Category Archives: News

Canada's ban prohibiting cosmetics animal testing and trade is enacted into law and has been into effect since December 22. This legislation which was enacted as part of the Budget ...

Papillomaviruses are double-stranded DNA viruses with a particle diameter of about 55 nanometers (nm). They can infect the skin as well as the epithelium in all vertebrates including humans ...

Researchers from the National University of Singapore have recently found a revolutionary method to grow human norovirus (HuNoV) in zebrafish embryos (1). HuNoV, a common and worldwide ...

The genus ‘Enterovirus’[1] belongs to the family Picornaviridae (‘pico’ meaning small) which comprises of icosahedral viruses (~30 nm in diameter) with single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genomes. As of 2020, the family contained 63 genera and 147 species ...

Adenoviruses (from Latin adenos meaning 'gland') are icosahedral (about 90 nm in diam.), nonenveloped, double-stranded DNA viruses with a wide host range (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish). Characteristic antennae-like fibers protrude from ...

Influenza or the flu, a highly contagious respiratory illness, is caused by a group of enveloped, RNA-containing viruses with virions of circular (~100 nm in diam.) or filamentous (~300 nm in length) appearance. They can be zoonotic in nature as they can also infect many species of wild (e.g., aquatic birds) and domesticated animals

Undeniably, smallpox was among the most dreaded of all infectious diseases! It killed millions around the world each year. As nearly 80% of those infected would die, parents dared not count their children as their own until they had survived the regular and inevitable outbreaks of the infection.

Even among other viruses, human noroviruses (HNV) are small (~27 nm), but they pack a powerful pathogenic punch! Globally, they sicken nearly 300 million people every year with acute gastroenteritis (diarrhea and vomiting), and kill approximately 200,000, mainly as a result of severe dehydration.