The New Virus Killer

摘要

At first it sounds Like a terrible plan, the kind that results in zombies ruling the Earth. Imagine a killervirus, a bug that mutates so often that it inevitably finds a way to resist every drug. Now, rather than fight its ability to evolve, you enhance it. You speed up the muta- tion rate, forcing such dramatic genetic change that the virus crashes completely. In the movies, this technique, known as lethal mutagenesis, would create a supergerm, but in real life it's spawning a powerful new class of antiviral drugs. "It's a fundamentally different strategy," says University of Washington biologist Robert Smith. "Death by mutation."