Translation of mRNA by the ribosome is essential for all life. It’s normally exceptionally accurate, with spontaneous error rates of only ~1 in 10,000 to 100,000 codons.

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When RNA viruses infect cells, they use the ribosomes in the host cell to translate their genomes. However, they often force the ribosome to behave differently - e.g. shift into a different reading frame, initiate in a different place, or read through a stop codon. 

These are tightly-regulated events that are vitally important for viral gene expression. If disrupted, many viruses fail to complete their replication cycles. We're trying to better understand these events at a molecular level.