Providing safer shellfish is the goal of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who are studying the means by which pathogenic bacteria enter shellfish.

A study in the April issue (currently available online) of Nature Genetics establishes a model that may take scientists closer to understanding how cells in the human body determine their own fate.

Increasing ventilation within aircraft cabins can reduce the spread of infectious diseases in-flight, suggests a review published in this week's issue of THE LANCET.

The ability to select and develop compounds that act on specific cellular targets has just gained a computational ally — a mathematical algorithm that predicts the precise effects a given compound will have on a cell’s molecular components or chemical processes. Using this tool, drug developers can design compounds that will act on only desired gene and protein targets, eliciting therapeutic responses free of unwanted side effects.

Climate changes in the northern and southern hemispheres are linked by a phenomenon by which the oceans react to changes on either side of the planet. A research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Cardiff University has shown for the first time that ocean circulation in the southern hemisphere has, in the past, adapted to sudden changes in the north. The research published today in Science will enable more accurate forecasts to be made on how the oceans will react to climate change.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a bacterium that can cause respiratory tract infections, which can be life threatening in patients who have cystic fibrosis. It is therefore important to develop a vaccine against this pathogen. Appearing online on 1 April 2005 in advance of print publication of the May issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Ronald Crystal and colleagues from Cornell University use a novel strategy to create a genetic vaccine against P. aeruginosa.