Immunology

Genetically Modified Kamikaze Mosquitoes Take Out Diseases

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science (Inside Science TV) – One of the deadliest forces on earth is the humble mosquito. Mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, chikungunya, yellow fever and West Nile virus infect more than 350 million people and kill another 1 m ...

Article - Inside Science - Sep 16 2014 - 7:30am

Vancomycin Modified To Vanquish Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Scientists have devised a new antibiotic based on vancomycin that is effective against vancomycin-resistant strains of  methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other disease-causing bacteria. The new vancomycin analog appears to have not one ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 17 2014 - 5:30pm

Leukemia's Waterloo: The Battle For Cell Production

To fight leukemia, we have to fight on its terms, and that means understanding the nature of the fight for superiority between mutated genes and normal genes, according to a paper that investigated Acute Myeloid Leukemia to understand why leukemic cells a ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2014 - 1:30pm

Cell Conversion And How DNA 'Bias' May Keep Some Diseases In Circulation

It's an early lesson in genetics: we get half our DNA from Mom, half from Dad. But that straightforward explanation does not account for a process that sometimes occurs when cells divide. Called gene conversion, the copy of a gene from Mom can replac ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 5 2014 - 9:08am

Blackflies Implicated In Nodding Syndrome

Though it has been researched for decades, the cause of nodding syndrome, a disabling disease affecting African children, is unknown. A new report suggests that blackflies infected with the parasite Onchocerca volvulus may be capable of passing on a second ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 3 2014 - 7:30am

Are Ebola Drug Researchers Developing ‘Death Drugs’ That Could Wipe Out Humanity?

Credit: Institute of Responsible Technology By Jon Entine, Genetic Literacy Project It’s perplexing that strident anti-GMO critics who regularly harp on the “danger” of harvesting a “foreign” gene from one species and inserting into another to improve cro ...

Article - Jon Entine - Oct 9 2014 - 8:00am

Peptide Mimic: A Universal Ebola Drug Target

Researchers have created a molecule known as a peptide mimic that displays a functionally critical region of the virus that is universally conserved in all known species of Ebola. This new tool can be used as a drug target in the discovery of anti-Ebola a ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 7 2014 - 5:01pm

Universal Screening For Superbugs Too Costly

Though numerous experts and policy makers have called for hospitals to screen patients for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections and isolate anyone testing positive to prevent the spread "Superbugs" in healthcare settings ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 8 2014 - 8:00am

Herpesvirus, Not Zoos, Implicated In Baby Elephant Deaths

Elephants are among the most intelligent non-humans, arguably on par with chimpanzees, and both African and Asian elephants are endangered.  In 1995, 16-month old Kumari, the first Asian elephant born at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, died of a myste ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 9 2014 - 8:00am

Estrogen And Natural Resistance To Respiratory Infection

Females are naturally more resistant to respiratory infections than males and now researchers have linked that increased resistance to bacterial pneumonia in female mice to an enzyme called  enzyme nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3), which is activated by the ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 15 2014 - 1:01pm