A perfect opportunity has arrived, your latest host had no idea what was lurking in their meal. Now, as a Norovirus, one of the most contagious RNA viruses, you’ve slipped past the first line of defense and infiltrated their body. 

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As a virus, you are a small infectious agent, unable to survive or replicate on your own. You need a host’s machinery to replicate. But beware! Human cells don’t take kindly to uninvited guests. Unlike human DNA, your genetic blueprint is stored in a single strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA), composed of tiny building blocks called nucleotides. There are 4 types of nucleotides in RNA: Adenine which pairs with Uracil, and Cytosine which pairs with Guanine.

 

Humans also have RNA, it helps build the proteins they need to survive. But your viral RNA has a different goal: to hijack the cell’s ribosomes (protein building machines) and turn them into virus-producing machines. If you succeed, you’ll create thousands of copies of yourself, ready to escape and invade another host, but survival won’t be easy. The human’s immune system is patrolling the body and searching for threats like you. If you don’t act fast, the body’s defenses will eliminate you before you can spread!

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Now, your mission begins. You must work quickly and break into a human cell, hijack its machinery, and produce as many viral copies as possible before escaping to infect the rest of the body. But beware...the human immune system is constantly on the lookout, ready to stop you before you can spread!

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You don’t have much time…will you successfully complete your viral invasion, or will the human immune system destroy you before you can escape?

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