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South Indian Frog Oozes Molecule That Inexplicably Decimates Flu Viruses (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the flu-slashing dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: From the slimy backs of a South Indian frog comes a new way to blast influenza viruses. A compound in the frog's mucus -- long known to have germ-killing properties -- can latch onto flu virus particles and cause them to burst apart, researchers report in Immunity. The peptide is a potent and precise killer, able to demolish a whole class of flu viruses while leaving other viruses and cells unharmed. But scientists don't know exactly how it pulls off the viral eviscerations. No other antiviral peptide of its ilk seems to work the same way. The study authors, led by researchers at Emory University, note that the peptide appears uniquely nontoxic -- something that can't be said of many other frog-based compounds. Thus, the peptide on its own holds promise of being a potential therapy someday. But simply figuring out how it works could move researchers closer to a vaccine or therapy that could take out all flus, ditching the need for yearly vaccinations for each season's flavor of flu.

68 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Decimate? by Tovam · · Score: 5, Informative

    Decimate: Kill one in every ten
    That doesn't sound very useful.

    1. Re:Decimate? by rkordmaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That sounds very useful, finding mechanism where a finely tuned molecule happens to demolish a whole class of viruses could be a discovery on the level with antibiotics.

    2. Re:Decimate? by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      Decimate: Kill one in every ten
      That doesn't sound very useful.

      I dunno. Mozilla seems to think it's great version 53 is going to decimate the number of crashes Firefox has.

    3. Re:Decimate? by rkordmaa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, exactly exactly my point, this kind of discovery has the potential to do the same with viruses that antibiotics did with bacterial infections.

    4. Re:Decimate? by mrbester · · Score: 1

      It's just another weapon in the arsenal of the Mexican Staring Frog of southern Sri Lanka. The thing is more deadly than we thought...

      --
      "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
    5. Re:Decimate? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      From the Oxford English Dictionary

      VERB

      [WITH OBJECT]

      1 Kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of. ‘the inhabitants of the country had been decimated’

      1.1 Drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something) ‘public transport has been decimated’

      2 (historical) Kill one in every ten of (a group of people, originally a mutinous Roman legion) as a punishment for the whole group. ‘the man who is to determine whether it be necessary to decimate a large body of mutineers’

      Usage

      Historically, the meaning of the word decimate is ‘kill one in every ten of (a group of people)’. This sense has been more or less totally superseded by the later, more general sense ‘kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of’, as in the virus has decimated the population. Some traditionalists argue that this is incorrect, but it is clear that it is now part of standard English

      Origin

      Late Middle English: from Latin decimat- ‘taken as a tenth’, from the verb decimare, from decimus ‘tenth’. In Middle English the term decimation denoted the levying of a tithe, and later the tax imposed by Cromwell on the Royalists (1655).

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    6. Re:Decimate? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Informative

      Which could be enough. Not to mention that decimate has gained a different meaning beyond "killing every tenth", with a more colloquial use it usually means "kills a portion of them" without going into detail how many.

      Antibiotics don't kill all bacteria either. That's why antibacterial soap, cleaning and laundry agents usually hurt more than they help, since they only kill the germs that are susceptible to antibacterial treatment, leaving the "superbugs" unharmed. Essentially what you do that way is breed them by playing natural selection, culling the weak ones to give the stronger ones more room and food to expand into.

      Why antibiotics work well in humans is that we have an immune system that doesn't care whether the bacteria are resistent to antibacterial treatment. What our immune system cares about is numbers. If too many bacteria come, it gets overwhelmed, at least for a time, and we get sick. If antibiotics kill off the majority of bacteria, the immune system can easily deal with what's left.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    7. Re:Decimate? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      And that meaning changed since Roman times. Actually, it gained an additional one.

      Guess what: Language develops. Let's ask someone who should know.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Decimate? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      So, which of annihilate/destroy/demolish should represent every one in ten now? There is a reason why decimate means what it means...

      It means to give a tithe of 10%. At least that is the original english language usage (Glossographia, 1656, with examples in print going back to at least 1528). So why are you talking about breaking stuff?

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    9. Re:Decimate? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      You need orders of magnitude to meaningfully label something as an efficient treatment of bacterial or viral infections. None of the "additional meanings" covers that. The closest thing would be a successful genocide, not any of the meanings of "decimate" that you cited, no matter how extended they are.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:Decimate? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Definition 3a, "to reduce drastically especially in number" is pretty much what antibiotics do with bacteria. If that toad snot can do that, it would be an efficient treatment of a viral infection.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    11. Re:Decimate? by Chas · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's one of those terms that people who like to pretend they're well educated use.

      Unfortunately they conflate it with "devastate" (to lay waste or make desolate; ravage; destroy. to confound or overwhelm).

      The misuse has persisted so long that it's distressingly common nowadays among the Inteligencia-wannabes. A side-effect of morons who have been indoctrinated by morons indoctrinating yet another generation of morons.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    12. Re:Decimate? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you'd think that by now slashdot editors would have learned not to use that particular word outside of its literal meaning in a headline. The correct definition is always pointed out early in the comments.

    13. Re:Decimate? by ravenshrike · · Score: 3, Informative

      Having RTFA, it completely destroys all H1 flu viruses. None of the other types.

    14. Re:Decimate? by geekmux · · Score: 1

      And that meaning changed since Roman times. Actually, it gained an additional one.

      Guess what: Language develops. Let's ask someone who should know.

      If I "decimate" 1 in 10 of an approaching army, I've not even won the fucking battle, let alone the war. Common sense.

      If you're looking for what has truly changed over time, that would be mans ability to warp the shit out of language and definition.

      Is there a medical breakthrough here? I certainly hope so. Can't tell yet 'cause someone "killed it" in the marketing department.

    15. Re:Decimate? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Using soap is a good idea. Using antibacterial soap is not.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    16. Re:Decimate? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      It's one of those terms that people who like to pretend they're well educated use.

      Unfortunately they conflate it with "devastate" (to lay waste or make desolate; ravage; destroy. to confound or overwhelm).

      The misuse has persisted so long that it's distressingly common nowadays among the Inteligencia-wannabes. A side-effect of morons who have been indoctrinated by morons indoctrinating yet another generation of morons.

      Or, you know, every dictionary and scholar on the subject. But if you are pissing and moaning about it not being used properly, then you should go look in the mirror. The original English use was for a 10% tithe, or taking a 10th. It was over 100 years (1528 to 1676) between the first known written use to refer to tithing before anyone used it to mean to "kill one in every 10". Now I'm sure you'll come back with "blah blah Romans blah blah" but they didn't speak English, they spoke Latin. And if you want to go there, well then there are a LOT of words you and everyone else are using wrong.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    17. Re:Decimate? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Whether you're pleased about it or not, the modern definition has mutated from the original. It happens.

      Most people nowadays use it to mean "to completely fuck up".

      I guess these days we don't often execute one tenth of an infantry unit to encourage effort and loyalty.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    18. Re:Decimate? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      "On a level with" != "Exactly the same as"

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    19. Re:Decimate? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Oh look another kid in the class desperate to show everybody they understand the original definition of 'decimate' from Roman times. Give yourself a cookie and shut up about it for a while, eh?

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    20. Re:Decimate? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      I believe the FDA has had a recent ruling to the effect that anti-bacterial soap has to remove its health claims and/or remove the 'antibacterial' label. Because it's been demonstrated to do the square root of fuck all.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    21. Re:Decimate? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      "Drastically" is an extremely vague term, then, if it can be anything between the 0.8 of population that survives the cholera epidemics and the 1% of the target bacterial population that survives your antibiotic. If you're intent on speaking in weasel words, that's probably still fine, though.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    22. Re:Decimate? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      That would actually be a good thing.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    23. Re:Decimate? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      That's what they are claiming. And either is more than the 10% population loss that the original meaning had in mind.

      My guess is that they don't know yet just what fraction of germs get killed and that "somewhere between 20 and 99 percent" is actually a good description of what they know so far.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    24. Re:Decimate? by tomhath · · Score: 1

      The correct definition is always pointed out early in the comments.

      Trolls point out the original literal translation, not the correct definition as currently used in the English language.

    25. Re:Decimate? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Decimate: Kill one in every ten

      That doesn't sound very useful.

      STEM training should be mandatory for all journalism students.

    26. Re:Decimate? by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Romans only did it very rarely. the Legionnaires were one of the first professional Armies in the world and Rome invested considerable time, effort, and money in their training and maintenance.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    27. Re:Decimate? by Maritz · · Score: 1

      A side-effect of morons who have been indoctrinated by morons indoctrinating yet another generation of morons.

      Talks about "morons". Doesn't realise that definitions of words change over time. lol. Look in the fucking dictionary.

      I know what it originally meant, I also know that the meaning has changed. Somehow I'm able to get the fuck over it. You should try.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    28. Re:Decimate? by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      And that meaning changed since Roman times. Actually, it gained an additional one.

      Guess what: Language develops. Let's ask someone who should know.

      Does some one want to tell the begs the question people?

      --
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    29. Re:Decimate? by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

      That sounds very useful, finding mechanism where a finely tuned molecule happens to demolish a whole class of viruses could be a discovery on the level with antibiotics.

      It already exists: Favipiravir - originally designed to combat the Flu, even works on Ebola. They don't use it except in extreme cases because it's the only drug known to take out nearly all known viruses while safe and they are afraid of resistances forming like what happened with antibiotics.

    30. Re:Decimate? by Chas · · Score: 1

      No. The meaning has NOT changed.

      The meaning has been conflated by people who don't understand the proper usage of the term.

      This is not the same thing.

      --


      Chas - The one, the only.
      THANK GOD!!!
    31. Re:Decimate? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Actually, a 10% casualty rate is largely seen as a serious or unacceptable loss. Antietam was 20%, Waterloo was 25%.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    32. Re:Decimate? by tsqr · · Score: 1

      Decimate: Kill one in every ten That doesn't sound very useful.

      That's the ancient meaning, but it isn't quite complete the way you've stated it. It's actually, "to select by lot and kill every tenth person". But since the 18th century, the usual meaning is "to destroy a great number or proportion". Common synonyms are exterminate, massacre, eradicate, and annihilate.

    33. Re:Decimate? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      I use alcohol. No superbug thrives in alcohol.

      Bullshit. Take a look at any trailer park in Florida.

    34. Re:Decimate? by sexconker · · Score: 2

      And that meaning changed since Roman times. Actually, it gained an additional one.

      Guess what: Language develops. Let's ask someone who should know.

      You're pointing to MW as an authority? The clowns who decreed that "literally" means the exact opposite of "literally"? These retards are shitting on the language. Every year they jump up and down about "new words" that some 10-14 year olds are spouting being made "official" by slapping them into their dictionary.

      Language changes, yes. Not all change is good. Any change that adds ambiguity, such as by significantly altering the meaning of an existing and used word, is in fact detrimental to the language as it makes it more difficult to use for its only purpose - communication.

    35. Re:Decimate? by sexconker · · Score: 1

      And H1Z1 is the most shitty piece of shit that ever shat. Fuck you, Sony & Daybreak Games.

    36. Re:Decimate? by myth24601 · · Score: 1

      Maybe say "to literally decimate"????

      --
      No matter where you go, there you are.
    37. Re:Decimate? by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      The meaning has been conflated by people who don't understand the proper usage of the term.

      Like those ignorant editors of the Oxford English Dictionary.
      They don't know nothin! AmIRight?

  2. I have always wondered... by OpenSourced · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...how all the technical and scientific capabilities of humankind cannot develop an antibody for a particular virus, but our immune systems do it in a couple of days, no sweat. Or rather, possibly lots of sweat, but they do it. One would thing that it would be possible to replicate the process somehow.

    Note: I understand that, in the case indicated in the article, it goes beyond that, offering some kind of general-purpose antibody, probably targeting parts of the virus cover that are more hidden, and usually don't mutate. But anyway. That we cannot design that peptide, and must rely on the blind watchmaker to find it for us, is a bit baffling.
     

    --
    Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
    1. Re:I have always wondered... by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Interesting

      proteomics is a very new field of study. It has only been very recently that we have been able to synthesize long dna and rna strands inexpensively, and even more recently that we could reliably induce quality insertion into a target organism for biosynthesis.

    2. Re:I have always wondered... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Antibodies themselves don't actually get rid of the viruses. They just serve as markers. Since different strains of viruses have different structures, they require different antibodies to be marked. The time from infection to elimination of the infection is due to the system developing the marker antibodies, dispersing them, and then hunting the offending items down via white blood cells.

      Things like this usually function on a completely different mechanism. To compare to bacteria, some antibacterials attack the cell wall of the organism in some way that normal body cells are immune to. My speculation is that this probably works in a similar fashion, decomposing proteins specific to this type of virus.

    3. Re:I have always wondered... by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Informative

      Antibodies, like all proteins, are pretty complex molecules. The binding sites in particular are very tricky. They need to be designed to bind properly to the target AND ONLY THE TARGET protein. This involves balancing physical geometry and electrical charges to match up with the target protein to get a correct fit and strong binding. This needs to happen at the atomic level, using amino acid building blocks. We don't even fully understand how our bodies do it yet. Think of it this way: we are still working towards building our first commercial, very basic nano machines. Our bodies (and all life for that matter) are filled with them. These machines, such as enzymes, are capable of doing amazing things, like building and re-arranging molecules at the atomic level. Each one customized to do a very specific task. We can hijack biology and genetics to make some of the things we want but as far as our technology goes, we are way, way behind nature.

      Right now our best option is to identify existing antibodies and isolate the genetic material the organism used to create it and using that to create GMOs to reproduce it.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    4. Re:I have always wondered... by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      This doesn't seem to be like antibodies though. It seems to be something non-toxic that the viruses are somehow terminally addicted to. They just suck it in until they explode. This doesn't seem to be an approach anyone had thought of before.

    5. Re:I have always wondered... by LordWabbit2 · · Score: 1

      What is baffling is you seem to think we are so technologically advanced that we should be able to do this, we are not. Sure we have nifty cellphones and stuffs, and that IS amazing to some degree, but we are nowhere near the technological level needed. We have a long way to go, and we probably won't make it (as a civilization at least).

      If we don't destroy ourselves in a nuclear war, we will poison ourselves with all the crap we are doing to the planet.

      Off the beaten track and not really relevant, but I hate when people say "We are destroying the planet". We are not destroying the planet, if we all died at once (or there was a rapture, and we were all really good) in 100 years the earth would mostly be back in balance again. We are are not destroying the planet, we are destroying ourselves. It would take a lot more than an ocean of plastic (or even a nuclear war) to destroy the planet.

      --
      There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
    6. Re:I have always wondered... by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Easy they just patent the use of the polypeptide to treat influenza in humans, pigs, birds, dogs and cats. After that you patent the GMO methods to produce the polypeptides.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    7. Re:I have always wondered... by ByteSlicer · · Score: 2

      It seems to be something non-toxic that the viruses are somehow terminally addicted to. They just suck it in until they explode.

      Nope. Viruses don't have a metabolism outside of the host cell DNA/RNA. So they don't "suck", and there is no space inside the capsid (outside shell) to "suck" anything in to. From the article:

      "The researchers aren't sure why, but they hypothesize that after urumin binds HA, it exerts electrostatic forces on the surface of the particle that cause the whole shell to rupture."

      So the protein acts on the outside. The binding process is relatively passive, meaning the proteins just randomly move around until they bump into an HA stalk, and electrostatic charges make them stick.
      Most antibodies stick the same way, but on the HA heads instead of the HA stalks. They also prevent the virus to invade a host cell by disabling the HA surface protein, but since the HA heads evolve very rapidly, it only takes one virus to escape and generate a new generation that won't bind to the antibody. The stalks evolve extremely slowly, so the new protein will keep its effectiveness over many generations of the virus.

    8. Re:I have always wondered... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      ...how all the technical and scientific capabilities of humankind cannot develop an antibody for a particular virus, but our immune systems do it in a couple of days, no sweat. Or rather, possibly lots of sweat, but they do it. One would thing that it would be possible to replicate the process somehow.

      Yes, it's called Phage therapy. As compared to typical drug therapy, it is more effective, but takes somewhere between significantly and prohibitively more effort.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    9. Re:I have always wondered... by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

      Oh we never make any antibodies from scratch in the lab, they're raised in lab animal serum by spiking them with the protein you want antibodies against, and purifying them out. In a vertebrate you have all the parallelism of evolution involved in helping make them, which you can't get so easily in vitro. Cartoon version of how it works in your body: you develop B cells. They randomly rearrange their genome where it codes for what antibodies they will make. Cells that react too often kill themselves, as they are (probably) reacting to your own antigens. If this fails you get autoimmune disease. Cells that do not react too often go to your lymph nodes. You are exposed to an antigen. It doesn't kill you before your B cells can react, and the ones that bind antigen from the pathogen reproduce and spread throughout your body. (Or if the antigen was peanuts or tree pollen, you're allergic to it now... constant low dose exposure can eventually make them kill themselves instead). The next time you're exposed to the antigen, the reaction will be faster and stronger since the B cells have proliferated. If this was a pathogen, it means you may not even feel sick or will have a shorter duration of illness. If it was peanuts or bee venom you may die. So... the immune system is very powerful but it is also dumb luck.

    10. Re:I have always wondered... by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Just because something hasn't been done yet doesn't mean it will never be done. Some problems are hard. Immunology is hard.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    11. Re:I have always wondered... by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      ...but our immune systems do it in a couple of days, no sweat.

      Except that's not always the case. We don't do it sometimes, see the various plagues and incurable infections like HIV, and in other cases, our bodies fuck this process up, and create for themselves autoimmune diseases. There are a surprisingly large number of autoimmune diseases out there, some minor and some debilitating and deadly, and these are the result of our bodies screwing up this process of developing antibodies.
       
      Even as we can replicate this process better, we're going to have to be very careful that we're not causing issues like these. Last thing we want is to start injecting people with cold and flu antibodies that turn out to be a latent T-virus.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    12. Re:I have always wondered... by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      You've got put things into perspective. Evolution has billions of years behind it, and domestication of animals drastically altered our immune systems. We just figured out that DNA was a thing a bit over half a century ago.

      --
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  3. Biodiversity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    See, politicians, conserving biodiversity is not just hippy-happy-pro-Western-and-gay-culture-talk, potentially leading to the evils of godless democracy and missing the key authority figure of you.

    1. Re:Biodiversity by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Came here to say this. Everyone who wants to build a Blade Runner environment for the glory of capitalism, take note.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  4. Re:Kills viruses? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    Just tell the people they're washing themselves with toad snot and it should be DOA.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Anything by ohmpeter · · Score: 1

    planet-gatesecommerce online shopping

  6. I am sure we can even cure HIV .... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

    Guys, this is my backyard. My former home state had been ruled by film actors/actresses/script writers ( MGR Jaylalitha Karunanidhi Annadurai ) who played do-gooder heros. The current crop of politicians in my home state is slimier than anything the world has ever seen. If the slime from the stupid frogs kills rhinoviruses, the slime from the current politicians would even kill HIV!!!! Just saying ....

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  7. You wouldn't believe how we found it! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    "Ok, so we're all at the lab getting high when we ran out of weed and Jim started telling us about how you can hallucinate from licking the back of a frog..." ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:You wouldn't believe how we found it! by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      To which Cedric, our French doctoral student, replied, "Don't be shy, we eat them back home all the time."

  8. wow by Filaar · · Score: 1

    Great Article!

  9. This may seem off topic, by jenningsthecat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but this sounds to me like an additional call to, as a species, get our environmental practices under control and stop 'instinctifying' flora and fauna at a breakneck pace. With findings like this, I have to wonder how many illness-treating, disease-defeating compounds we may have sent into oblivion by killing off the plants, animals, and insects which produced them.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    1. Re:This may seem off topic, by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

      ... stop 'instinctifying' flora ...

      Damn - that should have been "extinctifying". That's what I get for posting before I'm fully awake.

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  10. Big Pharma... by Poingggg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And Big Pharma will have this patented (to never be seen again) in 3..2..1...

    Anything that can really heal any illness is not profitable, it kills its own market. It's much more profitable to make products that fight symptoms of diseases, and preferably have some side effects of their own for which other stuff can be sold.
    Don't ever think Big Pharma wants you to be(come) healthy!

    --
    What person will donate an airborne act of love?
    1. Re:Big Pharma... by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

      An antiviral like this would be more profitable than vaccines that you only need once per strain. This would be more like buying Round Up For Flu than a lifetime protection vaccine. So, this actually has a chance of moving forward without government money. It's the vaccines that are DOA without government backing.

  11. Nitpick by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Each one customized to do a very specific task

    Rather I would say each one was selected for and ended having the function they have now, rather than customized. We even have some protein which started at some function, then with each different selection ended having a different function, which was more important for the survival of the organism, in addition of the original one. IIRC flagella in bacteria was originally a transport protein between intra/extra membrane environment.

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    1. Re:Nitpick by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      True. I didn't mean to imply anything with that.

      But if you think of it, that adds a level of crazy coolness. It's like roombas evolving through environmental changes and small manufacturing errors to be a oil changing robot.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  12. Wow! by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    OTOH I have tons of 'molecules' in plastic bottles under my kitchen sink that can also have germ-killing properties.

  13. So the next flu vaccine will ... by 3seas · · Score: 1

    contain frog slime...but it has side effects... I'll leave that up to your imagination...

  14. Other potent molecule against flu by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    We already have a non-toxic molecule able to efficiently prevent flu, it is called vitamin D.