Immunology

Black-Legged Ticks Linked To Encephalitis

Tick-borne illnesses are on the rise, or at least better reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lyme disease leads the pack, with some 35,000 cases reported annually but in the Northeast, the black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 15 2013 - 1:33pm

Science Kaiju: Bacteriophages Versus Superbugs

Our digestive system is home to trillions of bacteria which battle for our health. Sometimes they help us digest food and something they battle harmful microbes. When we take antibiotics to combat bacterial infections, beneficial bacteria can also be kill ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 18 2013 - 11:06am

THC In Cannabis Does Not Slow Multiple Sclerosis Progression

The main active constituent of cannabis- tetrahydrocannabinol or THC- has not shown to be effective in slowing the course of progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). The CUPID (Cannabinoid Use in Progressive Inflammatory brain Disease) study was carried out b ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 23 2013 - 10:34am

No Link Between Mercury In Fish And Autism (Again)

Concerned parents have been worried about the potential impact of exposure to low levels of mercury on the developing brain, such as when pregnant women consume fish, and that has led to claims that the chemical may be responsible for behavioral disorders ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 23 2013 - 11:28am

Stem Cell Gene Therapy May Prevent Inherited Childhood Dementia Disease

Stem cell gene therapy has been used to treat a fatal genetic brain disease- Sanfilippo, which in human children causes progressive dementia and death- in mice for the first time.  The researchers are hoping to begin a clinical trial within two years. ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 24 2013 - 10:17am

KCNK3 Gene Implicated In Pulmonary Hypertension

Researchers have identified new genetic mutations in the gene KCNK3 that can cause pulmonary arterial hypertension, a rare fatal disease characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs. The KCNK3  mutations appear to affect potassium channels in the pul ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 25 2013 - 10:32am

First Probable Person To Person Transmission Of New Bird Flu Virus In China

An article in BMJ reports on the first instance of probable person-to-person transmission of the new avian influenza A (H7N9) virus, which was recently identified in Eastern China.  As of June 30th 2013, 133 cases had been reported, resulting in 43 deaths ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 6 2013 - 9:02pm

New Study Casts Doubt On Correlation Between Income And Obesity

Obesity has risen for decades and social scientists and government officials have scrambled to link cause and correlation, proposing everything from low income to public parks to a thrifty phenotype hypothesis, which says that poor people are biologically ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 8 2013 - 9:01am

Probiotics Have No Impact On Crohn's Disease Remission

More people are seeking natural alternatives to medicine and products containing probiotics have flooded the marketplace. Probiotics are safe and tolerable but their value remains unknown. Studies are being done with specific illnesses to see if probiotics ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 19 2013 - 7:01am

Tuberculosis Genomes Show Why It's A Wildly Successful Pathogen

Tuberculosis (TB) is a wildly successful pathogen, if your goal is to infect up to two billion people in every corner of the world, with a new infection of a human host every second. A new analysis of dozens of tuberculosis genomes gathered from around th ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 21 2013 - 4:22pm