Recent News

By Category: Public Health

Cost of Gene Sequencing Falls, Raising Hopes for Medical Advances

(The New York Times) The promise is that low-cost gene sequencing will lead to a new era of personalized medicine, yielding new approaches for treating cancers and other serious diseases. The arrival of such cures has been glacial, however, although the human genome was originally sequenced more than a decade ago.

March 9, 2012
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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Indonesian woman becomes fifth bird flu victim this year

(Telegraph.co.uk) A 24-year-old woman has died of bird flu on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, the fifth human death from the virus this year, a health ministry official said on Wednesday. “She tested positive for the H5N1 virus by the health ministry’s laboratory. It’s the fifth death here this year,” the ministry’s head of animal-borne infectious diseases, Read More »

March 8, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, and Public Health
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Microneedle vaccine patch boosts flu protection through robust skin cell immune response

(Emory University) Recent research found that microneedle vaccine patches are more effective at delivering protection against influenza virus in mice than subcutaneous or intramuscular inoculation. A new, detailed analysis of the early immune responses helps explain why the skin is such fertile ground for vaccination with these tiny, virtually painless microneedles.

March 7, 2012
| Filed under North America, Countermeasures, Public Health, and Research
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New H5N1 viruses: How to balance risk of escape with benefits of research?

(ScienceDaily) In the controversy surrounding the newly developed strains of avian H5N1 flu viruses, scientists and policy makers are struggling with one question in particular: what level of biosafety is best for studying these potentially lethal strains of influenza? Experts now argue their different views of how to safely handle H5N1 flu viruses.

March 7, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Mobile Medical Laboratory Brings High-Complexity Infectious Disease Testing to …

(DARKDaily.com – Laboratory News) Its design meets the requirements for biosafety level 3 certification “As far as we are aware, our laboratory truck is the first mobile laboratory of its kind to receive official certification in this biosafety class,” stated Schoen.