I have a whole backlog of interesting links... and I guess tonight's the night for posting them!

- Scientist attacks Britain’s bird flu preparation
- China trials new HIV vaccine on humans
- HIV on the rise through hetero sex
- Combining Affymetrix microarray results
- Russian Researchers-Embryo Stem Cells Can Repair Retina
- Biotech company cracks gene process
- Robot Used To Inject Stem Cells Into Heart

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today released an automated literature search tool for the multidisciplinary study of biological systems. The tool is available as a free plug-in to Cytoscape 2.1, an open-source bioinformatics platform that enables researchers to form a visual map of complex biological networks, increasing their understanding of molecular pathways and the biological causes of disease.

If there was a market for it, a survival guide for bacteria might include topics like "How to use your pili to keep your host from going apoptotic." A host's cells can respond to a bacterial infection with apoptosis, or programmed cell death. For bacteria that pass directly from host to host, this can pose a problem. If the bacteria are highly virulent and induce too much cell death, they could take down their host before they're able to jump ship, thus hurting the bacteria's chances of survival in the long run.

Using a strategy involving a genetically modified baculovirus and caterpillar cells scientists from Protein Sciences Corporation have been able to speed up a key step in the development of an experimental cell-based influenza vaccine. They report their findings today at the 2005 American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Research Meeting.

Research into ribonucleic acids (RNA)--the building blocks of life--is exploding as scientists worldwide discover the roles of RNA in genetics, health, disease and the development of organisms. The rapidly growing body of knowledge has created the need for researchers to develop a shared vocabulary and system for describing, cataloging and comparing their findings.

The genes TEL2 and MYC cooperate with each other to promote pediatric cases of the immune system cancer B-cell lymphoma. This finding, from investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the current issue of Molecular Cell Biology (MCB).

South America's giant Pantanal wetlands, one of the world's most bio-diverse ecosystems, is at growing risk from intensive peripheral agricultural, industrial and urban development – problems expected to be compounded by climate change, United Nations University experts warn.

What is the connection between a fly’s aerodynamic skill and human heart function? Using the nation’s most brilliant X-rays, located at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, a cardiac molecular motors expert from the University of Vermont (UVM) and colleagues from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and Caltech performed research to answer that and other questions.