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By Category: Research

Public health data to help fight deadly contagious diseases

(ScienceDaily) In an unprecedented windfall for public access to health data, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers have collected and digitized all weekly surveillance reports for reportable diseases in the United States going back more than 125 years.

Bioterrorism Surveillance and Reconnaissance – RFI

(GlobalBiodefense) The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is seeking innovative approaches to enhance the capability to detect and localize bioterrorism threats posed by rogue production of biological agents under a newly issued Request for Information (RFI) for “Biological Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (BIO-ISR).”

How flu evolves to escape immunity

(ScienceDaily) Scientists have identified a potential way to improve future flu vaccines after discovering that seasonal flu typically escapes immunity from vaccines with as little as a single amino acid substitution. Additionally, they found these single amino acid changes occur at only seven places on its surface — not the 130 places previously believed. The  Read More »

Study of fluke parasites identifies drug resistance mutations; raises hope for new therapies

(Eurekalert) An international group of scientists led by Tim Anderson Ph.D., at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Philip LoVerde Ph.D., at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has identified the mutations that result in drug resistance in a parasite infecting 187 million people in South America, Africa and Asia. The  Read More »

Bat Population Covering Central Africa is Carrier of 2 Deadly Viruses

(GlobalBiodefense) A population of fruit bats which is found across much of continental Africa is widely infected with two deadly viruses that could spread to humans, new research reveals. The study, conducted jointly by the University of Cambridge and the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology and published this week in the journal Nature  Read More »