High‐throughput droplet‐based digital PCR (ddPCR) is a refinement of the conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‎ methods. In ddPCR, DNA/RNA is encapsulated stochastically inside the microdroplets as reaction chambers. A small percentage of the reaction chamber contains one or fewer copies of the DNA or RNA. After PCR amplification, concentrations are determined based on the proportion of nonfluorescent partitions through the Poisson distribution. Some of the main features of ddPCR include high sensitivity and specificity, absolute quantification without a standard curve, high reproducibility, good tolerance to PCR inhibitor, and high efficacy compared to conventional molecular methods. These advantages make ddPCR a valuable addition to the virologist's toolbox. The following review outlines the recent technological advances in ddPCR methods and their applications in viral identification.

Lentiviral vectors (LVs) have provided an efficient way to integrate our gene of interest into eukaryote cells. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-derived LVs have been vastly studied to become an invaluable asset in gene delivery. This abled LVs to be used in both research laboratories and gene therapy. Pseudotyping HIV-1 based LVs, abled it to transduce different types of cells, especially hematopoietic stem cells. A wide range of tropism, plus to the ability to integrate genes into target cells, made LVs an armamentarium in gene therapy. The third and fourth generations of self-inactivating LVs are being used to achieve safe gene therapy. Not only advanced methods enabled the clinical-grade LV production on a large scale, but also considerably heightened transduction efficiency. One of which is microfluidic systems that revolutionized gene delivery approaches. Since gene therapy using LVs attracted lots of attention to itself, we provided a brief review of LV structure and life-cycle along with methods for improving both LV production and transduction. Also, we mentioned some of their utilization in immunotherapy and gene therapy.

Graphical Schematic overview of COVID-19–associated bacterial co-infections in burn patients. Burn-related skin barrier damage, immunosuppression, and prolonged hospitalization increase susceptibility to pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa during SARS-CoV-2 infection.

While the world has faced an epidemic disease resulted from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), a disease which has derived from a new coronavirus that has a high contagious power causing severe illness in some individuals that may even lead to death, no vaccine or special effective treatment has been offered yet. By noticing the genetic similarity between Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) and SARS-CoV viruses with SARS-CoV-2 and especially between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, the aim of this research was to express the proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus including the spike (S), nucleocapsid (N) and other proteins in the virus and their function in entering host cells, virus replication and production on one hand, and developing possible drugs that are effective in treating this coronavirus infection by targeting the above-mentioned proteins. On the other hand, the researchers are looking to offer a possible vaccine to prevent infection with this virus by using the proteins of this virus.