Blog listing

April 17, 2020

Today, the word ‘coronavirus’ has become a part of everyone’s daily vocabulary. It’s difficult to believe that 60 years ago the very existence of these viruses was disputed by experts, with the first images of coronavirus written off as badly imaged influenza. Now, as the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 continues to change the world as we know it, the history of coronaviruses is being revisited.

October 15, 2019

Continuing the ‘Keeping up with virus taxonomy’ blog series, in this post we look at the viruses that infect archaea that thrive in some of the most hostile environments on Earth, viruses that keep crop pest populations under control and a virus that has been linked to cancer in raccoons.

March 27, 2019

Continuing the ‘Keeping up with virus taxonomy’ blog series, in this post we will be discussing the virus family named after Latin for 'small', a virus that can only cause disease in humans infected with hepatitis B and the virus being used to protect chestnut crops from a harmful fungus.

February 25, 2019

The RIVR (Recently Independent Virology Researchers), as the name would suggest, is a network of recently independent researchers (both lecturers and fellows) working in the field of virology. The group meets annually to network and share their science. This year, RIVR was held on 7-8 January at the Marriott Hotel in Leeds city centre. Becky Sumner attended the event through a bursary from the Journal of General Virology. Here, she discusses the event:

January 28, 2019

The name ‘arbovirus’ is an acronym for arthropod-borne virus, referring to viruses that are transmitted by arthropods, for example mosquitoes and ticks. Well known arboviruses include dengue, West Nile, yellow fever and Zika virus. Although malaria is mosquito-borne, it is a protist, not a virus, and so is not an arbovirus.

November 30, 2018

Continuing the ‘Keeping up with virus taxonomy’ blog series, in this post we will be discussing the virus that causes African Swine Fever, a family of viruses that infects insect larvae, and the Geminiviridae — members of which cause some of the most economically-important plant diseases in the world.

July 16, 2018

As sequencing technologies continue to become more efficient, more and more viruses are being discovered. Until recently, classification of these new viruses still relied upon information about physical properties. The ICTV has since embraced metagenomics, using sequence data to infer biological properties and define new viruses. 

July 13, 2017

Scientists around the world are looking for the next SARS or MERS virus in wildlife from disease emergence ‘hotspots’.