Viral Vectors 101: Viruses as Biological Tools
Type
Blog Post
...easily deliver their “cargo” to target cells and organisms, and when that cargo is designed to make you...tools. As scientists, we can manipulate what this cargo is and where it goes, turning these pesky germs ...Once inside the host cell, the virus unleashes its cargo – its own genome.
Fig. 1: Viral particle...Depending on the type of virus used, the DNA (or RNA) cargo will either permanently integrate into the host ...cells with a high efficiency and deposit a DNA/RNA cargo into their targets makes them attractive and tractable...viruses to target specific cell types and deliver any cargo you fancy (size limits do apply, however.)
Why ...each virus allows you to infect cells and deliver cargo, it’s important to understand their differences ...