You probably remember when you had the chicken pox. Maybe you recall a few times you caught the flu. But you might have had some infections that you never even realized or that you don’t remember. Even if you don’t remember, your immune system does—it has special antibodies to combat those viruses should they ever return. Now researchers have developed a quick, inexpensive method called VirScan that can detect the viruses currently infecting a patient as well as those with which she was infected in the past, all from a tiny sample of blood. VirScan could help researchers better understand how the body combats viruses and virus’ lasting effects. The researchers published an article outlining their method today in Science.
