Virological EVE: Excavating ancient viruses using paleovirology

Paleontology vs Paleovirology -what's the difference? A lot of people will be familiar with the term 'paleontology'. We can study the evolution of plants, animals, and even some bacteria through the examination of their fossilised remains over millions of years, and trace their evolution through to modern-day species. However, this is not possible with viruses. …

Women in science: Francoise Barre-Sinoussi

This next instalment is about a scientist who has spent her career researching HIV Françoise Barre-Sinoussi  Worked at the Institut Pasteur, studying retroviruses, and did a PhD supervised by Jean-Claude Chermann in 1974. Won the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2008, alongside Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen, for the discovery of human …

Syncytin: The Muscle behind Endogenous Retroviruses

Viruses have had a major impact on the evolutionary path of animals. They shape populations through infectious diseases, and, as recently discovered, through the more subtle process of endogenisation into the genome. Retroviruses are a class of virus - think HIV and CMV- that insert their genetic material into genome of the host, as part of their …