Link to the project website

The annual Educational Technology Award of the University of Helsinki has this year been granted to the project 'Virtual microscopy as a teaching aid' of the Biomedical Informatics Research Group of the university. The awarded project utilizes advanced digital imaging and network technology to digitise, store, and view microscopy specimens over the internet.

Doctors today presented more evidence that it's time for long-time antibiotic stalwarts like penicillin and amoxicillin to step aside when it comes to the treatment of strep throat.

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. today announced that data from its program to develop a ZFP Therapeutic for HIV/AIDS were presented at the 45th Annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Washington, DC. The study represents the first demonstration that cells can be made resistant to HIV infection by treatment with Sangamo's proprietary zinc finger DNA-binding protein nucleases (ZFNTM) designed to specifically disrupt the CCR5 gene.

A study in the December 19 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine identifies a small genetic change that increases the odds of developing active tuberculosis (TB). Pedro Flores-Villanueva and his colleagues at the University of Texas Health Center (Tyler, TX) studied groups of patients in Mexico and Korea and found that individuals who carry this genetic change were more likely to develop disease when infected with TB-causing bacteria.

Researchers have discovered the first brain regulatory gene that shows clear evidence of evolution from lower primates to humans. They said the evolution of humans might well have depended in part on hyperactivation of the gene, called prodynorphin (PDYN), that plays critical roles in regulating perception, behavior and memory.

A revolutionary portable brain scanner under development could aid the treatment, and in some cases help save the lives, of premature and newborn babies in intensive care.

Polio is on track to become only the second disease ever eradicated. In two studies in the Dec. 15 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online, scientists are working to ensure that once it is gone, it stays gone. One study reduces concerns that people whose immune systems were weakened by HIV would re-introduce poliovirus into the community. The other study looks at the how switching forms of vaccine from a live, attenuated vaccine to an inactivated version may affect communities.

An immunology researcher at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia leads a multi-center $6.7 million program project grant recently awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to explore a novel approach to HIV treatment.

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have purified a novel protein and have shown it can alter gene activity by reversing a molecular modification previously thought permanent.

Researchers in India and from The Earth Institute at Columbia University have discovered that one of the few remaining populations of Asian elephants in India is actually two genetically distinct groups. The results of the study, which appear in the current issue of the journal Animal Conservation, could have far-reaching implications in conservation plans for the endangered elephants as well as other species on the Subcontinent.