“Meddling can cut Malaria - Straits Times” plus 4 more |
- Meddling can cut Malaria - Straits Times
- Boy, 10, enrolls at Pittsburg State - Wichita Eagle
- Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines on the Anvil - Med India
- Stem-cell research leaving minorities behind? - Detroit Free Press
- Hartwick College gets $552,000 for scholars - Daily Star
| Meddling can cut Malaria - Straits Times Posted: 21 Dec 2009 06:10 PM PST  Around 40 per cent of the world's population is at risk of malaria, a potentially deadly disease which is transmitted via mosquito bites. -- ST FILE PHOTO
LONDON - INTERFERING in mosquitoes' sex lives could help halt the spread of malaria, British scientists said on Tuesday. A study on the species of mosquito mainly responsible for malaria transmission in Africa, Anopheles gambiae, showed that because these mosquitoes mate only once in their lives, meddling with that process could dramatically cut their numbers. Researchers from Imperial College London found that a 'mating plug' used by male mosquitoes to ensure their sperm stays in the right place in the female is essential for her to be able to fertilise eggs during her lifetime. Without the mating plug, sperm is not stored properly and fertilisation is disrupted, they wrote in the study in the journal PLoS Biology. Around 40 per cent of the world's population is at risk of malaria, a potentially deadly disease which is transmitted via mosquito bites. It kills more than a million people worldwide each year and children account for about 90 per cent of the deaths in the worst affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. Flaminia Catteruccia of Imperial's life sciences department analysed the composition of the male mosquito's mating plug and found it is formed when an enzyme called transglutaminase interacts with proteins in the male mosquito's seminal fluid. This interaction causes the fluid to clot into a gelatinous solid mass, known as the mating plug. When the researchers knocked out the enzyme in male mosquitoes in the lab, the plug could not form, meaning reproduction failed when they mated. The World Health Organisation said last week that increased funding was starting to pay off in the battle against the killer disease. -- REUTERS Text size
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| Boy, 10, enrolls at Pittsburg State - Wichita Eagle Posted: 22 Dec 2009 01:56 AM PST By Associated PressCOLUMBUS — A 10-year-old southeast Kansas boy is heading to college after speeding through high school coursework. Alex Jaeger of rural Cherokee County has enrolled in a full load of classes next semester at Pittsburg State University. His classes will include university choir, piano, chemistry, calculus and biology. Alex, who turns 11 in January, said that he was "excited" and a "little nervous." One of his parents will accompany him to college classes. But his father, Wesley Jaeger, who has been home-schooling Alex for the past 3 1/2 years, said that his son is ready. "I think he thrives on the challenges, and he wants to learn new concepts and he has the ability to do that," Wesley Jaeger said. "Once he sets his mind to it, his focus is on that task or... whatever he wants to learn." He said Alex was precocious by 18 months, and his Riverton kindergarten teacher noticed his abilities. Already, Alex is pretty comfortable writing Japanese and scored a 23 on the ACT college entrance exam. The average composite score is 21.1. His parents said he gets bored when he isn't learning, but Alex said sometimes there is a downside. "Everything is about homework because you're always home," Alex said. "There's a disadvantage about not being able to have enough friends, but you do get to go to swimming classes and all that." His parents acknowledge that raising such a bright child is challenging. "He's still 10 years old," his mother, Chasinee, said, adding that she worries about "whether he will have friends and all that." Like most children his age, Alex is into video games and the Wii. He also is finding friends in karate class. "Raising a kid that has certain gifted abilities, they have different emotional issues you deal with," Wesley Jaeger said. "(You) can't just say, 'He's an adult.' You recognize his childhood , but you have to honor his academic ability." Pittsburg State is preparing for the "buzz" surrounding his arrival, said Melinda Roelfs, the school's director of admissions. She said the school wants to make sure it is "accommodating the uniqueness of the situation." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines on the Anvil - Med India Posted: 19 Dec 2009 06:46 AM PST However, a research by led by scientists at Uppsala University, Sweden, shows a promising future for better medicines. Lars Hellman, professor of molecular and comparative immunology at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, said: "Therapeutic vaccines that target the same molecules in the body as the various monoclonal antibodies would enable us to reduce the cost of treatment significantly, and also decrease the number of visits patients need to make to the clinic." To develop the immune-stimulating adjuvants, Uppsala University joined hands with Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute in Moscow. Hellman said: "We have made a very important breakthrough by managing to identify a substance that is biologically degradable and that exhibits considerably higher activity than the adjuvants that have been used in the past." "These new and highly promising findings are an important step toward developing more cost-effective drugs for some of our major public health diseases," he added. The study has appeared in the December issue of the journal Vaccine. Source-ANI Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Stem-cell research leaving minorities behind? - Detroit Free Press Posted: 16 Dec 2009 03:17 PM PST Scientists using stem cells to chase cures for disease and to repair debilitating injuries may be unknowingly focused on only part of the world's population — mostly that with northern and western European ancestry, according to a new study by University of Michigan researchers. Missing from the world's most widely used stem cell lines are those with recent African ancestry, from Pacific Islanders, or from those native to the Americas, said Sean Morrison, director of the U-M Center for Stem Cell Biology and one of the study leaders. "We think that embryonic stem cell has the potential to change the future of medicine… But we're at risk of leaving certain groups out of that future," he said. In 2008, Morrison and others pushed for a change to the Michigan constitution that would open the door to embryonic stem cell research. But at the same time, he worried the current stem cell lines — both those that are approved for research backed by federal funds as well as lines used for other research — was not diverse enough.
Embryonic stem cells usually come from embryos that are unused and would be discarded at fertility clinics and researchers like Morrison worried that the clients at the fertility clinics — most non-minority – don't reflect the general population. That's a concern since different populations might respond differently to new medicine from stem cell research, he said. The study, announced today, comes a week after U-M announced it has established procedures to accept donated human embryos that will be used in stem cell research and expects to begin developing new lines of stem cells by mid-2010. Contact ROBIN ERB: 313 222 2708 or rerb@freepress.com Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Hartwick College gets $552,000 for scholars - Daily Star Posted: 22 Dec 2009 05:23 AM PST | Published: December 22, 2009 12:00 am Hartwick College gets $552,000 for scholars Staff Report ONEONTA _ Hartwick College was recently awarded a $552,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a Biotechnology in Practice scholarship program, according to a media release from the college. The four-year Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math award will provide individual scholarships of up to $10,000 each to 12 incoming students in biology or biochemistry in each of their four years at Hartwick. Students selected for the scholarship will receive financial support to study fields such as molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering and neural networks. Selection will be based on financial need and an interest in biotechnology careers, officials said. "This grant recognizes the strength of Hartwick's science programs, both in the quality and nature of learning, and in the career success of our science graduates," Hartwick President Margaret L. Drugovich said in the release. Hartwick's grant application was chosen from among thousands submitted annually for funding by the National Science Foundation. According to the release, about one-fourth of the 40,000 or so applications are funded each year by the foundation. The college's grant application highlighted students' past involvement in research, publications and professional conferences. An ongoing research project headed by biology professor Stanley Sessions looking at the causes of deformities in amphibians was also noted. The first scholarships will be awarded in 2010 to six incoming freshman, with an additional six scholarships available the following year. 
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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