Research behind the headline: A Cure for the Common Cold? - a podcast by QBI UCSF

Biologists Being Basic (B3) hosts Kelsey and Robyn are joined by our friends Megan and Gina as we take a look into the basic biology research behind the headline! This week, we look into a group of related viruses that cause the common cold called enteroviruses, and how these enteroviruses rely on a specific host factor inside human cells to replicate.

Further Resources:
Kate Shepherd’s article in The Washington Post, “A cure for the common cold? ‘It’s possible,’ scientists say, after new study finds key protein”, covering the Nature Microbiology paper: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/19/common-cold-cure-protein-stanford-research/

The peer-reviewed research article in Nature Microbiology, “Enterovirus pathogenesis requires the host methyltransferase SETD3” by Diep et al: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-019-0551-1

Scientific American also nicely summarizes the peer-reviewed research article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-newly-identified-protein-may-be-the-key-to-vanquishing-the-common-cold/

...provides some background information about why a cure for the common cold has been elusive: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-havent-we-cured-the-common-cold-yet/

...and covers previous outbreaks of the more severe illness of enterovirus infection: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poliolike-childhood-muscle-weakening-disease-reappears/

For more info on enteroviruses, including strains that cause more severe disease, visit the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/non-polio-enterovirus/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fnon-polio-enterovirus%2Fabout%2Findex.html

If you want to watch the ABC news clip we featured in the beginning of the episode about this work: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/video/researchers-discover-cure-common-cold-65660556

We mentioned this paper’s technique to knock out genes using CRISPR, for more info about this trendy gene editing technique check out this Ted-Ed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tw_JVz_IEc

If you have any questions or comments you can email us at biologistsbeingbasic@gmail.com or find us on twitter or instagram (@biosbeingbasic).

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