Oink!

"You FOOL!!! You've killed us all...."

Woo-hoo... Three cases of swine flu detected on campus here at CU-Boulder....  [Locks door and scrubs exposed skin with disinfectant hand gel]

In other news... my adviser (Rob Kuchta) is in the news:

"CU professor Robert Kuchta, of the chemistry and biochemistry department, along with former CU-Boulder professor Kathy Rowlen, developed and licensed a commercial technology in 2006 to determine the genetic signature of specific influenza strains within hours. He said the technology could easily be reconfigured to identify and track the swine flu. Kuchta said he'd be willing to let the Centers for Disease Control use the technology, which could prove useful in helping health officials stem potential flu pandemics."

Full story here.... and here's a good article from 2005 about the flu chip our lab developed.

Incidentally, I'm seriously not a fan of calling this the "H1N1 virus"...

• Firstly (and most importantly) -- "H1N1 virus" is not nearly as catchy as "swine flu."  :)
  
• Secondly -- Different strains of the "Influenza A H1N1" virus are what cause the regular "seasonal" flu every year! This is just one of many, many H1N1 strains (it's actually a hybrid of common human, bird, and swine A-H1N1 strains).  So, for crying out loud... calling it the "H1N1 flu" doesn't distinguish it at all from the regular flu! (I think the best name I've heard is the "hybrid" flu....)
  
• Lastly -- without a fun name like swine flu, we wouldn't have been entertained by irrational reactions worldwide, or by using Twitter to watch "uninformed panics unfold live"....

Pass the ham!