Investigating Viral Infections
Elizabeth Buckles

Viruses represent the ultimate host parasite relationship. These small, relatively simple organisms can only grow inside a living cell. In order to accomplish this, the virus hijacks a host cell's metabolic machinery and uses the enzymes for its own ends. Moreover viruses can evade detection from the host's immune system to prevent their own destruction. Needless to say, infection by a virus can have profound, negative effects on organisms. In fact, many diseases of medical importance are caused by viruses. Though vaccination has helped to decrease the incidence of some viral infections, new viruses continually emerge and old viruses evolve to render vaccines ineffective. A number of viral infections have caused major disease outbreaks in the last decade. For instance, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease devastated the agricultural economy of Great Britain; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) caused worldwide concern and raised questions about how to stem a viral pandemic; and Avian Influenza continues to pose a serious threat to both animals and humans. Because of the major economic and health effects of these emerging and re-emerging infections, members of the medical community must be able to recognize the hallmarks of viral infection in their patients and understand how to best diagnose these diseases.

During this exploration students will have the opportunity to learn multiple techniques for cultivating and diagnosing viruses in a laboratory setting. Through a series of hands on exercises, students will have the opportunity to inoculate cultures with viruses, see the effect of the virus on developing eggs, and see how PCR can help identify specific types of viruses. Finally participants will learn how a pathologist recognizes viral infection by evaluating tissue samples taken from sick animals.