John Lednicky and his colleagues Janet Butel, Maya Luetke, and Julia Loeb published an article entitled “Complete genomic sequence of a new Human polyomavirus 9 strain with an altered noncoding control region” in the journal Virus Genes. (DOI) 10.1007/s11262-014-1119-z. This is the first complete Human polyomavirus 9 (HPyV-9) genome to be described in the USA, and is the third one to be fully elucidated in the world. The other two were from Germany and France. The genome described by Lednicky et al has a noncoding control region (NCCR) that is different from the two previous strains by having one less AML-1a binding site and three more Sp1/GC box binding sites. Additional nucleotide polymorphisms result in two amino acid differences in viral coat proteins VP2 and VP3 between the two older and the newer HPyV-9 genomes. The significance of these NCCR differences in still unclear, but may dictate tissue tropism of the viruses. Little is known about HPyV-9, which appears to cause inapparent infections in immunocompetent people. The same virus may be a cause of “polyomavirus” disease in immunosuppressed kidney transplant patients. Just one of the ways EGH is rising!