Viruses contain in their DNA the information to reproduce, but they need the mechanisms present in our cells to perform it. In this way, an infected cell will generate copies of the virus. But what happens if we modify the genome of the invasive virus so that it also contains a good copy of some gene that we have damaged in our cells?

We are facing a scenario known as gene therapy. A viral vector is a modified virus that makes a vehicle to introduce genetic material into the nucleus of a cell. Modify the DNA of the virus to first avoid its reproduction and after incorporating a gene that we want to add to our genome.

These experiments are not always successful. Although they can cure us of a disease, they may end up producing other unexpected. Therefore, in our work group we have designed a web application that analyzes cells that have been infected by genetically modified viruses, showing in detail the sites of insertion of the genome of the virus and analyzing the presence of other genes nearby, whose activation could cause diseases very serious, such as cancer.

It is a paper done by a team of researchers formed mostly by professors and students of the Master in Bioinformatics.

More information: http://go.uv.es/84faRar