June 10, 2014
…have identified the evolutionary origins of human herpes simplex virus (HSV) -1 and -2, reporting that the former infected hominids before their evolutionary split from chimpanzees 6 million years ago while the latter jumped from ancient chimpanzees to ancestors of modern humans – Homo erectus – approximately 1.6 million years…
April 9, 2020
…of the global SARS-CoV-2 virus Of the hundreds of coronaviruses known to exist, many are relatively harmless. Coronaviruses infect your nose, sinuses and upper throat but often result in nothing more than a common cold (see Know Your Coronaviruses). So what makes the new SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused…
December 17, 2020
New simulations done on supercomputers may help researchers understand how these inhibitors react and potentially help to develop a new generation of drugs to target viruses with high death rates including SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
November 2, 2023
Rommie Amaro, professor of molecular biology at UC San Diego, and her team use computers to investigate biological systems. Last year, their atomic-level computational model of the H1N1 influenza virus revealed vulnerabilities that could lead to more effective and longer-lasting flu vaccines.
October 17, 2022
Researchers led by Nicole Steinmetz, professor of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego, have received $4.3 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance their research using plant viruses to develop cancer immunotherapies.
November 28, 2016
Biologists have discovered that the evolution of a new species can occur rapidly enough for them to observe the process in a simple laboratory flask.
January 12, 2017
…have documented for the first time how very large viruses reprogram the cellular machinery of bacteria during infection to more closely resemble an animal or human cell—a process that allows these alien invaders to trick cells into producing hundreds of new viruses, which eventually explode from and kill the cells…
May 2, 2016
…the genetic material is so densely packed within a virus, it can behave like grains of sand or toothpaste in a tube. That’s essentially what biophysicists at UC San Diego discovered when they began closely examining the physical properties of DNA jammed inside viruses.
October 20, 2016
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that Zika virus infection leads to modifications of both viral and human genetic material. These modifications — chemical tags known as methyl groups — influence viral replication and the human immune response.
September 10, 2018
…are supposed to protect the body from infection by viruses and bacteria. Yet Zika virus preferentially infects these cells. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now unraveled how the virus shuts down the genes that make macrophages function as immune cells.
