virology
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Scientists Discover Vampiric Viruses That ‘Bite’ Other Viruses for Survival
Viruses are somehow even weirder than we thought. In a recent study published last month, scientists say they’ve discovered two new viruses that hijack the machinery of other bacteria-infecting viruses in order to replicate themselves. One of these vampiric viruses even acts the part, appearing to “bite” and latch onto their helper virus so that…
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Experimental Vaccine Would Be the First to Fight Off Fungi
The Last of Us, eat your heart out. Scientists at the University of Georgia say they’ve developed a vaccine that should be able to protect against a variety of dangerous fungi. In animal studies, the vaccine prevented severe infections and deaths from three types of fungi that often cause opportunistic illness in people. The team…
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Melting Glaciers Could Unleash Long-Frozen Viruses Onto New Hosts
In the Canadian High Arctic, climate change is bringing together viruses and potential hosts in new combinations, according to recently published research. Every novel interaction increases the risk of “viral spillover,” i.e., pathogens jumping to different hosts. And every instance of spillover is an opportunity for a virus to become more dangerous.
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Self-Spreading Vaccine Research Could Spin Out of Control, Experts Warn
Imagine a future scenario in which a dangerous new virus is detected in chimpanzees. To prevent this virus from spreading to humans, biologists decide to deliberately infect scores of wild chimps with a transmissible vaccine — an infectious, lab-grown virus that immunizes, rather than harms, its host. The chimps, now vaccinated, no longer pose a…