"Et Augebitur Scientia"
Leeds School of Medicine, England.
"A retrovirus is any virus belonging to the viral family Retroviridae. These are enveloped viruses possessing an RNA genome, and replicate via a DNA intermediate. Retroviruses rely on the enzyme reverse transcriptase to perform the reverse transcription of its genome from RNA into DNA, which can then be integrated into the host's genome with an integrase enzyme."
"The virus itself stores its nucleic acid genome and serves as a means of delivery of that genome into cells it targets as an obligate parasite, and constitute the infection. Once in the host's cell, the RNA strands undergo reverse transcription in the cytosol and are integrated into the host's genome, at which point the retroviral DNA is referred to as a provirus."
"When retroviruses have integrated their genome into the germ line, their genome is passed on to a following generation. These endogenous retroviruses, contrasted with exogenous ones, now make up 8% of the human genome. While transcription was classically thought to only occur from DNA to RNA, reverse transcriptase transcribes RNA into DNA. The term "retro" in retrovirus refers to this reversal, that is the making of DNA from RNA, of the central dogma of molecular biology. It is important to note that a retrovirus must "bring" its own reverse transcriptase in its capsid, otherwise it is unable to utilize the infected cell's enzymes to carry out the task, due to the unusual nature of producing DNA from RNA."
"Because reverse transcription lacks the usual proof-reading of DNA replication, this kind of virus mutates very often. This enables the virus to grow resistant to antiviral pharmaceuticals quickly, and impedes, for example, the development of an effective vaccine against HIV or Ebola."
At the back of the lecture theatre Staniek stretched tired and cramped muscles. The shuttle flight from London to Leeds-Bradford airport came easy on the wallet, but short on comfort. He half-listened to the lecture being given, not paying full attention to the words but studying the deliverer carefully. Dr Isaiah Schofield PhD, research fellow of Kings College London, author, leading authority on retroviral research and treatment, the list went on and on. Staniek massaged his neck with his hands. Dr Isaiah Schofield, the second name on the list from Krannix. Bag this one and a further eighteen million Swiss Francs would be deposited in his account.
He shut his eyes as Schofield elaborated on the spread of HIV in Africa and the attempts to combat it there. Staniek smiled to himself. It was simple. Through a virus, old age or at the hands of an assassin such as himself, death, that last inescapable act, always came. In Schofield's case, it was just a matter of deciding how.
Authors Note: The title of this chapter is in fact the motto of Leeds University. Translated from Latin it means "And knowledge shall be increased."