Another aspect of social evolution of viruses that Sanjuán is investigating is why multiple viral particles sometimes gather and infect a cell together. The trade-off is that, if the viral particles assemble, there are fewer units to infect different cells. So “in principle, this is costly because it limits diffusion capability”. But his team found that the aggregated viruses grow faster and produce more progeny. This result was dependent on cell type: In tumor cells that have no innate immunity, being aggregated was costly. But in normal cells, which do mount an innate immune response, being aggregated was beneficial for the viruses because it allows the viruses to overwhelm the innate immune response

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