A team of scientists from the The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), California, manage to observe and describe a mechanism for viral replication based on ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs). The role of RNPs in virus infection and survival was already known but the ways this apparatus works have always been elusive because these tiny molecular machines are hard to produce efficiently in the lab.

As reported in a paper published on Science on December 21, the American researchers found a way to make full-length flu RNPs and analyzed them with innovative imaging system. By doing this, they managed to see some flu RNPs being replicated, something which had never been seen before. Such a discovery would be of great help to fight viral infection by highlighting some viral weak points that could be targeted by specifically designed drugs.