After 40 years, the first complete picture of a key flu virus machine
Thursday, November 20, 2014 - 10:30
in Health & Medicine
If you planned to sabotage a factory, a recon trip through the premises would probably be much more useful than just peeping in at the windows. Scientists looking to understand - and potentially thwart - the influenza virus have now gone from a similar window-based view to the full factory tour, thanks to the first complete structure of one of the flu virus' key machines. The structure, obtained by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, allows researchers to finally understand how the machine works as a whole. Published today in two papers in Nature, the work could prove instrumental in designing new drugs to treat serious flu infections and combat flu pandemics.