Fighting Infections with

摘要

Viruses are responsible for a variety of illnesses, ranging from the common cold to more serious conditions such as AIDS and some types of cancer, but their methods of infection are always similar. Once a virus has entered a host's body, it hijacks the replicating mechanisms within the host's cells and starts pumping out copies of itself. Viruses can only do this by concealing their genomic material within a protein shell, or capsid, which allows them to slip inside the host's body like a Trojan horse. These capsid shells often have complex symmetrical structures, so mathematicians are investigating their shapes in the hope of discovering new treatments for viral infections.