Emerging viruses already circulating in the Western Hemisphere could infect fetal tissue and might have the capacity to cause birth defects, according to preclinical findings published January 31 in Science Translational Medicine.

AAAS this week urged policymakers to support research using donated fetal tissue, which was instrumental to the development of the vaccine to combat polio, and today advances efforts to better understand the Zika virus, eye disease, and human development.

The genome of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was first sequenced over 20 years ago, but researchers have now discovered that the common pathogen has a surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity as well.

The virus only causes birth defects in newborn infants and disease in adults with compromised immune systems, but it infects most humans on the planet. The new findings, published in the 23 November issue of Science, could help explain why HCMV is such a widespread and successful virus.