How Animal Viruses Work? Principles and Methods for their Study

Viruses are ubiquitous on Earth: they infect all cellular forms, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. They are important agents of animal and human diseases (e.g. SARS-CoV-2, HIV, FIV, Zika, Avian Influenza, RHDV, etc). Therefore, viruses prevention, detection and treatment, requires the understanding of their nature, replication and infectious process.

In this course we will provide the basics of virology, and analyse the evolutionary theories/mechanisms proposed to explain the different evolutionary patterns observed in animal viruses. Additionally, we will approach host-pathogen co-evolution by providing tools to study both the virus and the host.