Polio News and Research

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Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause severe paralysis. The virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs). Among those paralyzed, 5-10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized. Polio mainly affects children under five years of age. Naturally occurring polio was eliminated in the U.S. in 1979 and in the Western Hemisphere by 1991; however, worldwide efforts are continuing towards eradication of this contagious and devastating disease.

Study offers hope for reducing incidence of AIDS with potential preventive vaccine

The HIV epidemic is the largest in the world and represents one of the most serious public health problems, according to data from the World Health Organization. Only 30% of the more than 10 million patients in need have the access to the antiretroviral treatment.

24 May 2011

Salk Institute researchers receive $5.5M Program Project Grant to analyze Williams syndrome

A multi-institutional team headed by Ursula Bellugi, professor and director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has been awarded a $5.5 million Program Project Grant by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to link social behavior to its underlying neurobiological and molecular genetic basis using Williams syndrome as a model.

21 May 2011

Bill Gates calls for greater immunization efforts in World Health Assembly address

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on Tuesday called for a "Decade of Vaccines" in a keynote address at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, saying strengthening immunization programs against infectious diseases worldwide could save 10 million lives by 2020, Reuters reports.

18 May 2011

Bill Gates urges wiser vaccine coverage worldwide to save millions

Tuesday this week, Bill Gates called for strengthened immunization programs against infectious diseases to save 4 million lives by 2015 and 10 million lives by 2020, calling it the best possible investment in global health. He was addressing the annual assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, attended by health ministers from the U.N. agency's 193 member states.

17 May 2011

Study reveals crucial role of histone deacetylases in type 2 diabetes

A uniquely collaborative study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies uncovered a novel mechanism that turns up glucose production in the liver when blood sugar levels drop, pointing towards a new class of drugs for the treatment of metabolic disease.

16 May 2011

U.S. boosts Cote d'Ivoire commitment; polio vaccine campaign delayed in country's southern region

The U.S. has pledged an additional $8.5 million to relief efforts in Cote d'Ivoire after post-election violence led to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and refugees, Devex reports.

10 May 2011

Ben-Gurion U. researcher receives Gates Foundation grant to develop fast, low-cost malaria device

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researcher Alberto Bilenca, Ph.D., has been awarded a prestigious grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the a fast, low-cost device to accuracy diagnose malaria without the need for blood collection in field settings.

6 May 2011

UCF to develop safe, inexpensive and effective polio vaccine

An innovative way of making vaccines at the University of Central Florida has attracted the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its potential to make vaccines lessexpensive, more effective and needle free.

5 May 2011

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces 88 new winners under Grand Challenges Exploration program

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced 88 new winners of US$100,000 each to support innovative research that has the potential to dramatically improve lives in some of the world's poorest countries. The funding, made possible through the Grand Challenges Exploration (GCE) program, will enable researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

30 Apr 2011

Recent releases in Global Health

African Nations Rightly Proceed With DDT Plans: "Environmental activists inside and outside UNEP love to hate DDT and will seemingly stop at nothing to ensure it is never produced or used. But there is a macabre irony in their anti-DDT campaigns. With all the technological advancement of the 21st century that now ensures the average person born today will live longer than at any time in human history, SADC will be producing a chemical first synthesized in the 1800s.

30 Apr 2011

Gates Foundation awards 88 new grand challenges grants

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday announced 88 new $100,000 grants for "unusual" global health research projects, the Associated Press reports (Blankinship, 4/28).

30 Apr 2011

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation honors University Of Colorado researcher for preeclampsia study

A University of Colorado School of Medicine researcher, hoping to find the cause of preeclampsia in pregnant women, won a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Thursday which funds innovative global health and development projects.

29 Apr 2011

Ahead of Immunization Week, WHO calls for countries to come together to control measles outbreak in Europe

WHO is urging countries in Europe to join together to help control the measles outbreak that has grown to more than 6,500 cases in 33 countries and the potential for worsening outbreaks "in the days ahead as people travel during the Easter holidays," U.N. News Centre reports.

25 Apr 2011

Unanticipated structure at chromosome ends could be key ingredient in biological 'elixir of life'

In stark contrast to normal cells, which only divide a finite number of times before they enter into a permanent state of growth arrest or simply die, cancer cells never cease to proliferate. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have uncovered an important clue to one of the mechanisms underlying cancer cell immortality.

22 Apr 2011

March of Dimes honors Whitehead Institute Director for Developmental Biology work

Whitehead Institute Director David Page has been named a recipient of the 2011 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. The prize honors Page's groundbreaking body of research on the human Y chromosome.

22 Apr 2011

Merck and Sanofi Pasteur commence Phase III trial of pediatric hexavalent combination vaccine

Merck and Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today the initiation of a Phase III clinical program to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an investigational pediatric hexavalent combination vaccine.

21 Apr 2011

Adamis acquires cancer vaccine technology from UCSD

Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: ADMP) today announced the completion of the acquisition of a unique patented cancer vaccine technology from the Regents of the University of California.

20 Apr 2011

German government, Gates Foundation sign agreement to provide funding for GAVI Alliance

The German government on Wednesday said it would provide an extra 14 million euros or about $19.9 million "for child immunization in the developing world as part of an agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation," the Associated Press reports (4/6).

8 Apr 2011

Bill Gates travels to Europe to promote global health investments

Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is in Europe this week "in an effort to persuade Europeans not to cut aid budgets in the face of austerity - and in particular not to reduce spending on vaccinations and agriculture," the Wall Street Journal reports.

6 Apr 2011

NIAID awards Aragen Bioscience with three subcontracts to advance preclinical studies

Aragen Bioscience, Inc., today announced it is a subcontractor on a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases contract for the preclinical development of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

6 Apr 2011

Polio News and Research

Further Reading

Study offers hope for reducing incidence of AIDS with potential preventive vaccine

Salk Institute researchers receive $5.5M Program Project Grant to analyze Williams syndrome

Bill Gates calls for greater immunization efforts in World Health Assembly address

Bill Gates urges wiser vaccine coverage worldwide to save millions

Study reveals crucial role of histone deacetylases in type 2 diabetes

U.S. boosts Cote d'Ivoire commitment; polio vaccine campaign delayed in country's southern region

Ben-Gurion U. researcher receives Gates Foundation grant to develop fast, low-cost malaria device

UCF to develop safe, inexpensive and effective polio vaccine

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces 88 new winners under Grand Challenges Exploration program

Recent releases in Global Health

Gates Foundation awards 88 new grand challenges grants

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation honors University Of Colorado researcher for preeclampsia study

Ahead of Immunization Week, WHO calls for countries to come together to control measles outbreak in Europe

Unanticipated structure at chromosome ends could be key ingredient in biological 'elixir of life'

March of Dimes honors Whitehead Institute Director for Developmental Biology work

Merck and Sanofi Pasteur commence Phase III trial of pediatric hexavalent combination vaccine

Adamis acquires cancer vaccine technology from UCSD

German government, Gates Foundation sign agreement to provide funding for GAVI Alliance

Bill Gates travels to Europe to promote global health investments

NIAID awards Aragen Bioscience with three subcontracts to advance preclinical studies

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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