anton, i am intrigued by viruses. from your message on immunolgy i surmise
that we can only deal with these creatures at gene level in a chess type
struggle...?
to the budding student--do it! If you like permutations virology will keep
you busy.
In article <4ho5f0$i0u at cwis-20.wayne.edu>, Anton Scott Goustin
<asg at cmb.biosci.wayne.edu> wrote:
> mtbike
> One last piece of advice. You won't understand virology unless you
> understand immunology. There is a symbiosis, a co-evolution of host
> and pathogen. This is obvious in the case of AIDS, because the patho-
> gen directly attacks the central cell in the immune response (the
> T helper cell). But it is true of all pathogens: they evolve neat
> strategies to defeat the host's immune system, like forcing the cell
> they infect to hide from attack by the host's immune system. For
> example, some viruses have specific genes which force the cell to stop
> making Class I major histocompatibility (MHC) proteins. MHC proteins
> allow the immune system to recognize that a cell is harboring a
> pathogen; by stopping the cell from making MHC, the virus can hide
> in a cell that is not recognized by the immune system. Thus, plan
> to study immunology, even though it's daunting.
--
hug the day
