Immunology

Muslim Clerics Increase Uptake Of Polio Vaccination In Nigeria

Muslim clerics get a bad rap in an interconnected world. It was once possible to be anti-women, anti-medicine and anti-science without much notice- just control the media- but today that is a difficult task. In some parts of the world, imams, Islamic scho ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 8 2014 - 5:31pm

FAK! Master Regulator Of Toxin Production In Staph Infections Discovered

Researchers have discovered an enzyme that regulates production of the toxins that contribute to potentially life-threatening Staphylococcus aureus infections.  The enzym is fatty acid kinase (FAK) and FAK is formed by the proteins FakA and FakB1 or FakB2 ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 9 2014 - 3:30pm

Parasites FTW: Galápagos Hawks Hand Down Lice Like Family Heirlooms

Parasite is colloquially a bad word but about half of all known species are parasites and biologists have long hypothesized that the strategy of leeching off other organisms is a major driver of biodiversity.  Perhaps being called a parasite is a negative ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2014 - 3:31am

How Gut Microbiota Affect Intestinal Integrity

Bacteria in the gut help the body to digest food, and stimulate the immune system. A PhD project at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, examines whether modulations of the gut bacterial composition affect intestinal integrity, i.e ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 8:00am

Injected C. Noyvi-NT Bacteria Shrink Tumors In Rats, Dogs- And Humans

A modified version of the Clostridium novyi (C. noyvi-NT) bacterium can produce a strong and precisely targeted anti-tumor response in rats, dogs and now humans, according to a new report from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers. In its natural ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 13 2014 - 4:30pm

Ebola Outbreak Shows Global Disparities In Health Care

The latest outbreak of Ebola virus disease that has claimed more than 1,000 lives in West Africa and poses a serious, ongoing threat to that region: the spread to capital cities and Nigeria —Africa's most populous nation — presents challenges for hea ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2014 - 9:47am

Altered Events: Forcing Chromosomes Into Loops May Switch Off Sickle Cell Disease

Scientists have altered key biological events in red blood cells, causing the cells to produce a form of hemoglobin normally absent after the newborn period. Because this hemoglobin is not affected by the inherited gene mutation that causes sickle cell di ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 14 2014 - 1:00pm

Is Eradicating Polio Realistic?

In a world that is constantly changing, are attempts to eradicate disease realistic? Over 40 years ago, researchers were happy to have a War on Cancer. President Richard Nixon made it a national priority and it came with a lot of funding, so no one correct ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 17 2014 - 9:02am

If Seals Hadn't Introduced Tuberculosis To The New World, Europeans Would Have

Among the popular mythologies built up around native American cultures is that they had no disease before Europeans arrived full of pathogens. It's a common narrative in anthropology, it just was never science. A new study documents that again, findi ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 20 2014 - 12:40pm

Treatment Against Lethal Marburg Virus Developed

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals and collaborators at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, have protected nonhuman primates against Marburg virus, also known as Angola hemorrhagic fever. There are currently no vaccines or drugs approved for human u ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 21 2014 - 7:30pm