The receptor used by baculovirus to enter and interact with human cells has been identified. This syndecan-1 receptor was identified for the first time in a recent collaborative study carried out by the University of Eastern Finland and the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. The findings increase our understanding of the strategies by which the virus causes infection in cells and further facilitates the development of baculovirus for applications of gene transfer. According to the researchers, the identification of the syndecan-1 receptor helps in understanding the ways baculovirus interacts with human cells and sheds further light on the mechanisms the virus uses in human cells.

Scanning the DNA of nearly 5,000 tumor samples, a team led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute has identified 140 regions of scrambled genetic code believed to contain many undiscovered cancer genes.

Our genetic heritage is contained—and protected—in the nucleus of the cells that compose us. Copies of the DNA exit the nucleus to be read and translated into proteins in the cell cytoplasm. The transit between the nucleus and the cytoplasm takes place through the nuclear pores, genuine "customs agents" that monitor the import-export between these two compartments. Françoise Stutz, professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and her team have just discovered how nuclear pores also regulate the production speed of these DNA copies. This work, published in the journal Molecular Cell, reveals a new role for each nucleus' several hundred pores, which constitute as many microscopic factories of gene transcription.

It's often said that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has a woman's face. The proportion of women infected with HIV has been on the rise for a decade; in sub-Saharan Africa, women constitute 60 percent of people living with disease. While preventative drugs exist, they have often proven ineffective, especially in light of financial and cultural barriers in developing nations.