Solar power goes viral May 2011

The Angela Belcher’s group at MIT is working with M13 viruses to perform detailed assembly work at the microscopic level. Having already published on virus-build batteries , they have now found a way to improve the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells using the M13 capsid as a scaffold .

Virus-build pyramids in Archaea May 2011
Some viruses of Archaea use an unusual egress mechanism that involves the formation of virus-associated pyramids (VAPs) on the host cell surface

Viral molecular biology pages August 2010
The first two parts are accessible: Host-virus interactions and virion. Within few monthes the last three sections will be released: virus entry, virus transcription/replication and virus exit.
Protein data popups (example STAT1) have been implemented for a quick protein overview from ViralZone pictures, for example on the picture of the MDA-RIG pathway. These popups have been developed in collaboration with Prof. Christian von Mering and Andrea Franceschini, Bioinformatics Group, Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich.
Thanks to the user community for their support and precious feedback.

New display of fact sheets April 2010
Three tabs have been introduced at the top of ViralZone fact sheets to ease navigation: “General”, “Proteins by strain”, “Protein by name”. Additional tabs will support miscellaneous information, like replication cycle or epidemiology; see HIV fact sheet for an example.

Endogenous Bornavirus gene in Human genome!
A survey of mammalian genomes has unexpectedly unearthed DNA derived from ssRNA Bornaviruses, leading to speculation about the role of these viruses in causing mutations with evolutionary and medical consequences.
Nature 463, 39-40, 7 January 2010

XMRV

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is the first gammaretrovirus known to infect humans.It may be related to prostate cancer () and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome ()
ICTV
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses has released many updates to the viral taxonomy in August 2009: a new Order, 8 new Families, 7 new Subfamilies, and 39 new Genera. Viralzone taxonomy has been updated accordingly, new taxonomic pages are marked by logo