of Retroviruses Part 1: What is a Retrovirus?
Retroviruses such as HIV are in some ways still a black box to scientists. The specific details of their mechanism of action are slowly being elucidated, but much is yet unclear. However, an article...
View ArticleThe Machinery of Retroviruses Part 2: Using X-Rays to Solve Scientific Problems
(Part 1 here) X-ray crystallography is used by the authors of a recent Nature paper to visualize the structure of certain key molecules relevant to retroviruses. Though we usually think of X-rays as...
View ArticleThe Machinery of Retroviruses Part 3: Caught in the Act
Retroviruses such as HIV work by integrating their genetic code into the DNA of a (see part 1). Scientists have known for a while that a certain virus protein, called integrase, is somehow responsible...
View ArticleTrespassing Viruses Will Be Killed on Contact
It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to start thinking about the flu! The flu is notoriously tricky to prevent with vaccines, partly because there are so many strains of influenza virus, and...
View ArticleStudy Suggests New HIV Therapy
Human bodies are naturally equipped with elaborate defense mechanisms to squelch intruding microorganisms. But some viruses, like HIV, are able to slip under the immune system radar and set up...
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