It's been a long time... I was quite busy with my predoc exam, and fell sick in the two weeks that I had to do it (Insomnia and sleep disorder, again), so last week was quite a rush! I still have a conference to prepare for thursday... but right after that, I'm gonna do a visual redesign of the site and implement some cool things (like most popular news items of the month and an automated bot to clean up empty threads that get created when someone push the "create a discussion" button without adding comments... among other things). If by any chance you know of a professional designer who would like to add his/her touch to this website, let me know! But I fear that I don't have much to offer in exchange, except a "designed by" link to the designer's homepage.

- Sequoia Pharmaceuticals Secures Funding to Test its Unique AIDS Drug
- Genetically modified plants are to be used to fight against HIV, tuberculosis
- Availability of cheap HIV-AIDS drugs threatened by Indian patent law
- African genome research given impetus
- Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola - update - 92% death rate
- First cloned buffalo born
- AIDS threatens Russian social and economic security

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are several steps closer to the day when a profoundly deaf patient’s own bone marrow cells could be used to let him or her hear the world.

A few rare people who consistently nod off early, then wake up wide-eyed much before dawn, can blame a newly-found mutant gene for their sleep troubles, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers announced today.

Tiny beetles that munch on saltcedar leaves, shoots and twig bark are helping stop the spread of this rugged, aggressive weed. Also known as tamarisk, saltcedar was brought into the United States in the 1800s to help control erosion. By the mid-1900s, however, saltcedar had become an out-of-control pest, crowding native plants, such as cottonwoods and willows, along streambanks and river channels throughout the American West.

Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, in the seas are as vital to the survival of life on earth as the oxygen producing plants are on land. But marine bacteria are attacked by viruses, which can seriously affect their life-sustaining abilities but mow a researcher at the University of Warwick has discovered that these viruses don't work in the dark, according to research presented today (Monday, 04 April 2005) at the Society for General Microbiology's 156th Meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

So, you don't like to exercise? Maybe you could blame it on your great-great-grandparents. Similarly, if you're a practiced and proud couch potato who suddenly woke up to the fact that you're a "natural" athlete, the credit could also belong to your genes.

One traditional approach to pharmaceutical design uses so-called "first messengers" – hormones, other natural facilitators or synthetic products – to initiate various cellular cascades for the desired physiological effect. To date, despite concerted efforts at all levels of research, this approach has failed to develop a truly successful obesity drug to address this major global health problem.

On Monday, the Harbor Branch drug discovery group will begin a 2-week expedition to explore the Straits of Florida in search of organisms that produce chemicals with the potential to cure diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. The work will include the first submersible exploration of the remote Cay Sal Bank, which encompasses a number of small, uninhabited islands 30 miles north of Cuba. Cay Sal was once notorious for its role in illegal drug smuggling, but researchers expect to discover pristine reefs there down to 3,000 feet that could lead to a new reputation for the area as the source of lifesaving drugs. Regular dispatches and photos from the expedition will be posted at http://www.at-sea.org.