Concern surrounding the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 influenza virus currently circulating in dairy cows in the United States is growing. A total of 58 human cases have been reported as of ...

A new study has raised alarm bells about the potential for the H5N1 bird flu virus to evolve into a strain sparking a human pandemic. A single mutation in the virus currently ravaging dairy farms ...

Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her on Mastodon and Bluesky. You can reach Helen on ...

Scientists have revealed parts of the genome that are especially vulnerable to mutations that occur very early on in development. These areas are in the initial portions of genes, where the cell tends ...

The CDC has confirmed 66 human cases of bird flu in the U.S., but no human-to-human transmission has been detected. The outbreak has severely impacted the American egg industry, leading to near-record ...

A single change in a key viral protein may have helped the coronavirus behind COVID-19 make the jump from animals to people, setting the virus on its way to becoming the scourge it is today. That ...

Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute are reporting that it would take just a single mutation in the version of bird flu that has swept through US cattle herds to produce a virus adept at ...

"SARS-CoV-2 spike mutation L452R evades human immune response and enhances infectivity, researchers find." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2021 / 07 / 210720114413.htm (accessed ...

A new study by a team of researchers from Israel and Ghana has brought the first evidence of nonrandom mutation in human genes, challenging a core assumption at the heart of evolutionary theory by ...

The precise transmission of genetic information from one generation to the next is fundamental to life. Most of the time, this process unfolds with remarkable accuracy, but when it goes awry, ...