Getting to Grips with Microtubules

A publication by graduate student Helena Lynn (Newsome Lab) has been selected as an article of significant interest by the Journal of Virology.

Helena tested whether microtubules, transport pathways that operate in all cells, play an important role in virus transport in vivo.

She found that mutant viruses unable to attach to microtubules were incapable of causing severe infection in an endemic disease. Intriguingly, these attenuated infections nonetheless produced protective immunity against more virulent virus strains.

These findings suggest disabling virus interactions with the cytoskeleton may be a generic approach suitable for attenuating viruses.

The publication can be viewed in full here.