How to look at … Part 1/3: Viral entry
Understanding at what stage of a virus life cycle a compound or a restriction factor acts is critical in the discovery process. In drug discovery, this aspect can be a bottleneck for hits generated via phenotypic screenings, but even when the viral of cellular targets...
The viral system of the month: Adeno-associated derived vectors
From concept to reality: How a virus is helping to advance gene therapy This month the FDA approved Zolgensma (Novartis), the first gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy in children. While the treatment price – $2.125 million – is making most headlines, here we...
Hold tight and fire: plasmacytoid dendritic cells in action
Immunity vs. viruses In our evolutionary arm race against invading viruses, our body has evolved multiple defensive mechanisms. Together with anti-viral, cell-intrinsic innate response mechanisms, alternative or indirect pathogen-sensing pathways are also employed in...
Assay of the month: The microneutralization assay
A milestone in vaccine development is the generation of high concentrations of potent and specific antibodies able to neutralize the virus of interest. Antibodies mostly work by inhibiting viral entry, and as such they have the ability to block infection very early...Page 5 of 8