Zika disrupts cellular processes to impair brain development

Virus also causes spike in protein that controls cell growth, death

Zika virus

ATTACK MODE  Researchers are learning about how the Zika virus (red) causes brain cells to stop growing, leading to microcephaly. Those discoveries may lead to treatments that can counteract the virus’s effect on developing brains.

NIAID/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

VANCOUVER — Zika virus’s tricks for interfering with human brain cell development may also be the virus’s undoing.