Are children with malaria at increased risk of bacterial infection?
A putative clinical association between malaria and invasive bacterial infection (IBI) was first suggested in 1929, and although data accumulated since then does indicate that children with Plasmodium...
View ArticlePatrick Bolton and Hilgo Bruining on connecting genetic risk factors to...
Genome wide association studies, genetic epidemiological investigations and numerous gene sequencing approaches have led to a growing appreciation of a genetic component to autism spectrum disorder...
View ArticleChristine Elsik and Kim Worley on finding the missing honey bee genes
The honey bee has both great economic and ecological importance due to its role as a major pollinator. It also serves as a model organism for studies into human health, including fields such as allergy...
View ArticleJamie Toombs and Henrik Zetterberg on biomarker measurement for Alzheimer’s...
Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) present the potential for early detection and consequently early treatment of the condition. They may also prove useful in monitoring disease progression and as...
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Joan Richtsmeier on 3D cranial changes in mouse models of Apert syndrome
Apert syndrome is a rare congenital disorder characterized by malformation of the skull, face, hands and feet. The cranial malformations, termed craniosynostosis, are a particular hallmark of the...
View ArticleClues to how deep brain stimulation may alleviate depression
Magnetic stimulation of the scalp is thought to influence neural activity of the brain and has been used in the successful treatment of depression, becoming approved for use in the US in 2008. More...
View ArticleMore sensitive screening for malarial parasite Plasmodium vivax
Malaria is a parasitic disease caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium. It is spread by the female Anopheles mosquito and in 2012 resulted in over 200 million cases worldwide, according to the World...
View ArticleBrad Ruhfel on piecing together green plant phylogeny with plastid genomes
Green plants, known as Viridiplantae, comprise around 500,000 species and represent an abundance of diversity. Originating at least 750 million years ago and displaying great heterogeneity,...
View ArticleCharles Wondji and Janet Hemingway on malarial vector resistance to DDT
The global burden of malaria has led to the development of multiple approaches to reduce its incidence through targeting it’s vector, Anopheles mosquitoes. These measures include reducing vector...
View ArticleCombining pharmacological and physical therapy in spinal injury recovery
Axonal regeneration of neurons in the central nervous system, following trauma, inflammation or other pathological conditions, is significantly diminished due to a restrictive micro-environment. This...
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Oliver Ullrich on the effects of microgravity on immune cell function
The evolution of life on Earth has been subject to a range of influences, from changes in the gaseous composition of the atmosphere to the movement of land masses and climatic shifts. Throughout this...
View ArticleMichael Akam and Carlo Brena on centipede segmentation dynamics
Centipedes, fruit flies and humans; three seemingly disparate animals at first glance. However probing their development reveals that all three undergo a process of segmentation, whereby repetitive...
View ArticleStephanie Huang on a genomic approach to predict drug responses in cancer...
The ability to predict the response of a patient to a particular course of treatment is particularly important in cancer, where the treatment options available often have a narrow therapeutic index. In...
View ArticleLixin Wei and Yihong Ye win the Ming K Jeang Award for Excellence in Cell &...
The Ming K Jeang Award for Excellence in Cell & Bioscience honours research of the highest quality and impact published in the official journal of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America...
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Carsten Wolff on staging the embryonic development of water fleas
Planktonic crustaceans belonging to the genus Daphnia have long been used as model organisms for the study of ecotoxicology, and show particular prowess in their ability to alter their phenotype in...
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Langley, Salzberg, Neale and Wegrzyn on sequencing the loblolly pine genome
Conifers are known to have large and highly complex genomes in the range of 20 to 40 Gbps. One of its members, the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), is the second most common tree species in the USA making...
View ArticleBackman, Cherkezyan and Stypula-Cyrus on nanoscale chromatin changes in cancer
Changes in chromatin structure are known to occur in cancer cells and are associated with genetic and/or epigenetic alterations in the expression of tumor suppressor genes or proto-oncogenes, which...
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Getting to the center of microRNA-mRNA binding
microRNAs (miRNAs) influence the expression of around 60 percent of mammalian genes and have special relevance to the study of development and disease. They function by interacting with messenger...
View ArticleLanjuan Li on the immune impact of H7N9 bird flu infection in humans
In 2013 avian influenza virus A (H7N9) was detected in humans and according to figures from the World Health Organization has been fatal in over a quarter of those known to have been infected. A...
View ArticleRoss Prentice on hormone therapies and breast cancer risk postmenopause
The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) trials, initiated by the US National Institutes of Health in 1991, marked one of the largest US prevention studies, and set out to investigate the most common causes...
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