Milestone tumor virus publication by Elsevier journa...( Amsterdam 9 April 2009 A recent spe...),Health

Amsterdam, 9 April 2009 A recent special edition of the Elsevier journal Virology (www.elsevier.com/locate/viro), reviews the past, present, and future of the exciting field of small DNA tumor viruses. Many of the leaders in the field, including Dr Harald Zur Hausen, who was honored with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of the role of human papillomaviruses in cervical cancer, contributed to this comprehensive state-of-the-art publication.

In the field of viral oncology, particularly the studies of the small DNA tumor viruses (the polyomaviruses, the adenoviruses and the papillomaviruses) have led to fundamental discoveries that have advanced our understanding of basic biology. They have helped unravel some of the most complex aspects of the host cells they infect, from signal transduction cascades, to DNA replication, to transcription.

In his editorial, the Editor of the Special Issue Paul Lambert, from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, states: "This is a story of three families of viruses, and three families of scientists who studied them, all interwoven together in time and place. Each virus revealing threads of knowledge that only when woven together provided the scientific world incredible insights"

"I am delighted and proud to see that so many of the leaders of the field contributed to this issue", said Editor-in-Chief of Virology, Bob Lamb, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, "It is a highly valuable and very timely publication and I am convinced that it will be well-read across the world".

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