Christiane Wobus, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School

Human noroviruses cause the majority of viral-induced diarrhea/ vomiting in places where crowds gather, including cruise ships. Newspapers call this the "cruise ship virus" or "stomach bug". No antivirals or vaccines are currently able to prevent infection and disease with noroviruses largely because the human norovirus cannot be grown in the laboratory. Therefore, many laboratories use mouse norovirus as a surrogate to better understand human norovirus biology and to identify effective antiviral therapies.