History Of Virology Research Articles

Evolution of Virology: Science History through Milestones and Technological Advancements.

The history of virology, which is marked by transformative breakthroughs, spans microbiology, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. From the development of Jenner's smallpox vaccine in 1796 to 20th-century innovations such as ultrafiltration and electron microscopy, the field of virology has undergone significant development. In 1898, Beijerinck laid the conceptual foundation for virology, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of the discipline. Advancements in influenza A virus research in 1933 by Richard Shope furthered our understanding of respiratory pathogens. Additionally, in 1935, Stanley's determination of viruses as solid particles provided substantial progress in the field of virology. Key milestones include elucidation of reverse transcriptase by Baltimore and Temin in 1970, late 20th-century revelations linking viruses and cancer, and the discovery of HIV by Sinoussi, Montagnier, and Gallo in 1983, which has since shaped AIDS research. In the 21st century, breakthroughs such as gene technology, mRNA vaccines, and phage display tools were achieved in virology, demonstrating its potential for integration with molecular biology. The achievements of COVID-19 vaccines highlight the adaptability of virology to global health.

Reviews: F.I. Ershov. “History of Virology from D.I. Ivanovskay to the present day ”. Popular science edition. GEOTAR-Media, 279 p., 2020

A review for the book by F.I. Ershova History of Virology from D.I. Ivanovsky to the present day, publishing house GEOTAR-Media, 2020.

F.I. Ershov «History of virology from D.I. Ivanovsky to the present day»

F.I. Ershov «History of virology from D.I. Ivanovsky to the present day»

Our Hantaan Virus Became a New Family, Hantaviridae in the Classification of Order Bunyavirales. It will Remain as a History of Virology

Our Hantaan Virus Became a New Family, <i>Hantaviridae</i> in the Classification of Order <i>Bunyavirales</i>. It will Remain as a History of Virology

The First "Virus Hunters".

The history of virology is a history of conceptual and technological inventions and breakthroughs. The development of filters made of porcelain or kieselgur by the end of the 19th century which withheld bacteria allowed the identification of infectious agents smaller than bacteria and noncultivable on the media known at that time and used to grow bacteria. Even finer-grain filters resulted in the observation that the ultravisible novel infectious agents are in fact of particulate nature. Infections of plants and animals were the first to be attributed to these tiny entities. Proof resulted from experimental infection of the natural hosts (including humans). Thus, of the first 30 viruses identified, 20 are veterinary viruses, i.e. infectious agents of poultry and livestock. The discovery that bacteria also have viruses in the 1910s expanded the viral universe which continues today. Filterability and ultravisibility remained a hallmark for the identification of viruses until the advent of the electron microscope in the late 1930s marking another technological breakthrough in virology. Cell culture techniques allowed virus propagation outside the infected organism. In the past decades, the advent and development of molecular biology has brought more innovations culminating in the rapid and accurate determination of genomic material of a variety of living beings including viruses in a hitherto unknown speed and depth using next-generation sequencing and metagenomic analyses. Thus, it is no surprise that new viruses are detected constantly including specimens of unprecedented size and shape. Virologists agree that the viral universe is immense, and only a small fraction has been explored yet.

Lifting the Impenetrable Veil: From Yellow Fever to Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever and SARS

Charlie Calisher is a great storyteller, and he probably has more stories to tell than anyone who has worked in the field of arbovirology. Throughout his 30-year distinguished virology career beginning at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to his current role as professor emeritus at the Colorado State University, Calisher has been a prolific researcher, writer, teacher, and mentor. The title phrase “lifting the impenetrable veil” originally appeared in a letter written in 1900 by Dr. Walter Reed to his wife, when he realized that he and his colleagues had shown that yellow fever was caused by a virus that was transmitted by mosquitoes. In his book, Calisher has recounted his version of arbovirus history and discovery in his unique blend of academic rigor and humorous personal interpretation. Established as a field in the late 1950s, arbovirology is the study of arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses). Lifting the Impenetrable Veil is organized into an introduction, 16 chapters, and an appendix that provides 25 biographic profiles of arbovirology researchers. Throughout the book the reader catches glimpses of the many colorful characters who defined arbovirology, some in shaded insets that Calisher uses to provide humorous anecdotes, usually involving himself. I enjoyed the stories behind the many viral discoveries, especially the many lessons learned from the expansion of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus into the Americas, the importation of West Nile Virus in the United States, and dengue reemergence worldwide. I appreciated learning about the pivotal role of the Rockefeller Foundation, founded in 1912, in professionalizing international health. I valued the clear explanations about the development of various laboratory procedures and the role they played in discovering and characterizing new viruses identified from the early 1900s to 2012. I even valued reading about the early development and current state of viral taxonomy. Most of all, I appreciated learning about fundamental epidemiologic and ecologic observations that helped elucidate aspects of arbovirus disease transmission, such as virus overwintering, transovarial transmission, and virus transmission by migrating birds. The later chapters read somewhat like a parade of researchers; however, it was still intriguing to read about these public health professionals and their pursuit of viral hemorrhagic fevers, bat-borne viruses, and Schmallenberg virus. I once had the good fortune of meeting Dr. Calisher and feel that reading his book is not unlike listening to him in person; i.e., you can’t help but smile and learn from his informative, opinionated, yet always down-to-earth storytelling. The experience is eclectic and memorable. Be warned: this book has minor shortcomings that are typical of self-published books, such as uneven editing. However, I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of virology, particularly researchers in the field of arbovirology.

The Foundations of Virology: Discoverers and Discoveries, Inventors and Inventions, Developers and Technologies

History of science is not a priority of most virologists. However, if given a visually engaging coffee-table book of the persons and discoveries that shaped the field of virology since Hippocrates, curious scientists will inevitably start paging through history. For this reason, every chairperson of virology departments worldwide should leave a copy of Fred Murphy’s The Foundations of Virology in the break room. Professor Murphy has a long and distinguished career in emerging viruses from the perspective of public health and academic bench science. Murphy has made his 536-page book available as a downloadable, lower-resolution, eBook on his website, which for years has also been an enormous open-access library resource for virologists. Because of numerous requests to have hard copies printed for fingertip access, Murphy has made this book available in paperback. There are clear advantages to having the hard copy in hand, in a place where it can be picked up and absorbed a little at a time. The full title of the book reflects the content; it is a chronology of images of discoverers, developers, and inventors, alongside their discoveries, developments, and inventions. The book is physically laid out in a landscape format, usually with multiple photographs on each page, featuring scientists, their institutions, spot maps from major epidemics, electron micrographs of then-emerging viruses, and graphics from landmark publications. Along the bottom of each page is printed in large font the year, names of contributors, and their historic contributions. This bottom line layout serves as an effective design enabling quick orientation to time, with the option for most entries of reading a more in-depth explanation. It also makes it easy to skip to different points in time, an efficiency advantage over Murphy’s online resources. Other books on the history of virology are a dense read (and lack all the fun pictures). Murphy’s selection of images highlights his conviction that science of viral diseases predates the concept of the specificity of disease causation and depends on initial discoveries about bacteria and bacterial diseases. Readers can thus expect to see images of Pasteur, Koch, and many others who laid the groundwork for infectious disease sciences. Although in his Foreword, Murphy disclaims that his selection of names and discoveries was “completely arbitrary,” his book leaves out few major discoveries in human and veterinary virology, from Hippocrates’ observations in 400 bce to the 2010 declaration of the global eradication of rinderpest. Particularly given the origin of new, emerging, and reemerging viral infections today, it is valuable to see pictures and stories to remind us of the exceptional crossover between human and veterinary virology. Because of the author’s longstanding involvement in virology since the 1960s, his explanations for discoveries of the past 5 decades provide a unique sense of context. This visual account of history makes obvious the sparse involvement of women in virology until the late 1900s. However, Murphy made a good effort to acknowledge women when possible. He also did a good job acknowledging seminal forces worldwide that shaped the development of virology: influential books, journals, societies, conferences, databases, even the Google search engine. Murphy’s website (www.utmb.edu/virusimages) is surely one of the most comprehensive and publically accessible virology and history of virology resources available. But having finger-tip access to this scientist’s coffee-table book is a worthwhile investment for any infectious disease specialist interested in medical history.

Tulip Breaking: Past, Present, and Future.

This article focuses on the oldest recorded plant virus disease, tulip breaking, and reflects the authors’ interests in molecular virology, the history of virology, and the broad influence of viruses upon societies and their culture. The potyvirus Tulip breaking virus (TBV) induces in the petals of its host tulips beautiful variegated color patterns that break the solid color of the uninfected tulips, hence the name “tulip breaking.” The human passions of possession that these “broken tulips” induced in seventeenth century Holland generated an economic and social disorder with lasting cultural ramifications referred to as “tulipomania.” Although the lure of the broken tulip persists in the twenty-first century, the molecular mechanisms governing the virus-induced color breaking in tulips remain little understood. Here, we review aspects of the historical impact of tulipomania, the biology of TBV, the pathways and regulation of plant pigment formation, and the potential mechanisms underlying virus-induced color breaking. The reader is cautioned that tulipomania, like tulip breaking, is still contagious.

VIROLOGY:Small Sources of Great Affliction

Viruses, Plagues, and History. Michael B. A. Oldstone. Oxford University Press, New York, 1998. 223 pp. $25, £18.95. ISBN 0-19-511723-9. Oldstone presents short, readable accounts of selected episodes from the history of virology. His coverage of epidemic diseases including smallpox, yellow fever, AIDS, and emerging hemorrhagic fevers emphasizes demography, public health, and the efforts of virologists.

Experimental Systems: Historiality, Narration, and Deconstruction

The ArgumentIn the first part of this paper, issues concerning an “epistemology of time” are raised. The Derridean theme of the historial movement of a trace is connected to Prigogine's notion of an operator-time. It is suggested that both conceptions can be used to characterize the dynamics of experimental systems in contemporary science. It is argued that such systems have, to speak with Hacking, “a life of their own” and that this is precisely the reason for their inherent unpredictability.In the second part, a case from the history of virology and cytomorphology is presented. The movement of a particular experimental system is followed in its peculiar tension between deferring and becoming different—i.e., between the persistence of a problem and the vagaries of its successive transformations. They are rendered possible by novel technical implementations, but they are not determined in any meaningful sense on a mere technological level.In conclusion, a point is made for a deconstructive approach to the history of science.

A micro solid-phase radioimmunoassay for detection of herpesvirus type-specific antibody: Parameters involved in standardization

A micro solid-phase radioimmunoassay (micro-SPRIA) was developed to demonstrate type-specific antibodies to herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (HSV1 and HSV2). Glycoproteins from the 123,000 dalton region of HSV1 (VP123) and the 119,000 dalton region of HSV2 (VP119) were isolated on preparative polyacrylamide gels for use as antigens in the micro-SPRIA. Human sera selected from clinical samples by virological history and appropriate microneutralization data were used to standardize the micro-SPRIA. Optimization of the assay required the use of siliconized microtiter wells for adsorption of antigen. Maximized results were highly dependent on the concentrations of antigen, primary antibody, and secondary antibody as well as the diluents used for these principal test reagents. Incorporation of HSV glycoproteins of each respective type with the optimal condition established in this study facilitates the direct detection of type-specific antibody in human sera.

An Introduction to the History of Virology By A. P. Waterson and Lise Wilkinson (review)

An Introduction to the History of Virology By A. P. Waterson and Lise Wilkinson (review)

Review: An Introduction to the History of Virology, by A. P. Waterson and Lise Wilkinson

Review: <i>An Introduction to the History of Virology</i>, by A. P. Waterson and Lise Wilkinson