Life sciences and medicine Scientist studying the H5N1 influenza<unk> <unk> es are important to the study of molecular and cell biology as they provide simple systems that can be used to manipulate and investigate the functions of cells. The study and use of<unk> es have provided valuable information about aspects of cell biology. For example,<unk> es have been useful in the study of genetics and helped our understanding of the basic mechanisms of molecular genetics, such as DNA replication, transcription, RNA processing, translation, protein transport, and immunology. Geneticists often use<unk> es as vectors to introduce genes into cells that they are studying. This is useful for making the cell produce a foreign substance, or to study the effect of introducing a new gene into the genome. Similarly, virotherapy uses<unk> es as vectors to treat various diseases, as they can specifically target cells and DNA. It shows promising use in the treatment of cancer and in gene therapy. Eastern European scientists have used phage therapy as an alternative to antibiotics for some time, and interest in this approach is increasing, because of the high level of antibiotic resistance now found in some pathogenic bacteria. The expression of heterologous proteins by<unk> es is the basis of several manufacturing processes that are currently being used for the production of various proteins such as vaccine antigens and antibodies. Industrial processes have been recently developed using viral vectors and several pharmaceutical proteins are currently in pre-clinical and clinical trials. Virotherapy Virotherapy involves the use of genetically modified<unk> es to treat diseases.<unk> es have been modified by scientists to reproduce in cancer cells and destroy them but not infect healthy cells. Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC), for example, is a modified herpes simplex<unk>  that has had a gene, which is required for<unk> es to replicate in healthy cells, deleted and replaced with a human gene (GM-CSF) that stimulates immunity. When this<unk>  infects cancer cells, it destroys them and in doing so the presence the GM-CSF gene attracts dendritic cells from the surrounding tissues of the body. The dendritic cells process the dead cancer cells and present components of them to other cells of the immune system. Having completed successful clinical trials, the<unk>  gained approval for the treatment of melanoma in late 2015.<unk> es that have been reprogrammed to kill cancer cells are called oncolytic<unk> es. Materials science and nanotechnology Current trends in nanotechnology promise to make much more versatile use of<unk> es. From the viewpoint of a materials scientist,<unk> es can be regarded as organic nanoparticles. Their surface carries specific tools that enable them to cross the barriers of their host cells. The size and shape of<unk> es and the number and nature of the functional groups on their surface are precisely defined. As such,<unk> es are commonly used in materials science as scaffolds for covalently linked surface modifications. A particular quality of<unk> es is that they can be tailored by directed evolution. The powerful techniques developed by life sciences are becoming the basis of engineering approaches towards nanomaterials, opening a wide range of applications far beyond biology and medicine. Because of their size, shape, and well-defined chemical structures,<unk> es have been used as templates for organising materials on the nanoscale. Recent examples include work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., using Cowpea mosaic<unk>  (CPMV) particles to amplify signals in DNA microarray based sensors. In this application, the<unk>  particles separate the fluorescent dyes used for signalling to prevent the formation of non-fluorescent dimers that act as quenchers. Another example is the use of CPMV as a nanoscale breadboard for molecular electronics. Synthetic<unk> es Many<unk> es can be synthesised de novo ("from scratch"). The first synthetic<unk>  was created in 2002. Although somewhat of a misconception, it is not the actual<unk>  that is synthesised, but rather its DNA genome (in case of a DNA<unk> , or a cDNA copy of its genome (in case of RNA<unk> es). For many<unk>  families the naked synthetic DNA or RNA (once enzymatically converted back from the synthetic cDNA) is infectious when introduced into a cell. That is, they contain all the necessary information to produce new<unk> es. This technology is now being used to investigate novel vaccine strategies. The ability to synthesise<unk> es has far-reaching consequences, since<unk> es can no longer be regarded as extinct, as long as the information of their genome sequence is known and permissive cells are available. As of June 2021, the full-length genome sequences of 11,464 different<unk> es, including smallpox, are publicly available in an online database maintained by the National Institutes of Health. Weapons The ability of<unk> es to cause devastating epidemics in human societies has led to the concern that<unk> es could be weaponised for biological warfare. Further concern was raised by the successful recreation of the infamous 1918 influenza<unk>  in a laboratory. The smallpox<unk>  devastated numerous societies throughout history before its eradication. There are only two centres in the world authorised by the WHO to keep stocks of smallpox<unk> : the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR in Russia and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. It may be used as a weapon, as the vaccine for smallpox sometimes had severe side-effects, it is no longer used routinely in any country. Thus, much of the modern human population has almost no established resistance to smallpox and would be vulnerable to the<unk> .
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