mutate

When hypergolic propellants burn, they release highly carcinogenic toxins and can cause suffocation and mutate a person’s DNA.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

Genes can be expressed or activated, or not—more often they’re not; they mutate and can alter their own function and be altered by environmental forces.

From Slate ● Mar. 19, 2026

Most efforts to create broader vaccines have aimed to protect against an entire viral family, such as all coronaviruses or all influenza strains, by targeting viral components that mutate less frequently.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026

Scientists track the evolution of influenza viruses because they mutate constantly and the seasonal flu vaccine has to be updated each year to keep up.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025

The aids virus and other emerging viruses are surviving the wreck of the tropical biosphere because they can mutate faster than any changes taking place in their ecosystems.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

“It’s a virus that mutates and against which people must be immunized over and over again.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Most of the time the virus drifts along making minor changes and then every so often there is a sudden abrupt shift as the virus mutates substantially.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025

Rasmussen said the worry now is that if H5N1 mutates to become transmissible between people, it’ll be young children as well as the old and compromised who are likely to be most affected.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025

This lucky fact could change, however, as the virus mutates within each cow it infects.

From Salon ● May 23, 2024

It mutates even in the course of one infection, and a person who dies of hiv is usually infected with multiple strains, which have all arisen spontaneously as mutants in the body.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Scientists sequence the tumor to identify mutated proteins, which are also called neoantigens, and then create an mRNA strand using up to 34 of the neoantigens that they believe will produce the best immune response.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

Even the endings feel like save points, with Alice respawning at the start of each consecutive movie with another mutated monkey on her back.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026

Flu hit early last winter, with a new mutated version of the virus circulating - a seasonal influenza called subclade K or Super-K.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

The researchers began by studying the vaccine in melanoma because those tumors are typically highly mutated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Why had the beautiful fairy mutated into a revolting little devil?

From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull

But some viruses are adept at changing their appearance – or mutating – so vaccines can quickly go out of date.

From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026

This is look No. 1 at the photo shoot for this story, and everyone in the room — producers, photo assistants, editors — stop to stare, little gasps mutating into big ones.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026

Stillness that is not still—think Martha Graham by way of Irving Penn, with a nod to Rei Kawakubo’s mutating forms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025

Researchers and public health officials have been putting forth efforts to better understand how bird flu is passed between species to keep it from mutating into something that could become a virus with pandemic potential.

From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2025

Ernie glared back in the mirror, picking at his face, a big pimple in the middle of his forehead like he was mutating into a unicorn.

From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds