With cold weather slowly returning to Wisconsin, it’s almost the sneezy season again. Many know the feeling of a cold coming on. They get a tickle in their throat, it moves to the upper sinuses and before they know it, a person has a runny nose.
All it all, it’s what’s known as the common cold, or a rhinovirus. The University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics is likely the leading university in the world for virus research, according UW biochemistry professor Ann Palmenberg, but she said there's no cure for it just yet.
A vaccine that targeted the common cold would likely be a boon to health-conscious consumers, but Palmenberg said there are simply too many viruses to target to make such an approach a practical solution.
“I’d be rich if I could invent (one),” said Palmenberg.
The rhinovirus has survived so long for a reason, she said.
“It never makes you so sick that you don’t go to work and sneeze on your co-workers," she said.
But most big pharmaceutical companies have labs working on the problem, she said.
According to Palmenberg, what might be the most promising way to go is to focus on the genes of the virus itsself.
