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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Every time a virus gets you sick, your immune system keeps a record. This essentially becomes a kill list that lets your body recognize and readily dispatch of any virus that tries to invade again. Scientists have now created $25 test blood test that prints out this list—an easy and cheap way to find out every virus that’s ever made you sick.

To understand how this test, called VirScan [hhmi.org], works, you need to know a bit about human immunity. The immune system responds to a viral infection by making antibodies, proteins that then bind to viral proteins and render them useless. Small amounts of these antibodies keep circulating in your blood even after you recover. They lie in wait for the next time you encounter that virus.

Existing tests for viruses—say for HIV or hepatitis C—in fact already look for these antibodies. What makes VirScan different is that it can look for antibodies matching virtually every virus known to infect humans at once. That’s 1000 strains from 206 species.

http://gizmodo.com/a-25-blood-test-could-detect-every-virus-thats-ever-in-1709096154 [gizmodo.com]

[Also Covered By]: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/hhmi-yvi060115.php [eurekalert.org]

[Abstract]: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6239/aaa0698 [sciencemag.org]

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