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Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Amit Kapoor, Read More
There was much written concerning the research published earlier this month in Science, where researchers from China’s Harbin Veterinary Research Institute reported creating an avian H5N1 (highly pathogenic) and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (easily transmissible) hybrid, that according to them, achieved ...
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The US Office of Science and Technology Policy recently released proposed guidelines for maximizing the benefits and minimizing misuse of life sciences research. The measures establish oversight responsibilities for universities and other institutions that receive Federal funding.
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Hans Martin, professor emeritus, Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, reflects on the mysteries of L-forms, strains of bacteria that lack cell walls.
Snippet: "L-forms are bacterial variants with defective cell walls and irregular growth and multiplication. They arise after peptidoglyc... Read More
The Virtual Museum of Bacteria is a website that presents curated links about bacteria, embedded in informative articles. The website is up and running since 1998, making it one of the oldest websites on the internet. The texts are kept simple, though the collected links vary from simple to adva...
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There have been 131 confirmed human infections with avian influenza H7N9 virus in China, but so far there is little evidence for human to human transmission. Three out of four patients report exposure to animals, ‘mostly chickens‘, suggesting that most of the infections are zoonoses. Whether or ...
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Diseases transmitted by mosquitoes have a devastating impact on global health and the situation is complicated due to difficulties with both existing control measures and the impact of climate change. Genetically modified mosquitoes that are refractory to disease transmission are seen as having ...
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In this blog entry, I discuss how marine microbiology is fascinating to students, as well as the topic leading me (via social media) to other marine microbiologists. One of those marine microbiologists made me a "shrunken coffee cup" (shrunken due to being carried below a kilometer of depth on ...
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The upcoming cold and flu season may be one of the busiest in years, with the added threat of the H1N1 virus. The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) hosted a free webinar on Sept. 24 to help community leaders prepare for these potential threats to public health. ... Read More
To honor the memory of Robert Austrian for his pioneering and important research on pneumococci and pneumococcal diseases, Wyeth is sponsoring research awards for young scientists in the field of pneumococcal vaccinology.
Wyeth has selected the International Symposium of Pneumococci and Pne... Read More
A CNN iReport about an integrative lab series known as the Wolbachia in Nashville includes area high school students from School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt with the purpose of bringing real-world scientific research on microbes into high school biology classes. Angela Eeds, director with...
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Here's my summary of the second day of ASM2013, an exciting day full of science.
A simple new method better assesses the risks posed by emerging zoonotic viruses (those transmissible from animals to humans), according to a study published in PLOS Medicine this week. Dr. Simon Cauchemez and colleagues from Imperial College London in the UK and the Centers for Disease Control ...
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Tommy writes: Hi Vincent and Dickson, I was listening to the new episode of TWiP (episode 52) and one of your listeners wrote in asking about tree parasites. While plant parasite is not my main field of research, I have written about one such pa... Read More
Data collected over winter 2009 by five World Health Organisation National Influenza Centres in the southern hemisphere were used to examine the circulation of pandemic and seasonal influenza A strains during the first pandemic wave in the southern hemisphere. There is compelling evidence that t...
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This is a movie by David Bella, Ph.D., at the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research showing the results of an analysis of Adenovirus binding to blood coagulation factor X, performed in collaboration with Professor Andrew H Baker in the University of Glasgow.
The animation was creat... Read More |












