I'm Sick!

Sorry about the lack of actual posting, but it appears that despite my best efforts, I am sick. It started a bit on Sunday, but man, now it's really kicking my butt. I feel blah, achy, more blah, congested, and just plain blah. That is what I get for talking smack on the cold. It's stalking me now. Urgh. Hope you are having a good week!

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Cure for the Common Cold May be Closer Than We Think

Recently a team of researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have assembled many pieces of the genetic code for the human rhinovirus a.k.a. THE COMMON COLD!!! What they did was compile a bunch of information from various mutations of the virus and compiled a sort of family tree. Doing this tied together a bunch of information and makes the mapping of how to attack this virus even more plausible.

"There has been no success in developing effective drugs to cure the common cold, which we believe is due to incomplete information about the genetic composition of all these strains"

Important findings in the study are:

• The cold is organized into about 15 small groups of differing viruses with a common ancestor
• The virus skips a step in protein synthesis making it a faster attacking virus
• Some symptoms occur when two different strains of the virus exchange genetic material
• As many as 800 mutations were found when compared to older reference strains

Don't worry. I will give you the science behind the cold soon!

source article here.

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