The VirOligo database (1) is part of an effort to provide methods suitable for assessing what viruses are present in samples. Such methods should faciliate studies of the spatial and temporal distribution of viruses and their diversity at any one time and place.

To this end, we are also exploring Virus Signature Hybridization (ViSH) and Virus Signature Amplification (ViSA) (2), microarray-based methods for hybridization and PCR amplification.

Citations
1. Onodera K, Melcher U(2002) "VirOligo: a database of virus-specific oligonucleotides." Nucleic Acids Res, 30(1):203-4
2. Onodera K, d'Offay J, and Melcher U (2002) "Nylon Membrane-Immobilized PCR for Detection of Bovine Viruses." Biotechniques, 32(1):74-80