Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

New method helps better understand pathological development of ALS

The neurodegenerative disease ALS causes motor neuron death and paralysis. However, long before the cells die, they lose contact with the muscles as their axons atrophy.

12 Dec 2018

NIH offers support for HIV care and prevention research in the southern United States

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will fund a series of collaborations with medical research institutions in the southern United States to test new ways of implementing HIV treatment and prevention tools in counties with some of the highest rates of new HIV cases nationwide.

12 Dec 2018

Integral Molecular and Merus collaborate to develop bispecific antibody therapeutics

Integral Molecular, the industry leader in the discovery of monoclonal antibodies against membrane proteins, and Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing innovative bispecific antibody therapeutics, announced that they have entered into a collaboration on multiple undisclosed targets.

12 Dec 2018

FSU study finds racial disparity among adolescents receiving flu vaccine

Black adolescents living in the United States tend to receive the influenza vaccine at significantly lower rates than their white and Hispanic counterparts, according to Florida State University researchers.

11 Dec 2018

ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress showcases novel technologies set to benefit many cancer patients

Innovation in immuno-oncology is exploding and new technologies that are set to benefit many patients with cancer are being showcased in the highly diverse array of topics to be discussed at the ESMO Immuno-Oncology Congress, to be held 13-16 December in Geneva, Switzerland.

11 Dec 2018

Researchers develop new system for efficiently producing human norovirus

An Osaka University-led research team has developed a system for simply and efficiently producing human norovirus. By coaxing human induced pluripotent stem cells to develop into a type of cell that usually lines the intestine, they created a cellular environment that can be used for producing the virus, studying how it interacts with human cells, and investigating potential vaccines.

11 Dec 2018

New study reveals yin-yang personality of dopamine

For decades, psychologists have viewed the neurotransmitter dopamine as a double-edged sword: released in the brain as a reward to train us to seek out pleasurable experiences, but also a "drug" the constant pursuit of which leads to addiction.

11 Dec 2018

Scientists discover cellular mechanism that triggers pneumonia in humans

The situation is relatively common, especially in winter. You come down with the flu, which lasts longer than usual. A few days later, you discover you have pneumonia.

10 Dec 2018

Researchers develop biotechnological tool to produce antifungal proteins in plants

Researchers from the Spanish Research Council at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics and the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, in collaboration with the IATA, have developed a biotechnological tool to produce, in a very efficient manner, antifungal proteins in plants.

10 Dec 2018

HPV type 16 or 18 associated with cervical cancer risk in young women

The human papilloma virus can cause cervical cancer. According to new guidelines in Sweden, women over thirty therefore undergo initial screening for the virus rather than a smear test.

10 Dec 2018

Activating brain region could revive the urge to socialize among opioid addicts

One of the many painful and challenging aspects of the US opioid crisis is that people abusing opioids often isolate themselves from family and friends, making it difficult for loved ones to help people on a path towards recovery.

10 Dec 2018

Risk Analysis publishes special issue on communicating about Zika virus

Today, Risk Analysis, an International Journal, published a special issue, "Communicating About Zika," which features several articles that were originally presented as works-in-progress at the Zika Communication Summit convened in March 2017 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

10 Dec 2018

Scientists unravel how bacterial persister cells manipulate our immune cells

New research, from scientists at Imperial College London, unravels how so-called bacterial persister cells manipulate our immune cells, potentially opening new avenues to finding ways of clearing these bacterial cells from the body, and stopping recurrence of the bacterial infection.

7 Dec 2018

Reusable respirators can effectively protect health care workers from airborne contaminants

Half-facepiece reusable elastomeric respirators are an effective and viable option for protecting health care workers from exposure to airborne transmissible contaminants or infectious agents -- for example, influenza virus -- during day-to-day work or with a sudden or rapid influx of patients, such as during a public health emergency, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

7 Dec 2018

Houston Methodist launches real-time website to track flu cases

Pathologists at Houston Methodist developed a real-time website to track flu cases, just in time to assist physicians, the CDC and patients for the fall 2018 flu season.

7 Dec 2018

New way of controlling HIV latency to completely eradicate the virus

A new study suggests that a genetic switch that causes latent HIV inside cells to begin to replicate can be manipulated to completely eradicate the virus from the human body. Cells harboring latent HIV are "invisible" to the natural defenses of the immune system.

7 Dec 2018

Boosting our defenses to fight Klebsiella infections

Although a relatively common infection, some bacteria that causes pneumonia can be particularly deadly. As a case in point, take Klebsiella pneumoniae, which has been included on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) list of infections that desperately need new treatments.

6 Dec 2018

UAB research may point a path to more effective influenza vaccines

Seasonal influenza vaccines are typically less than 50 percent effective, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies. Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, published this week in Nature Immunology, may point a path to more effective vaccines.

6 Dec 2018

Duke-NUS researchers highlight possible role of bioaerosol sampling in pandemic surveillance

As a leading global city with a high population density, Singapore is vulnerable to the introduction of biological threats. Initiating an early emergency response to such threats calls for the rapid identification of the causative agent.

6 Dec 2018

Underweight or morbidly obese adults have higher risk of being hospitalized with flu-like illness

A new Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses study found that adults who are underweight or morbidly obese have an elevated risk of being hospitalized with influenza-like illness due to the flu virus or other respiratory viruses.

5 Dec 2018