On March 16, the Ministry of Health in Laos, officially the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, reported its second human death from infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
On March 19 and March 20, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population announced new human cases of H5N1 avian influenza infection, both in Aswan Governorate in southern Egypt. The cases were confirmed by the Egyptian Central Public Health Laboratory and U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 in Cairo.
As the number of human cases of avian influenza confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) rises to 281, with new cases reported in Egypt and Laos, WHO and international experts are meeting in Turkey to discuss how best to treat people who become infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 form of the bird flu virus.
Autism is thought to be the most highly heritable of all neuro-psychiatric disorders. Yet, most cases of this childhood developmental disorder that severely affects social interaction and communication are “sporadic” and come with no family history.
A newly discovered small molecule called IQ-1 plays a key role in preventing embryonic stem cells from differentiating into one or more specific cell types, allowing them to instead continue growing and dividing indefinitely, according to research performed by a team of scientists who have recently joined the stem-cell research efforts at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
UCLA scientists have devised a novel way to correct abnormal gene splicing – a common mutation that often leads to disease. A custom mask prevents the cell from seeing the genetic defect and restores the splicing to the correct location in the gene.
A new study suggests how a notorious cancer gene may contribute to tumor growth. The insight emerged from a long-running study of a protein called PMR1, the key player in an unusual mechanism that cells use to quickly stop production of certain important proteins.
In a speech at the Chief Executives Club of Boston, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) chairman and chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, predicted that the coming biomedical revolution will move medicine from its current state of treating symptoms to predicting and preventing diseases.
Many would assume that “mounting an immune response” or “having your body fight the cancer” is a good thing. Now, research at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine strongly suggests that inflammation associated with the progression of tumors actually plays a key role in the metastasis of prostate cancer.
DNA ‘glitches’ – tiny gene mutations pose more risk for autism than had been previously thought.