Recent News

By Region: Europe

Deadly gaps persist in new drug development for neglected diseases

(EurekaAlert) In a study published today in the open-access journal The Lancet Global Health, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) and other researchers report a persistent deficiency in truly new therapeutics for neglected diseases, despite nominal progress and an acceleration in research and development (R&D) efforts. This continued ‘fatal imbalance’ in medical R&D points Read More »

October 24, 2013
| Filed under Europe, North America, Biosafety, and Research
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New China H7N9 strain gives kick to mutant bird flu research

(Reuters) Dutch scientists hidden away in a top-security laboratory are seeking to create mutant flu viruses, dangerous work designed to prepare the world for a lethal pandemic by beating nature to it. The idea of engineering viral pathogens to be more deadly than they are already has generated huge controversy, amid fears that such viruses Read More »

October 23, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, and Research
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Biology’s Brave New World

(ForeignAffairs) In May 2010, the richest, most powerful man in biotechnology made a new creature. J. Craig Venter and his private-company team started with DNA and constructed a novel genetic sequence of more than one million coded bits of information known as nucleotides. Seven years earlier, Venter had been the first person in history to Read More »

October 22, 2013
| Filed under Europe, North America, South America, and Research
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Flu virus wipes out immune system’s first responders to establish infection

(ScienceDaily) Revealing influenza’s truly insidious nature, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered that the virus is able to infect its host by first killing off the cells of the immune system that are actually best equipped to neutralize the virus. Confronted with a harmful virus, the immune system works to generate cells capable of producing antibodies Read More »

October 21, 2013
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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Study explores the role of uncertainty in infectious disease modelling

(EurekAlert) Research by scientists at the University of Liverpool has found that greater consideration of the limitations and uncertainties present in every infectious disease model would improve its effectiveness/usefulness and value. Infectious disease dynamical modelling plays a central role in planning for outbreaks of human and livestock diseases, in projecting how they might progress and Read More »