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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
Researchers Keep Mum on Botulism Discovery
(ScientificAmerican) Scientists have discovered a new strain—the first in 40 years—of Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that is ultimately responsible for causing botulism. And although they have reported their findings in a scientific journal, the investigators have taken the extraordinary step of withholding key details of the discovery. That’s because the toxins made by C. botulinum Read More »
- October 23, 2013
- | Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Biotechnology, and Research
Researchers Keep Mum on Botulism Discovery: Scientific American
- October 23, 2013
- | Filed under Biotechnology and Research
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
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