Viruses are remarkable things. Tiny packages of genetic information, they invade host organisms (such as humans) and use a wide variety of strategies to persist and multiply. In doing so, they can cause some really serious diseases - such as influenza, hepatitis and AIDS. How something so small can produce such profound effects on a host is one of the really fascinating questions in biology.

If you set out to study virology, you quickly realise that it is impossible to learn about viruses without learning in detail about their hosts. This means that Virology is quite the opposite of a narrow discipline - while finding out about viruses and how they work, you also get to know a lot about general biology.

In fact, viruses have been at the forefront of advance in modern biology as a quick look at some historic milestones shows.

• Two crucial features of how genes work in eukaryotes - RNA splicing and transcription factors, and the existence of genes that can cause cancer - oncogenes, were discovered during studies of viruses.
• Work in the 1960's led to the discovery of the viral enzyme 'reverse transcriptase', without which gene cloning could not have happened.
• And going further back, the system of mammalian cell culture on which so much diverse work now depends was developed to work with viruses.

Follow the links below to get more information about studying virology at Warwick, and about the Virology teaching staff who you'll meet during your degree. We hope you'll be as inspired by viruses as we are, and want to find out more!

The University holds regular Open Days, when you can visit the Department, see our facilities and meet representatives of the academic staff; the Virology Staff will be happy to talk to you. Alternatively, you can email virology at warwick dot ac dot uk with your questions at any time.