Most of them come from a subset of viruses called retroviruses, which infect host cells and then trick them into making the proteins that they need to replicate. Occasionally, a retrovirus will embed ...

Some viruses mutate more rapidly than others. Learn more about why that is and what that means for your health.

Around 8 percent of human DNA is made up of genetic sequences acquired from ancient viruses. These sequences, known as human endogenous retroviruses (or Hervs), date back hundreds of thousands to ...

New research reveals that triggering a cell’s DNA damage response could be a promising avenue for developing novel treatments against several rare but devastating viruses for which no antiviral ...

Human DNA is not always making us function in ways we understand. Some of our genome is just there, and we’re not sure what it does. In fact, 8% of our DNA are viruses our ancestors caught one day and ...

A research team led by Prof. Sun Chaomin from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) has ...

Neanderthals may have caught the same viruses that cause modern colds, cold sores, and some cancers. It's possible ancient humans introduced these unfamiliar viruses to their relatives. Understanding ...

Scientists at the University of Vienna, Austria, have screened great ape specimens obtained from natural history museums to identify DNA viruses. This groundbreaking study provides unique insights ...

A tiny, four-fingered "hand" folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to ...

Researchers in the United Kingdom have found a common childhood virus that can trigger DNA damage leading to bladder cancer ...

A virus carried by 95% of adults from childhood may trigger bladder cancer decades later by damaging cells during immune ...

Size of Life is an educational website that displays the relative sizes of everything from DNA to entire ecosystems through detailed, hand-drawn animations. Enter the site, and you'll find yourself on ...