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By Category: Agents & Toxins
The role of the cellular entry point of anthrax identified
(Phys.org) A team led by Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan, a professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, in collaboration with Gisou van der Goot at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), reveals that Antxr2a actually plays a role in embryonic development, orienting cell division along a specific plane, which is a prelude to the formation of Read More »
- December 3, 2012
- | Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, and Research
US Plans for New H5N1 Science Reviews Ruffle Researchers
(AAAS) Researchers are giving mixed reviews to a draft U.S. government plan to subject some grant requests for studies involving the H5N1 avian influenza virus to special reviews—and perhaps even require the work to be kept secret. Elements of the plan have been “very controversial within [the] U.S. government” committee that developed it, Amy Patterson, Read More »
- December 3, 2012
- | Filed under Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
Doomsday Microbes: Is Some Science Too Dangerous to Permit?
(Huffington Post) In Stephen King’s The Stand, Armageddon is born from a U.S. military bioweapons project to engineer a deadly form of the flu. The beginning chapters of the thriller predictably tell the story of the virus’ escape and epidemic rampage through the world, killing most of the human population. While the remainder of the Read More »
- December 3, 2012
- | Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, and Bioterrorism
Bacteria hijack host cell process, create their own food supply to become infectious
(EurekAlert) Bacteria that cause the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis in humans create their own food supply by hijacking a process in host cells that normally should help kill the pathogenic bugs, scientists have found. This bacterium, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Ap), secretes a protein that can start this process. The protein binds with another protein produced by white Read More »
- November 30, 2012
- | Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
2500 Pigs Culled to Prevent Foot-and-Mouth Disease in China
(The Epoch Times) At least 43 pigs infected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) have died at a large pig farm near Dalian City in Liaoning Province, China. The remaining pigs on the farm in Erdao Village were slaughtered by the police on order of local authorities to prevent the spread of this highly contagious disease. “The Read More »
- November 29, 2012
- | Filed under Asia/Pacific, North America, Agents & Toxins, Agriculture, and International