Researchers say they have discovered a new form of cell division in human cells, which they believe serves as a natural back-up mechanism during faulty cell division, preventing some cells from going down a path that can lead to cancer. 

"If we could promote this new form of cell division, which we call klerokinesis, we may be able to prevent some cancers from developing," says lead researcher Dr. Mark Burkard, an assistant professor of hematology-oncologyat the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, who studies cancers in which cells contain too many chromosomes, a condition called polyploidy, and also sees breast cancer patients.

Current thinking on how the Toxoplasma gondii parasite invades its host is incorrect, according to a study published today in Nature Methods describing a new technique to knock out genes. 

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that commonly infects cats - and therefore people who own a lot cats- but is also carried by other warm-blooded animals. Up to a third of the UK population are chronically infected with the parasite, according to estimates. In most cases the acute infection causes only flu-like symptoms but women who become infected during pregnancy can pass the parasite to their unborn child which can result in serious health problems for the baby such as blindness and brain damage. 

It's too late to treat Lou Gehrig, but he would probably still be batting .300 and playing every day for the New York Yankees if he had not been struck down by the disease that now bears his name.

Researchers who are not in the US, or who are Red Sox fans, prefer the more scientific amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) term for Lou Gehrig's Disease and results from eleven independent ALS studies provide some hope for the afflicted community – because they reveal that the disease may be treatable by targeting new mechanisms revealed in neural stem cell-based studies. 

The parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is one of the major causes of food-borne diseases but new insights into how the immune system combats T. gondii could lead to the development of long-sought vaccines. 

To fight off pathogens, the immune system relies on Toll-like receptors (TLRs), a class of proteins that recognize microbes and activate immune responses. The important role of TLR11 in recognizing the T. gondii infection was previously demonstrated by a team led by Sankar Ghosh of Columbia University and Alan Sher of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But scientists had not yet identified any TLRs, including TLR11, that could promote survival in infected animals. 

Blocking even a single tiny blood vessel in the brain can harm neural tissue and alter behavior, says a study from U.C. San Diego.

All is not lost, though. The effects can be mitigated by  the FDA-approved drug memantine, suggesting treatment that could slow the progress of dementia associated with cumulative damage to miniscule blood vessels that feed brain cells.

Our immune system does not shut down with age, says a new study published in PLOS Pathogens today. T cells can respond to virus infections in an older person with the same vigor as T cells from a young person.

Researchers examined individuals, younger than 40, between 41 to 59 years of age and older than 60, infected with three different viruses, including West Nile, and found the older group demonstrated perfectly normal immune responses.

Both the number of virus-fighting T cells and the functionality of the T cells were equivalent in all three groups.

A flu vaccine that also helps prevent heart disease?

Two researchers presented studies at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress saying that the influenza vaccine could also help maintain heart health and ward off strokes and heart attacks. 

New research findings show that immune system development is affected by gravity changes when astronauts are exposed to stresses during launch and landing which disrupts their body’s natural defenses against infection. Changes to the immune system need to be investigated before astronauts undergo longer space missions. 

Researchers looked at how antibody production is affected when animal development occurs on board a space station and which part of space travel has the greatest impact on antibodies, which are the proteins that the immune system uses to protect us from diseases.

Sub-Saharan Africa has problems.  A cow in France makes twice as much money as the average human in Sub-Saharan Africa and the region is beset by problems that stem from post-colonial corruption and inclement conditions.