Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

DFG to establish 11 Collaborative Research Centres in Jan 2013

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will establish eleven Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs) as of 1 January 2013. This was decided by the responsible Grants Committee during its fall session in Bonn.

30 Nov 2012

Membrane-proximal external region of HIV could be used to design vaccines

Beatriz Apellaniz, PhD holder of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, has studied in her PhD thesis HIV regions that could be used to design a vaccine. The researcher has focussed her research on a specific region of the surface protein of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which is responsible for the Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), one of the diseases with the greatest human morbidity and mortality.

30 Nov 2012

Guineafowl may spread Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus

Turkey raises and releases thousands of non-native guineafowl to eat ticks that carry the deadly Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. Yet research suggests guineafowl eat few ticks, but carry the parasites on their feathers, possibly spreading the disease they were meant to stop, says a Turkish biologist working at the University of Utah.

30 Nov 2012

HIV travel bans violate human rights, hurt business

Writing in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, Chip Bergh, president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., and Kenneth Cole, CEO of Kenneth Cole Productions and chair of the Board of amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, discuss why some CEOs oppose HIV travel bans.

30 Nov 2012

Primitive human stem cells resistant to human cytomegalovirus

A new study published online in PLOS ONE reveals that primitive human stem cells are resistant to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), one of the leading prenatal causes of congenital intellectual disability, deafness and deformities worldwide.

30 Nov 2012

Four TSRI scientists named American Association for the Advancement of Science fellows

Four scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They are chemist Phil Baran, neuroscientist Hollis Cline, immunologist J. Lindsay Whitton, and chemist Jin-Quan Yu. Election as a AAAS fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers

30 Nov 2012

JQ1 cancer drug may be useful in purging latent HIV infection

Breakthrough drugs have made it possible for people to live with HIV longer than ever before, but more work must be done to actually cure the disease. One of the challenges researchers face involves fully eradicating the virus when it is latent in the body.

30 Nov 2012

CSL, PharmaJet partner for needle-free delivery of Afluria influenza vaccine

PharmaJet Inc. has entered into a collaboration with CSL Limited to enable Afluria influenza vaccine to be delivered with the PharmaJet Stratis needle-free jet injector, as soon as the 2013-2014 flu season.

30 Nov 2012

Myanmar can build more stable future by investing in vaccines, immunization

"For the first time, with support from the GAVI Alliance, a pentavalent vaccine was introduced in Myanmar this week that will defend children against five potentially fatal diseases," Dagfinn Hoybraten, vice president of the Norwegian Parliament and chair of the GAVI Alliance Board, writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog, adding, "Over the next six months, more than half a million children in the country will be protected from diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B (hepB), and Haemophilus influenzae type b.

29 Nov 2012

Disabling ItpkB enzyme improves function of Natural Killer cells

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TRSI) are fueling the future of cancer treatment by improving a powerful tool in disease defense: the body's immune system. By revealing a novel but widespread cell signaling process, the scientists may have found a way to manipulate an important component of the immune system into more effectively fighting disease.

29 Nov 2012

CEL-SCI's Multikine cancer drug receives key Japanese patent

CEL-SCI Corporation today announced that the Japanese patent office has issued a key patent covering CEL-SCI's investigational cancer drug, Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection).

29 Nov 2012

Parainfluenza virus 5 may serve as foundation for next breakthrough in human vaccine development

Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a virus commonly found in dogs may serve as the foundation for the next great breakthrough in human vaccine development.

28 Nov 2012

The Neuro clinician-scientists to further research on HIV/AIDS, Parkinson's

Clinician-scientists take a unique, integrated approach that is essential to advancing science and medicine. Problems encountered in the clinic inspire research and new findings from the labs are directly applied to patients' needs.

28 Nov 2012

Microneedle-based measles vaccine can immunize against measles

Measles vaccine given with painless and easy-to-administer microneedle patches can immunize against measles at least as well as vaccine given with conventional hypodermic needles, according to research done by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

28 Nov 2012

Gilead Sciences receives EC approval for Viread to treat HIV-1 infected children

Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for two new indications for once-daily Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate).

28 Nov 2012

Liver disease therapies: an interview with Eric Halioua, CEO of Promethera Biosciences

Liver disease is a very broad family of diseases. There are two main categories of liver disease:

27 Nov 2012

New SARS-like virus detected in total of six people from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, WHO says

"A new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September has now killed two people in Saudi Arabia, and total cases there and in Qatar have reached six, the World Health Organization said" on Friday, Reuters reports.

27 Nov 2012

Routine HIV testing can reduce illness and death across Canada

Offering routine HIV testing to the general population rather than only to high-risk individuals will significantly reduce illness and death, argues Dr. Julio Montaner and coauthors in an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

27 Nov 2012

Experimental flu vaccine technique could reduce time needed to develop new shots for humans

"An experimental vaccine based on a molecule related to DNA protects animals against influenza and may one day offer an ultra-rapid way to develop new shots for humans, German scientists reported on Sunday," Reuters reports.

27 Nov 2012

Chronic suppurative lung disease: an interview with Dr Robyn Marsh

Chronic suppurative lung disease, or CSLD, is used to describe a range of lung diseases characterised by a chronic wet cough and progressive lung damage. We are interested in the non-cystic fibrosis forms of the disease with a focus on bronchiectasis – the severe form of CSLD.

26 Nov 2012