Love can strike us in the most unlikely places and in the most unlikely ways. For researcher Yancy Morbets, that meant finding love in a petri dish in the form of a particularly potent strain of Rhinovirus, the virus behind the common cold [1].

“I honestly couldn’t think of a more unlikely couple,” said Morbets through sneezes and a runny nose. “When I started at the lab, I hated this thing. I wanted to figure out a way to kill it more than anything in the world. But, I was pouring so much time into thinking about it, so much emotion, I started to realize I wasn’t just catching a cold, I was catching feels.”

It’s not uncommon for Morbets’ colleagues to come in each the morning to find their fellow virologist curled up on a lab bench spooning a vial full of virus culture, murmuring about how resilient the virus is and how smart the virus is to overcome their attempts to vaccinate it.

“Why do we keep Yancy around? That’s a fair question,” said Senior Lab Tech Sheila Casserly. “Honestly we’re all curious what will happen if Yancy and the viruses split. I mean, maybe we can hurt this thing. I know the last bad breakup I went through — it nearly killed me.”

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