Scientists discover Hepatitis C virus critical protein structure. It is estimated that around 60 million people worldwide suffer from chronic HCV-related infections. The virus infects the liver cells, causing the condition of a "silent" infection for decades until liver damage is sufficient to trigger symptoms. A team of scientists from Scripps Research and the University of Amsterdam is achieving an important goal in the field of virology that is mapping, with high resolution, the critical proteins that examine the surface of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and allow the virus to enter the host cell. The research, published in Science on…