Researchers at Yale shed new light on the mechanism of nerve cell growth by identifying novel functions for a molecular "motor" protein, myosin-II, according to an article in the March issue of Nature Cell Biology.

The H5N1 avian influenza virus, commonly known as "bird flu," is a highly contagious and deadly disease in poultry. So far, its spread to humans has been limited, with 177 documented severe infections, and nearly 100 deaths in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Iraq, and Turkey as of March 14, 2006, according to the World Health Organization (www.who.int).