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The Ebola virus mutated to more effectively infiltrate human cells during the West African outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people between 2013 and 2016. That's the finding of two teams of virologists in studies published Thursday in the journal Cell. The scientists identified a mutation that changed the part of the virus that fits into receptors on the exterior of the host cell. (Kaplan, 11/3)

The Ebola virus that went on a deadly three-year rampage in West Africa before it was smothered earlier this year was on the move in more ways than one. Two new studies show that, in the course of the West African epidemic, the Ebola virus underwent evolutionary changes that made it more deadly and easier to spread from human to human. (Healy, 11/3)

The researchers do not yet understand exactly how it works, but several lines of evidence suggest it helped expand the scope of the epidemic. One alarming finding: Patients infected with the mutated version of Ebola were significantly more likely to die. “It’s hard to escape the conclusion that it’s an adaptation to the human host,” said Dr. Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and an author of one of the new studies. (Zimmer, 11/3)