Skip to Content

Cold-Virus Genome Revealed

The sneeze-inducing DNA shows why it’s so difficult to find a cure for the common cold.
February 12, 2009

We may be one step closer to defeating that small but mighty bearer of human misery: the common cold.

Common cold: Shown here is the structure of the protein shell, or capsid, of the human rhinovirus. Credit: J. Y. Sgro, UW-Madison

Scientists have now sequenced all of the 99 known strains of cold virus. The research, published today in the journal Science, sheds light on the bug’s ubiquity–different viruses can swap DNA sequences, generating new strains that can evade the immune system.

According to a statement from the University of Wisconsin:

The newly sequenced viruses also show … why it is unlikely we will ever have an effective, all-purpose cold vaccine: The existing reservoir of viruses worldwide is huge and, according to the new study, they have a tendency to swap genetic sequences when cells are infected by more than one virus, a phenomenon that can lead to new virus strains and clinical manifestations.

“Having sequenced the complete genomes of these things, we now know you can be infected by more than one virus at a time and that they can recombine (their genes),” [lead author of the new study Ann] Palmenberg [of UW-Madison’s Institute for Molecular Virology] explains. “That’s why we’ll never have a vaccine for the common cold. Nature is very efficient at putting different kinds of paint on the viruses.”

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.