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Pox Factory
30 September 2012

Pox Factory

It’s all you can think about. It tingles and tickles and irks you to no end. It’s that itch you know you shouldn’t scratch, because if you do you’ll be scarred for life. Chicken pox. If you haven’t had it yet, chances are you will someday. This highly contagious infection is caused by the varicella zoster virus. Once it infects our cells it launches a cunning plan of attack, sneaking into the command centre of the cell (the nucleus) and hijacking our own machinery to replicate itself. Thousands of viral particles can fill a nucleus before they exit to have the rest of their parts assembled and launch another attack on the next unsuspecting cell. Using a novel technique, based on scanning electron microscopy, scientists have captured in 3D the distribution of thousands of viral particles (shown false-coloured yellow and red) crammed into an infected nucleus (coloured blue).

Written by Lux Fatimathas

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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