DNA microarrays can be easily interrogated with only the naked eye using a new electrostatic imaging technique developed in the laboratory of Jay Groves, a chemist with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley and HHMI. Credit: Photo Michael Barnes, UC Berkeley Chemistry Department The dream of personalized medicine — in which diagnostics, risk predictions and treatment decisions are based on a patient's genetic profile — may be on the verge of being expanded beyond the wealthiest of nations with state-of-the-art clinics. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has invented a technique in which DNA or RNA assays — the key to genetic profiling and disease detection — can be read and evaluated without the need of elaborate chemical labeling or sophisticated instrumentation. Based on electrostatic repulsion — in which objects with the same electrical charge repel one another — the technique is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement, and can be carried out in a matter of minutes.

Eleven years ago, Dr. Mary Estes of Baylor College of Medicine and her colleagues discovered the first viral enterotoxin, rotavirus NSP4, a toxic protein that affects the intestines, causing diarrhea.

Scientists in Sydney have identified a process, a synergistic encounter between two molecules, that may account for the extreme allergic reactions some people experience. By silencing at least one of these molecules, it may be possible to treat allergies.

The widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy may reduce the incidence of HIV in individuals and populations but has been overlooked by public health as a prevention strategy, write Dr. Julio Montaner and colleagues in CMAJ.

Georgia Tech assistant professor Maysam Ghovanloo (left) points to a small magnet attached to graduate student Xueliang Huo's tongue that allows him to operate a computer mouse and powered wheelchair. Credit: Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek A new assistive technology developed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology could help individuals with severe disabilities lead more independent lives.

To survive tough times, cells sometimes resort to a form of self-cannibalism called autophagy. But as Hashimoto et al. reveal, autophagy can have a down side, destroying the pancreas by prematurely activating a digestive enzyme.