The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' public database now includes more than 2,000 sequences on human and avian flu viruses that are freely available to researchers. Elodie Ghedin, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and co-director of the project says that their work has already helped transform the scientific understand of how viruses develop. That better understanding could play a key role in advancing new therapies as well as tests. Up to now, most therapies for flu viruses have concentrated on surface proteins. The project is continuing to decode the genomes for some 200 viral strains a month.
- here's the report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette