Scientists Just Resurrected the 1918 “Spanish Flu” Virus—Here’s What They Found

Scientists just resurrected the 1918 “Spanish Flu” virus—here’s what they found

Scientists in Switzerland have cracked open a century-old viral mystery by decoding the genome of the 1918 influenza virus from a preserved Zurich patient. This ancient RNA revealed that the virus had already adapted to humans at the very start of the pandemic, carrying mutations that made it both more infectious and more immune-resistant. By pioneering a new method to recover fragile RNA from preserved tissue, researchers gained rare insights i…

Scientists Decode 1918 Flu Virus Genome From Century-Old Tissue

Scientists have decoded the Swiss genome of the 1918 flu virus from a century-old specimen, revealing early adaptations for human infection. Scientists from the Universities of Basel and Zurich have successfully decoded the genome of the influenza virus that caused the 1918–1920 pandemic in Switzerland, using a preserved specimen from the University of Zurich’s Medical [...]