Virology as biosystematics: towards understanding the viral infection biology

Virology as Biosystematics: Towards Understanding the Viral Infection Biology

Large numbers of virus species exist in the realm of nature, and are now classified into distinct sub-groups based on their biochemical and biological characteristics (Knipe et al., 2007). Viruses are unique in their genomic composition, nucleocapsid/ virion morphology, replication strategy, and/or target host. Even though viruses represent the smallest entity encoding a genetic program and are...

Towards an integrated understanding of the biology of timing.

Simulating biology: towards understanding what the simulation shows

When building simulations of complex systems the task of validation is often overlooked. Validation helps provide confidence in the simulation by exploring the link between the models that we build and the real complex system. We investigate software engineering validation techniques from outside the area of complex systems to assess their applicability for the types of simulation we build. We ...

NOTE Virology TT Virus Infection in Gibbons

TT virus (TTV) is not only an infectious agent of worldwide distribution but has also been demonstrated in various non-human primates in addition to humans. In the present study, we subjected the sera of 67 gibbons to PCR and nucleotide sequencing, with subsequent phylogenetic analysis to determine the nature of the relationship between TTV found in humans and non-human primates. We discovered ...

Molecular virology and immunology of HIV infection.

Great progress has been made with respect to our understanding of the immunopathogenesis of AIDS and the infectious agent, HIV, that causes the disease. HIV, a human retrovirus with tropism for CD4(+) T cells and monocytes, induces a decrease of T-cell counts, T-cell dysfunction, and, ultimately, immunodeficiency. HIV also causes B-cell dysfunction characterized by polyclonal activation, hyperg...