Advances in synthetic biology have come to an age of whole genome synthesis. Synthetic viruses provide a powerful platform to delve deeper into the nature and function of viruses as well as to engineer viruses with novel properties. To date, most of synthesized viruses have been RNA viruses. RNA viruses normally have a limited genome size with the biggest reported so far are from coronaviruses ...
Single genomic loci in human chromosomes are often related to specific cellular functions, human genetic diseases and pathogen infections. Live visualization of single genomic loci would help to elucidate the spatiotemporal positions, dynamics and function of different loci and offer understanding of genome architecture and regulation. However, imaging of single genomic loci in live cells is cu...
Recognition of conserved molecular structures of viruses by the host pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) initiates innate antiviral immune responses. Several families of PRRs, including Toll-like receptors (TLRs), RIG-like receptors (RLRs), NOD-like receptors (NLRs) and recently identified DNA sensors, have been shown to sense different microbial components. Previously, the research group led ...
Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging arthropod-born virus (arbovirus) belonging to the genus Flavivirus of the family Flaviviridae, which also includes a group of human pathogenic viruses such as dengue virus 1-4 (DENV 1-4), West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), yellow fever virus (YFV), and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). In early 2015, a ZIKV infection outbreak was recog...
