72 posts · 79,689 views
Attempting to understand biology through the study of viruses, how they spread, cause disease and how we can apply our knowledge. With love from Belfast, Northern Ireland
Connor Bamford
72 posts
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- February 17, 2011
- 09:38 AM
- 2,091 views
Can we visualise virus infection as it happens - in real-time?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
One worthwhile way to study viruses – and other micro-organisms – is to see where exactly they are found within a host. How do they enter the body? What organs do they infect and how? How do they spread from tissue to tissue and organ to organ? How do they exit the body? These are just some of the questions which it would be good to actually SEE how and where it happens. Maybe then we could better understand the dynamic relationships governing infection and disease; maybe then we could de........ Read more »
Brandenburg, B., & Zhuang, X. (2007) Virus trafficking – learning from single-virus tracking. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 5(3), 197-208. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro1615
Hofherr, S., Adams, K., Chen, C., May, S., Weaver, E., & Barry, M. (2011) Real-Time Dynamic Imaging of Virus Distribution In Vivo. PLoS ONE, 6(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0017076
- February 15, 2011
- 05:46 PM
- 1,783 views
The Grand Challenge of Aerosolised Vaccines
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Despite the development of effective vaccines, many human populations are currently at the mercy of numerous endemic viral pathogens. Measles virus is one such pathogen that, in 2008, was responsible for 164,000 deaths; the worst effected areas are South-East Asia and Africa (WHO stats can be found here). You might find this surprising as there is currently a very good measles vaccine in use – in fact you probably received at some point during childhood and are protected from future in........ Read more »
Lin, W., Griffin, D., Rota, P., Papania, M., Cape, S., Bennett, D., Quinn, B., Sievers, R., Shermer, C., Powell, K.... (2011) Successful respiratory immunization with dry powder live-attenuated measles virus vaccine in rhesus macaques. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1017334108
- February 11, 2011
- 10:05 AM
- 829 views
HIV & Measles – double hit pathogenesis?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Despite ongoing worldwide eradication efforts, measles infection still results in significant morbidity and mortality. Although, throughout most of the developed world measles infection has been considerably reduced there still exists massive (and deadly) outbreaks in areas such as Africa and South-East Asia. Investigation of the reasons why this disparity occurs therefore is of major medical, [...]... Read more »
Nilsson, A., & Chiodi, F. (2011) Measles Outbreak in Africa—Is There a Link to the HIV-1 Epidemic?. PLoS Pathogens, 7(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1001241
- February 11, 2011
- 10:05 AM
- 1,323 views
HIV & Measles - double hit pathogenesis?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Despite ongoing worldwide eradication efforts, measles infection still results in significant morbidity and mortality. Although, throughout most of the developed world measles infection has been considerably reduced there still exists massive (and deadly) outbreaks in areas such as Africa and South-East Asia. Investigation of the reasons why this disparity occurs therefore is of major medical, political and social interest.
Many factors are likely to be behind this major difference - and ........ Read more »
Nilsson, A., & Chiodi, F. (2011) Measles Outbreak in Africa—Is There a Link to the HIV-1 Epidemic?. PLoS Pathogens, 7(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1001241
- February 10, 2011
- 06:44 AM
- 682 views
The Molecular Domestication of Amphibian Retroviruses - Do They Play a Physiological Role?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Viruses aren't all bad; endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) make up a lot of host genome sequences and in some instances they may even benefit the host, allowing functional adaptation. A recently identified frog ERV may facilitate frost-resistance in a number of species and here a recent study describes its discovery and characterisation in vivo... Read more »
Roossinck, M. (2011) The good viruses: viral mutualistic symbioses. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 9(2), 99-108. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro2491
Sinzelle, L., Carradec, Q., Paillard, E., Bronchain, O., & Pollet, N. (2010) Characterization of a Xenopus tropicalis Endogenous Retrovirus with Developmental and Stress-Dependent Expression. Journal of Virology, 85(5), 2167-2179. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01979-10
- February 10, 2011
- 06:39 AM
- 1,478 views
The molecular domestication of amphibian retroviruses - do they play aphysiological role?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Xenopus tropicalis - do recently identified ERVs play a functional role?
We mostly think of viruses of being ‘bad’ and ‘dangerous’ yet there are countless examples of viruses playing a positive role in their host’s life. These symbiotic agents have been co-opted by the host to do something good; some viruses have even been inserted into our genomes and thus are forever tied to our germline and our descendants - sometimes even these viruses can do good. This is the kind of game........ Read more »
Roossinck, M. (2011) The good viruses: viral mutualistic symbioses. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 9(2), 99-108. DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro2491
Sinzelle, L., Carradec, Q., Paillard, E., Bronchain, O., & Pollet, N. (2010) Characterization of a Xenopus tropicalis Endogenous Retrovirus with Developmental and Stress-Dependent Expression. Journal of Virology, 85(5), 2167-2179. DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01979-10
- February 5, 2011
- 07:11 AM
- 695 views
Studying viral infection at the whole-organism level
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
What can the zebrafish tell us about viral infection? Well, a recently published paper uses transparent zebrafish larvae to follow infection and pathogenesis of Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus - an important salmonid pathogen.... Read more »
Ludwig, M., Palha, N., Torhy, C., Briolat, V., Colucci-Guyon, E., Brémont, M., Herbomel, P., Boudinot, P., & Levraud, J. (2011) Whole-Body Analysis of a Viral Infection: Vascular Endothelium is a Primary Target of Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis Virus in Zebrafish Larvae. PLoS Pathogens, 7(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1001269
- February 1, 2011
- 06:06 AM
- 588 views
Can fluorescent-‘labelled’ viruses illuminate their mechanisms of pathogenesis?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Have you ever wanted to visualise viral infection? Ever wanted to observe how they enter and spread throughout their host organism? Ever wanted to know how exactly they caused disease – at the cellular and whole-organism level? Well, this may be entirely possible using fluorescent-labeled recombinant viruses infecting a relevant model system. So how does [...]... Read more »
Lemon, K., de Vries, R., Mesman, A., McQuaid, S., van Amerongen, G., Yüksel, S., Ludlow, M., Rennick, L., Kuiken, T., Rima, B.... (2011) Early Target Cells of Measles Virus after Aerosol Infection of Non-Human Primates. PLoS Pathogens, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1001263
Coombes, J., & Robey, E. (2010) Dynamic imaging of host–pathogen interactions in vivo. Nature Reviews Immunology, 10(5), 353-364. DOI: 10.1038/nri2746
- February 1, 2011
- 06:06 AM
- 1,392 views
Can fluorescent-‘labelled’ viruses illuminate their mechanisms of pathogenesis?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Have you ever wanted to visualise viral infection? Ever wanted to observe how they enter and spread throughout their host organism? Ever wanted to know how exactly they caused disease - at the cellular and whole-organism level? Well, this may be entirely possible using fluorescent-labeled recombinant viruses infecting a relevant model system.[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="GFP-virus infected cells"][/caption]So how does it work?Lemon et al recently report the continued in........ Read more »
Lemon, K., de Vries, R., Mesman, A., McQuaid, S., van Amerongen, G., Yüksel, S., Ludlow, M., Rennick, L., Kuiken, T., Rima, B.... (2011) Early Target Cells of Measles Virus after Aerosol Infection of Non-Human Primates. PLoS Pathogens, 7(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1001263
Coombes, J., & Robey, E. (2010) Dynamic imaging of host–pathogen interactions in vivo. Nature Reviews Immunology, 10(5), 353-364. DOI: 10.1038/nri2746
- January 26, 2011
- 03:46 PM
- 441 views
A Mouse Model of XMRV Pathogenesis?
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
Through studying viral pathogenesis we seek to understand mechanistically how viral infection and replication causes disease in a particular host. This of course will be subject to a number of complex variables involving both the host and the virus such as: dose; genotype; virus receptor distribution of host tissues;the ability of the virus to replicate [...]... Read more »
Sakuma T, Tonne JM, Squillace KA, Ohmine S, Thatava T, Peng KW, Barry MA, & Ikeda Y. (2011) Early Events in Retrovirus XMRV Infection of the Wild-Derived Mouse Mus pahari. Journal of virology, 85(3), 1205-13. PMID: 21084477
- January 17, 2011
- 08:25 AM
- 753 views
Seeing the big picture of RNA virus evolution
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
From both a medical and a scientific viewpoint, the evolution of viruses is extremely important to us; viral adaptation to their ever changing environment is responsible for major morbidity and mortality worldwide so maybe studying this may allow us to predict virus evolution in the future and may help prevent pandemics occuring? We kind of [...]... Read more »
Kitchen A, Shackelton LA, & Holmes EC. (2011) Family level phylogenies reveal modes of macroevolution in RNA viruses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(1), 238-43. PMID: 21173251
- January 10, 2011
- 03:50 PM
- 528 views
Measles, Papua New Guinea and the brain
by Connor Bamford in The Rule of 6ix
You may not have realised that – since most people nowadays have been vaccinated against it and have never seen it – but measles is a very serious illness. Generally an acute disease of children, measles is spread by the measles virus where it infects the body via the respiratory route and establishes a systemic [...]... Read more »
Manning, L., Laman, M., Edoni, H., Mueller, I., Karunajeewa, H., Smith, D., Hwaiwhanje, I., Siba, P., & Davis, T. (2011) Subacute Sclerosing Panencephalitis in Papua New Guinean Children: The Cost of Continuing Inadequate Measles Vaccine Coverage. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 5(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000932
Rima, B., & Duprex, W. (2006) Morbilliviruses and human disease. The Journal of Pathology, 208(2), 199-214. DOI: 10.1002/path.1873
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