The deciphering of the genetic code of the omnipresent common cold virus - rhinovirus - by the researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin indicates the newest step in the direction of finding an effective cure for cold.

The details of the work published in the journal Science, confirm some standard conceptions about the constantly metamorphosing nature of the 106 known versions of human rhinovirus.

The cracking of the cold's code, in a sequential study of the genomes of all strains of rhinovirus, helped the researchers established a relation between different strains, which created a kind of viral family tree.

It has been an uphill task beating "common cold" because "common" is a baffling description. Finding an anti-viral drug to fight the virus or a vaccine to stall the infection has been practically unattainable because scientists could not fathom how the viruses attacked the body's cells.

With the findings throwing light on important revelations, Ann Palmenberg of the University of Wisconsin, the study's co-author, said: "We know about the common cold virus, but we didn't know how their genomes encoded information. Now we do, and all kinds of new things are falling out."

Though an absolute cure for the common cold is not yet on the cards in near future, the human rhinovirus's genetic outline can assist scientists in fighting this extremely infectious ailment!