Yoshihiro Kawaoka

TL;DR: Wild aquatic bird populations have long been considered the natural reservoir for influenza A viruses with virus transmission from these birds seeding other avian and mammalian hosts, but recent studies in bats have suggested other reservoir species may also exist.

TL;DR: An eight-plasmid DNA transfection system for the rescue of infectious influenza A virus from cloned cDNA facilitates the design and recovery of both recombinant and reassortant influenza A viruses, and may also be applicable to the recovery of other RNA viruses entirely from cloning cDNA.

TL;DR: Efforts to control these outbreaks and real-time monitoring of the evolution of this virus should provide invaluable information to direct infectious disease control programmes and to improve understanding of the factors that determine viral pathogenicity and/or transmissibility.

TL;DR: A new reverse-genetics system that allows one to efficiently generate influenza A viruses entirely from cloned cDNAs is described, which should be useful in viral mutagenesis studies and in the production of vaccines and gene therapy vectors.

TL;DR: An anatomical difference in the distribution in the human airway of the different binding molecules preferred by the avian and human influenza viruses is demonstrated to provide a rational explanation for why H5N1 viruses at present rarely infect and spread between humans although they can replicate efficiently in the lungs.