An Answer To Another Of Life's Big Questions
Monash University biochemists have found a critical piece in the evolutionary puzzle that explains how life on Earth evolved millions of centuries ago. The team, from the School of Biomedical Sciences, has described the process by which bacteria developed into more complex cells and found this crucial step happened much earlier in the evolutionary timeline than previously thought...

First Measurement Of Energy Released From A Virus During Infection
Within a virus's tiny exterior is a store of energy waiting to be unleashed. When the virus encounters a host cell, this pent-up energy is released, propelling the viral DNA into the cell and turning it into a virus factory...

Tracking The Spread Of Disease, Malware And Power Outages
An assistant professor with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering has won a $750,000 federal grant to formulate a mathematical framework that can track the spread of pandemics among populations and malware across wireless computer networks, as well as how a blackout occurring on one major power grid can cause a cascade of additional neighboring networks to fail. Funded by the U.S...

OdoReader Could Save Health Services Millions By Sniffing Out Stomach Bugs
Testing has begun on a device that can sniff out the presence of disease by smell, thanks to a 1.3 million pound award from the Wellcome Trust. OdoReader, developed by Chris Probert from the University of Bristol and Norman Ratcliffe from the University of the West of England, uses pioneering technology to rapidly diagnose Clostridium difficile, by 'reading' the odour of stool samples...

Virology Text Focuses On Families
A new virology textbook published by ASM Press educates the reader by focusing on the families. Based on the author's experiences teaching virology for more than 35 years, Virology: Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis enables readers to develop a deep understanding of fundamental virology by emphasizing principles and discussing viruses in the context of virus families...

Bacteria Toxic To Wound-Treating Maggots
Bacteria that infect chronic wounds can be deadly to maggot 'biosurgeons' used to treat the lesions, show researchers writing in the journal Microbiology. The findings could lead to more effective treatment of wounds and the development of novel antibiotics...

New Research Uncovers Molecular "Firing Squad" Through Which Overeating Destroys Normal Metabolism And Sets Stage For Diabetes
Overeating in mice triggers a molecule once considered to be only involved in detecting and fighting viruses to also destroy normal metabolism, leading to insulin resistance and setting the stage for diabetes...

New Report Finds Low Adult Vaccination Rates For Pneumonia In U.S.
A new report, Adult Immunization: Shots to Save Lives, released by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH), the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) found that more than 30 percent of adults ages 65 and older had not been immunized against pneumonia in 36 states as of 2008. The U.S...

U.N. Taps Bill Clinton To Lead Haiti Rebuilding; 200,000 People Died In Quake, Haitian PM Says
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday asked former President Bill Clinton, currently the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, to oversee aid and rebuilding efforts in Haiti, CNN reports (2/3). Ban "specifically asked President Clinton to assume a leadership role in coordinating international aid efforts from emergency response to the reconstruction of Haiti," U.N...

FDA Updates Statement On The Investigation Into The Salmonella Montevideo Outbreak
The Food and Drug Administration, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S...

Antimicrobial Treatment For Buruli Ulcer Is Effective In Early, Limited Disease
New research shows that two different antimicrobial regimens for treating buruli ulcer (Mycobacterium ulcerans infection) are effective at treating early, limited disease. This is the conclusion of an Article published Online First (http://www.thelancet...

Study Finds Association Between Genes That Regulate Maternal Inflammatory Response, Bacterial Vaginosis And Preterm Delivery
In a study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting™ in Chicago, researchers showed the use of haplotype tagging (hap-tag) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to study the relationship between genetic predispositions, an environmental factor - bacterial vaginosis, and preterm birth...

Welch Foundation Honors Orth As 'Rising Star'in Chemistry
Dr. Kim Orth, associate professor of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been honored with the 2010 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research for pioneering work focusing on the mechanisms bacteria use to cause disease...

Safer Hip, Knee And Dental Implants With Smart Coating
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a "smart coating" that helps surgical implants bond more closely with bone and ward off infection. When patients have hip, knee or dental replacement surgery, they run the risk of having their bodies reject the implant. But the smart coating developed at NC State mitigates that risk by fostering bone growth into the implant...

News From The US Department Of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory February 2010
HEALTH CARE - Maximizing mammography . . . . . . Mammograms could conceivably save more lives with a technology being developed by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Chicago...

40 Per Cent Of Cancers Are Preventable: Message For World Cancer Day
This year, the message for World Cancer Day, 4th February, is "Cancer can be prevented too", with experts suggesting that 40 per cent of the 12.4 million cancers diagnosed and 7.6 million cancer deaths worldwide could be prevented if we applied what we know about avoiding infections and changing lifestyles...

Three Years Out, Safety Checklist Continues To Keep Hospital Infections In Check
The state of Michigan, which used a five-step checklist developed at Johns Hopkins to virtually eliminate bloodstream infections in its hospitals' intensive care units , has been able to keep the number of these common, costly and potentially lethal infections near zero - even three years after first adopting the standardized procedures...

Uterine Infection In Pregnant Women Linked With Asthma In Preterm Infants, Study Finds
A study published Tuesday in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine suggests that preterm infants born to women who had a uterine inflammation known as chorioamnionitis face an increased likelihood of developing asthma by age eight, USA Today reports (Rubin, USA Today, 2/2)...

Study Supports Seasonal Influenza Vaccine For Young Infants
Vaccination against seasonal influenza is safe and produces a protective immune response in infants as young as 6 to 12 weeks, concludes a study in the February issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal...

Billion Dollar Market For Malaria Vaccine Products Should Interest Drug Developers
With increased attention on finding a cure for the scourge of malaria, recently highlighted by the announcement of a large research and development grant from the Bill Gates Foundation, and with several candidates already in the pipeline, there could be a $1 billion market for malaria vaccine products by 2017, according to healthcare market research publisher Kalorama Informati...

Research Fellowship To Halt Super Bug Invasion, Australia
A new Queensland Government Fellowship presented today by the Governor of Queensland will be used by a researcher to try to combat an extreme super bug even more aggressive than resistant Staphylococcus strains...

PATH To Pay FDA $480,000 To Speed Creation Of Pneumococcal Vaccine For Developing World
The FDA on Monday said it's entering into a collaboration with the nonprofit group PATH "to speed creation of a pneumococcal vaccine for children in developing nations," United Press International reports (2/1)...

Also In Global Health News: Food Needs In Sudan; Malaria Vaccine; Agriculture In India; Generic Drugs
Drought, Conflict More Than Triple Food Needs In S. Sudan "The number of people in Southern Sudan needing food aid has quadrupled to about 4.3 million this year from a year ago because of violence and drought, the United Nations World Food Programme said" Tuesday, Bloomberg reports (Maier, 2/2). The agency, which is facing a funding shortfall of $485...

New Technology Aims To Repair The After-Effects Of Gum Disease
Advances in tissue engineering are offering the promise of being able to restore lost bone and gum tissue following periodontal disease. About a third of the population are affected by chronic inflammatory gum disease which can result in loss of the bone and other tissues that support our teeth...

Cell-Culture And Animal Tests Show Antiviral Could Provide Protection Against HIV, Ebola, Hepatitis C, Herpes And More
The development of antibiotics gave physicians seemingly miraculous weapons against infectious disease. Effective cures for terrible afflictions like pneumonia, syphilis and tuberculosis were suddenly at hand. Moreover, many of the drugs that made them possible were versatile enough to knock out a wide range of deadly bacterial threats...