Both governments and the scientific community are mobilised to face the threat of a possible pandemic provoked by avian influenza. Whereas there is no need to alarm the population, we must design tools in order to fight influenza in case it develops. According to historical data and to the high genetic variability of influenza virus, the development of this pandemic is only a matter of time and that the appropriate circumstances are given.

The H5N1 virus, which affects the European fowl

Current interest in probiotics is motivated not only by the clinical data showing the efficacy of some probiotic bacteria, but also by the increasing antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria (particularly in hospitals) and the rise of consumers’ demand for natural substitutes of drugs.

Among probiotic applications, reduction of diarrhea is probably the best-documented effect confirmed by recent meta-analyses. Research on Helicobacter pylori indicates that probiotics are unab

Clear gaps exist in countries affected by avian influenza

The Asia-Pacific region faces a number of challenges in preparing for an influenza pandemic, yet gaps and inconsistencies in plans across the continent could hinder an effective response to a pandemic, according to a new report1 presented today at the Lancet Asia Medical Forum 2006, Singapore.

Over 80% of human deaths from avian influenza (H5N1) recorded to date have occurred in South East Asia, 2 which sugg

Combined evaluation of transverse images–horizontal slices of a standing body–and multiplanar coronal reformats–vertical slices from head to foot–from CT scans give radiologists more information about the GI tract to better diagnose problems, according to a new study by researchers from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

For the study, the researchers analyzed routine abdomen-pelvis CT studies from 50 patients. The researchers found that with simultaneous review of tr

Cordoba-based company Termos La Campera S.L.L. has found a solution to increase honey production: to make beehives of polyurethane. This insulating material keeps beehives at a constant temperature and therefore bees do not have to flutter their wings in order to cool hives down in summertime, using this time to produce honey or procreate instead. This company has received 101,393 Euros from a new order of incentives for innovation and managerial development called Orden de Incentivos a la Innovació

The inventor of DNA Fingerprinting at the University of Leicester, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, is to be honoured with a prestigious international accolade later this year, it has been announced.

Sir Alec, who is Royal Society Wolfson Research Professor in the Department of Genetics, is to be awarded the Dr H.P. Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics 2006 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of the discovery of the revolutionary technique.

T

A team of researchers of the University of Cadiz, headed by Carmen Estrada Cerquera, has started a project of excellence, subsidized with 166,000 euros from the Andalusian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Enterprise, that aims to study neural stem cells and the conditions in which they could be used in the treatment of diseases.

According to the said researcher, this project “is part of the attempt that many laboratories are currently making worldwide to get to know better the bio

Researchers have found that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) carry a population of immune cells that overreact to Epstein-Barr virus. The virus, which causes mononucleosis and may contribute to some cancers, has long been suspected to play a role in MS. However, the mechanism linking the virus to the disease was poorly understood.

Scientists think that MS—which can cause vision problems, muscle weakness, and difficulty with coordination and balance—is a result of the im

A commercially developed vaccine has successfully protected mice and ferrets against a highly lethal avian influenza virus, according to the investigator who led the study at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The vaccine was developed by Vical Incorporated in San Diego, California.

This finding, coupled with results of previous studies that showed protection against multiple human influenza strains, suggests that such a vaccine would protect humans against multiple variants of

An international consortium of scientists, including a team from The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), is a step closer to the next generation of treatments to combat disease, after publishing a comprehensive analysis of the human and mouse transcriptomes.

A senior member of the consortium and IMB researcher Professor David Hume said transcriptome describes all of the information read from the genome by a cell at any given time.

“Essentia

Getting beaten up by the neighborhood bully so your buddy can spend time with the ladies may seem like a rough life, but that strategy not only works for some lizards, it also gives a fascinating peek into hard-wired altruism in evolutionary biology.

Side-blotched lizards spend their year on earth looking to reproduce, and their strategies have lessons about evolution. An article in the May 9 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides the first genetic

Malignant glioma cells in mice die by autophagy

An engineered virus tracks down and infects the most common and deadly form of brain cancer and then kills tumor cells by forcing them to devour themselves, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The modified adenovirus homed in on malignant glioma cells in mice and induced enough self-cannibalization among the cancer cells — a

The repeated copying of a small segment of DNA in the genome of a primeval fish may have been crucial to the transition of ancient animals from sea to land, or to later key evolutionary changes in land vertebrates. The discovery is “tantalizing evidence” that copied DNA elements known as retroposons could be an important source of evolutionary innovations, says the director of the research, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David Haussler.

“The big question is whether this

A 15-year follow-up of women in a breast cancer trial has found that fenretinide[1] – a drug related to vitamin A – significantly cuts the risk of a second breast cancer among younger patients.

The Italian research team reporting the findings on-line today (Thursday 4 May) in Annals of Oncology[2], are sufficiently convinced of the drug’s protective potential to call for a trial to test its use as a preventive in pre-menopausal healthy women at high risk of the disease. They are now

People with Type 2 diabetes aged between 35 and 54 are over three times more likely to die than those without the condition according to research published today in the journal Diabetic Medicine. For people aged from 85 to 89, the increased risk of death for those with diabetes is over 50 per cent.

The research on 44,230 people with Type 2 diabetes also found that women with diabetes were more than twice as likely to die as their peers without the condition. For men, the increas

Different methods of cooking vegetables could vary their effects on dental erosion, a study by researchers at the University of Dundee has found.

A research team led by Dr Graham Chadwick in the School of Dentistry have investigated whether the method of cooking a popular vegetarian dish, Ratatouille, would have any impact on the acidity of the food, and therefore the potential for contributing to dental erosion.

Their research found that, however it is cooked, ratatouil