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  • COMMENT

Classify viruses — the gain is worth the pain

Viruses hold solutions to a lot of problems, so let’s fund and reward cataloguing, urge Jens H. Kuhn and colleagues.
  1. Jens H. Kuhn

    1. Jens H. Kuhn is the virology lead at the Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, Maryland, USA.

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  2. Yuri I. Wolf

    1. Yuri I. Wolf is a staff scientist at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

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  3. Mart Krupovic

    1. Mart Krupovic is a group leader in the Department of Microbiology, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France.

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  4. Yong-Zhen Zhang

    1. Yong-Zhen Zhang is a professor at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.

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  5. Piet Maes

    1. Piet Maes is an assistant professor in the Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Unit, Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Leuven, Belgium.

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  6. Valerian V. Dolja

    1. Valerian V. Dolja is a professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.

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  7. Eugene V. Koonin

    1. Eugene V. Koonin is a senior investigator in the National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

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Earth probably harbours a million times more virus particles than there are stars in the observable Universe. These viruses could hold solutions to many of humanity’s current problems.

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Nature 566, 318-320 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00599-8

References

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Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary information for Kuhn et al Comment new

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