EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 30-Nov-2012

Lancet
Emerging vector-borne diseases create new public health challenge
Human activities are advancing the spread of vector-borne, zoonotic diseases such as West Nile virus, Lyme disease and dengue fever, report scientists publishing a series of papers today in the journal the Lancet.

National Science Foundation

Public Release: 30-Nov-2012

PLOS ONE
Electrically spun fabric offers dual defense against pregnancy, HIV
Electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers show promise as a cheap, versatile platform to simultaneously offer contraception and prevent HIV. New funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will further test the system's versatility and feasibility.

National Institutes of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science
X-ray laser helps fight sleeping sickness
An international group of scientists working at SLAC has mapped a weak spot in the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, pinpointing a promising new target for treating a disease that kills tens of thousands of people each year.

US Department of Energy

Public Release: 29-Nov-2012

Science
X-rays expose blueprint for possible sleeping sickness drug
Using the world's most powerful X-ray laser, scientists have exposed a possible Achilles' heel of the sleeping sickness parasite that threatens more than 60 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. The sophisticated analysis revealed the blueprint for a molecular plug that can selectively block a vital enzyme of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Plugging such a tailor-made molecule into the right place of the enzyme would render it inactive, thereby killing the parasite.

Public Release: 28-Nov-2012
Report finds Big Pharma is doing more for access to medicine in developing countries
The latest Access to Medicine Index, which ranks the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries, finds that the industry is doing more than it was two years ago. Seventeen out of the 20 companies perform better than they did at the time of the last Index report in 2010.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UK Department for International Development, and others

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Vaccine
Measles vaccine given with a microneedle patch could boost immunization programs
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.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

ACS Nano
New method for diagnosing malaria
Danish researchers have developed a new and sensitive method that makes it possible to diagnose malaria from a single drop of blood or saliva. The method might eventually be used in low-resource areas without the need for specially trained personnel, expensive equipment, clean water or electricity. With the development of this method, the researchers hope to go one step further in identifying and treating all patients suffering from malaria.

Public Release: 27-Nov-2012

Evolution, Medicine and Public Health
Malaria study suggests drugs should target female parasites
Fresh insight into the parasite that causes malaria suggests a new way to develop drugs and vaccines to tackle the disease.

Wellcome Trust

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
'Repurposed' anti-parasite drug shows promise as new TB treatment: UBC research
A well-established family of drugs used to treat parasitic diseases is showing surprising potential as a therapy for tuberculosis, according to new research from University of British Columbia microbiologists. The findings, published online this week in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, are based on in vitro tests of the avermectin family of drugs. Discovered nearly 40 years ago, the drugs are commonly used in the developing world to eliminate the parasitic worms that cause river blindness and elephantiasis.

Canadian Institute of Health Research, British Columbia Lung Association, Grand Challenges Canada

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012

Science
Study reveals the proteins expressed by human cytomegalovirus
New findings reveal the surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity of the human cytomegalovirus and provide the first steps toward understanding how the virus manipulates human cells during infection. The related study appears in the Nov. 23 issue of the journal Science, which is published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

Public Release: 22-Nov-2012
Inspired: Canada funds 68 bold, inventive ways to improve health, save lives in developing countries
Some 51 innovators in 18 low and middle income countries and 17 in Canada will share $7 million in Canadian grants to pursue bold, creative ideas for tackling health problems in resource-poor parts of the world. The projects will be implemented worldwide: 38 in Africa, 23 in Asia, five in Latin America/Caribbean, and two in the Middle East

Grand Challenges Canada

Public Release: 19-Nov-2012
UBC professor wins Canada's top pharmaceutical research award
University of British Columbia microbiologist Robert E.W. Hancock has received the Prix Galien 2012 Research Award, widely considered the most prestigious honor in Canadian pharmaceutical research and innovation. Hancock is being recognized for pioneering work unraveling the complex interactions between antibiotics and bacteria.

Innovation Life Canada

Public Release: 19-Nov-2012

ACS Nano
Rice unveils super-efficient solar-energy technology
Rice University scientists have unveiled a revolutionary new technology that uses nanoparticles to convert solar energy directly into steam. The new "solar steam" method from Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics is so effective it can even produce steam from icy cold water. Details of the solar steam method were published online today in ACS Nano. The technology's inventors said they expect it will first be used in sanitation and water-purification applications in the developing world.

Welch Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Public Release: 19-Nov-2012
NIH awards Georgia malaria research consortium up to $19.4 million contract
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a five-year contract of up to $19.4 million, depending on contract options exercised, to establish the Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center (MaHPIC). The consortium includes researchers at Emory University, with partners at the University of Georgia (UGA), the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University will administer the contract.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Public Release: 16-Nov-2012
GW Researcher receives grant to study parasitic worm role in bile duct cancer in Southeast Asia
Paul Brindley, Ph.D., professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, was the recipient of a $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the behavior of a parasitic worm, rampant in Southeast Asia, known to cause infections that contribute to liver cancer.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 15-Nov-2012

World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Tobacco Control
Cash cuts increase smoking death risk for world's poor, study says
Proposed funding cuts within the international body responsible for tobacco control will leave the world's poorest countries more vulnerable to smoking-related diseases, a study suggests.