Science Alert June 24, 2021 Modern human genomes contain evolutionary information tracing back tens of thousands of years, which may help identify the viruses that have impacted our ancestors—pointing to which viruses have future pandemic potential. An international team of researchers (Australia, USA – University of Arizona, UCSF) applied evolutionary analyses to human genomic datasets to recover selection events involving tens of human genes that interact with coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that likely started more than 20,000 years ago. These adaptive events were limited to the population ancestral to East Asian populations. Multiple lines of functional evidence support an ancient viral […]
Tag Archives: Coronavirus
Killing coronavirus with handheld ultraviolet light device may be feasible
Pennsylvania State University June 1, 2020 To sanitize and disinfect areas from bacteria and viruses requires UV radiation sources that emit sufficiently high doses of UV light. Current UV radiation sources are typically expensive mercury-containing gas discharge lamp, which requires high power, has a relatively short lifetime, and is bulky. Current materials absorb too much UV radiation. An international team of researchers (USA – Pennsylvania State University, University of Minnesota, Japan) found that strontium niobate films held the promise of the theoretical predictions. They successfully grew the films using sputtering. The process makes it possible to integrate this new material […]
Researchers identify cells likely targeted by Covid-19 virus
MIT News April 22, 2020 Using existing data on the RNA found in different types of cells, an international team of researchers (MIT, Harvard University, and from around the world) was able to search for cells that express the two proteins that help the SARS-CoV-19 virus enter human cells. They found subsets of cells in the lung, the nasal passages, and the intestine that express RNA for both proteins much more than other cells. MIT with partners at the Broad Institute has been building an open source database and storing a huge collection of these dataset in one place, allowing […]