Recent News

By Category: Research

Engineered botulism toxins could have broader role in medicine

(e! Science News) The most poisonous substance on Earth — already used medically in small doses to treat certain nerve disorders and facial wrinkles — could be re-engineered for an expanded role in helping millions of people with rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, psoriasis and other diseases, scientists are reporting. Their study appears in ACS’ journal Biochemistry. Read More »

December 1, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Public Health, and Research
Share

Dangerous Acquaintances

(Huffington Post) Experiments to make some of the world’s deadliest viruses more contagious to humans or to learn the secrets of those that already are contagious surge to the top of the news and slip downward with regularity. Now they are up again. This time it is work with the H5N1 avian flu virus, in Read More »

December 1, 2011
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biosafety, Biotechnology, and Research
Share

Australia opens world’s leading biosecurity lab

(Cosmos) CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) at Geelong has opened the world’s leading biosecurity lab. MELBOURNE: The world’s most advanced biosecurity lab has raised its curtain in Geelong, Australia. …

November 30, 2011
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Agriculture, and Research
Share

New compound defeats drug-resistant bacteria

(Brown University) Chemists at Brown University have synthesized a new compound that makes drug-resistant bacteria susceptible again to antibiotics. The compound — BU-005 — blocks pumps that a bacterium employs to expel an antibacterial agent called chloramphenicol. The team used a new and highly efficient method for the synthesis of BU-005 and other C-capped dipetptides. Read More »

November 29, 2011
| Filed under North America, Biotechnology, Public Health, and Research
Share

Vaccine prototype stronger than traditional vaccines

(ScienceDaily) Researchers have created a vaccine that is more potent than traditional vaccines available today. The glycoconjugate vaccine prototype is 100 times more effective than traditional glycoconjugate vaccines. A glycoconjugate vaccine is composed of covalently bound carbohydrate and protein molecules, and is the standard design for many vaccines used to protect against common diseases such Read More »