I always pictured viruses as microscopic bugs that are constantly trying to invade our body. They inject host cells – which usually reproduce DNA for our body – with their own DNA to force those cells to reproduce for the virus. But after the FSL session on Halloween, my perspective changed. I received a prize of three 3D-printed Christmas ornaments. But what made those ornaments unique was that they were the capsids of three viruses. I thought to myself, “What is a capsid?”. Then I saw there was a description of the ornaments that said that a capsid is a shell of proteins produced by a virus to protect its DNA/RNA when it’s not invading cells. A virus’ capsid structure is also unique to that type of virus, which I think is neat. These capsids protect that viruses’s DNA/RNA are protected until the right time, which is when the virus is going to inject its DNA/RNA into a host cell. This could contribute to why viruses are more dangerous than bacteria. I think that it’s cool that something so invasive as viruses have unique protective cases and aren’t always necessarily on the move.
Daniel Austin
Leave a Reply