EurekAlert! InContext Modules

Public Release: 6-Sep-2011

PLOS Medicine
Use of bednets to prevent malaria saves African children's lives
In several sub-Saharan African countries, the rapid, widespread implementation of insecticide treated nets (often referred to as ITNs -- which can prevent malaria by protecting those sleeping under them from the bites of night-flying, malaria parasite-carrying mosquitoes) has been accompanied by significant reductions in child deaths, real life findings that reflect the results of clinical trials and support continued efforts to scale-up and maintain ITN coverage in sub-Saharan Africa.

Public Release: 6-Sep-2011

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Major advance in sleeping sickness drug made by Glasgow scientists
A new study published in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases on September 6th presents a key advance in developing a safer cure for sleeping sickness. Led by Professor Peter Kennedy, researchers at the University of Glasgow's Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation have created a version of the drug most commonly used to treat sleeping sickness which can be administered orally in pill form.

Public Release: 1-Sep-2011

Biomedical Optics Express
Faster diagnostics through cheap, ultra-portable blood testing
Current blood testing procedures are expensive and time-consuming, while sophisticated test equipment is bulky and difficult to transport. A team of researchers from the University of Toledo in Ohio has addressed all these drawbacks in a new low-cost, portable blood testing technique using Surface Plasmon Resonance. Described in Biomedical Optics Express, this could help in a wide range of medical sensing applications, including diagnosing diseases like cancer and diabetes long before clinical symptoms arise.

Public Release: 1-Sep-2011

Cell
An 'unconventional' path to correcting cystic fibrosis
Researchers have identified an unconventional path that may correct the defect underlying cystic fibrosis, according to a report in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. This new treatment dramatically extends the lives of mice carrying the disease-associated mutation.

Public Release: 31-Aug-2011

Journal of Leukocyte Biology
Sandfly saliva provides important clues for new Leishmaniasis treatments
For millions threatened with Leishmania infection, new research points to breakthroughs preventing these parasites from taking hold in the body or reducing the severity of infections. A report in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, shows specific molecules found in saliva of the sandfly allow for Leishmania to evade neutrophils and live within human hosts. Along with providing new targets for drug development, this discovery may help doctors accurately gauge the severity of infections.

Public Release: 31-Aug-2011

PLOS Medicine
Mobile phone data in Haiti improves emergency aid
Population movements in the wake of disasters make it difficult to deliver the right amount of humanitarian aid to the right places. During the earthquake and ensuing cholera epidemic in Haiti, researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and Columbia University, developed a new method for solving this problem -- they monitored the continual movements of two million anonymous mobile phones and reported directly to the humanitarian relief organizations on the ground.

Public Release: 30-Aug-2011

Biomedical Optics Express
Microscope on the go: Cheap, portable, dual-mode microscope uses holograms, not lenses
To serve remote areas of the world, doctors, nurses and field workers need equipment that is portable, versatile, and relatively inexpensive. Now researchers at UCLA have built a compact, light-weight, dual-mode microscope that uses holograms instead of lenses. It weighs about as much as a banana and fits in the palm of a hand. The team describes the new device in a paper published today in the Optical Society's open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express.

Public Release: 29-Aug-2011

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
From mild-mannered to killer plague
How did a bacterium that causes mild stomach irritation rapidly evolve into a deadly assassin responsible for the most devastating pandemics in human history? New DNA sequencing techniques reveal how Yersinia pseudotuberculosis became Yersinia pestis, otherwise know as the plague. The new study offers a glimpse into how the new technology might aid in the development of drugs to fight deadly diseases, including the plague.

the Great Lakes Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research

Public Release: 28-Aug-2011

ESC Congress 2011

Lancet
Huge gaps in use of simple, cheap and proven drugs worldwide, say McMaster researchers
A global study in 17 countries led by McMaster University researchers has found too few patients are using drugs proven to give significant benefits in warding off a heart attack or stroke. This is true in high income countries, like Canada, as well as middle and low income countries.

Public Release: 28-Aug-2011

Nature Genetics
Six new genetic variants linked to type 2 diabetes discovered in South Asians
An international team of researchers led by Imperial College London has identified six new genetic variants associated with type-2 diabetes in South Asians.

National Institute of Health Research, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, others

Public Release: 26-Aug-2011

NIH's Cancer Detection and Diagnostics Conference
Hand-held unit to detect cancer in poorer countries
An engineering researcher and a global health expert from Michigan State University are working on bringing a low-cost, hand-held device to nations with limited resources to help physicians detect and diagnose cancer.

Public Release: 26-Aug-2011
Herbal abortion helps African women
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have examined a number of plants which are used for illegal abortions in Tanzania. Several of the plants can be used to stop lethal bleeding after birth.

Public Release: 25-Aug-2011

Malaria Journal
The malaria mosquito is disappearing -- but it is not just good news
The incidence of malaria in many African countries south of the Sahara is falling rapidly, shows new research from a Danish-Tanzanian research group.

Public Release: 25-Aug-2011

International Journal for Equity in Health
Life expectancy success story
Increases in life expectancy, due to better quality of life and better health care, can be patchy, with the gap between rich and poor getting bigger as time goes on. However, BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal for Equity in Health is pleased to report that the life expectancy for people living in deprived areas in Campinas, Brazil, is catching up, rising at three times the rate of people living in more affluent areas.

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011

Nature
Common bacterium stops mosquitoes from transmitting dengue virus
Strains of a bacterium commonly found in fruit flies can prevent the Aedes aegypti mosquito from transmitting the virus that causes dengue fever, researchers have found. Their discovery could lead to a more effective way to control dengue worldwide.

Foundation for National Institutes of Health, Gates Foundation

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011
FDA clears new IMMY and University of Nevada, Reno life-saving blood test
The Food and Drug Administration has cleared a new diagnostic test that will help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients stricken with cryptococcosis, a fungal meningitis. The test was developed through a collaboration between Tom Kozel, professor of microbiology of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, and Sean Bauman, president and CEO of IMMY (Immuno-Mycologics) of Oklahoma.

National Institute of Health

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011
UN Member States jeopardize international progress on non-communicable disease epidemic
EASL Governing Board expresses concerns regarding the current status of negotiations in the lead-up to the first ever High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (HLM) to be held in New York in September.

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011
Hawaii receives funding for liver cancer research
Scientists from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and the Queen's Medical Center have received a $2.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop novel methods to better detect liver cancer through the joint analysis of gene expression and imaging data of the liver. Researchers will utilize positron emission tomography, or PET, to measure the levels of specific molecules in the body that have the potential to detect the presence of liver cancer.

NIH/National Cancer Institute

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011

Nature
Novel control of Dengue fever
The spread of Dengue fever in northern Australia may be controlled by a bacterium that infects mosquitoes that harbor the virus, Australian and US researchers report Aug. 25 in two papers published in the journal Nature. The result grew out of work more than 20 years ago by population biologist Michael Turelli, professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, and Ary Hoffmann, now at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Queensland Government, National Institutes of Health, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011

Nature
Protein essential for Ebola virus infection is a promising antiviral target
Two research teams report identifying a critical protein that Ebola virus exploits to cause deadly infections. The protein target is an essential element through which the virus enters living cells to cause disease.

NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute, US Army, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011

Nature
Single protein, key to ebola virus infection, could aid in drug design
Research published by two teams of Army scientists and collaborators has identified a cellular protein that plays a critical role in Ebola virus infection. The findings, published online today in separate studies in the journal Nature, suggest a possible strategy for combating one of the world's most deadly viruses.

Defense Threat Reduction Agency, others

Public Release: 24-Aug-2011

Nature
Researchers identify protein essential in transmission of Ebola virus
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital used a robotic method to screen tens of thousands of compounds and identified a novel small molecule derived from benzylpiperazine adamantyl diamide that inhibits EboV entry into cells by more than 99 percent. They used the inhibitor as a probe to investigate the EboV infection pathway and found that the target of the inhibitor is the cell protein Niemann-Pick C1.

New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Harvard Medical School

Public Release: 23-Aug-2011

mBio
Researchers uncover source of Haitian cholera outbreak
Employing technology that reads the entire DNA code, researchers led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Technical University of Denmark have pinpointed the source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed more than 6,000 people and sickened 300,000. Using whole genome sequencing, which spells out the billions of chemical bases in DNA, the team of researchers provided the strongest evidence yet that peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is widespread, brought the disease to Haiti.

Public Release: 23-Aug-2011

Nature Chemical Biology
Newfound hijacked proteins linked to salmonella virulence
Scientists have discovered that bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella have a sneaky way of making minor alterations to their genes to boost their chances for infection.

National Institutes of Health

Public Release: 23-Aug-2011

eBio
TGen and DTU researchers track source of Haitian cholera outbreak
Employing technology that reads the entire DNA code, researchers led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have pinpointed the source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that killed more than 6,000 people and sickened 300,000.


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