Visualizing viruses: new research pinpoints tiny invaders

August 23, 2010

By hammersmith

[Source: Eureka Alert] – In the war against infectious disease, identifying the culprit is half the battle. Now, research professor Shaopeng Wang and his colleagues from the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, describe a new method for visualizing individual virus particles. Their research opens the door to a more detailed understanding of these minute pathogens, and may further the study of a broad range of micro- and nanoscale phenomena.

The group’s findings appear in the August 23rd Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, advanced online issue.

Detection and identification of infectious invaders are critical for efforts to diagnose, prevent, and control these skillful pathogens. In the current study, individual H1N1 influenza virus particles, along with the somewhat larger HCMV virus were visually detected through a label-free method for the first time, using a high-resolution technology known as surface plasmon resonance microscopy.

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