Some thoughts on viral genome research

Here's some important notes from reading a paper:

To examine the function of a viral gene:

1. See when (eg. stage of gene expression) & under what conditions/environments is the gene expressed, by testing the transcribed RNA
2. Confirm the above by examining the protein expression
3. Do a gene knockout:
   -Choose a gene inhibition/knockout method, double check the method to see of it works by testing the RNA/protein output
   -Use that method to examine the viral infection after knockout (Positive and negative controls are essential here)
   

In a simple flowchart, that's examining the following levels in order:
RNA expression -> Protein expression -> Phenotype

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This is starting to make sense. Doing virology, we could more easily do the 3rd step in the flowchart, and get some real data. In contrast, immunologists are often stuck in the 2nd step, and can't make farther sense out of their discovery. (Could you knock out IL-2 in a real human?) Guess this is the kind of stuff I should to put on my statement of purporse: why I like virology over other things.