Browsing Tag

Virology

Viral dark matter exposed: Metagenome database detects phage-derived antibacterial enzyme

Scienmag Jul 10, 2020

Scientists demonstrate that the information about host bacteria-bacteriophage (phage) associations derived from world`s first metagenome analysis is useful for the development of phage therapies against intestinal pathobionts.Credit:…

Infectious Emerging Diseases

Vulnerability for at-risk populations identified in US influenza data

Scienmag Jul 10, 2020

Data biases hamper monitoring of outbreaks in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods A next-generation system for monitoring influenza outbreaks performs well overall, but reveals a critical lack of sufficient data to accurately monitor…

Medicine & Health

Bats offer clues to treating COVID-19

Scienmag Jul 9, 2020

To combat COVID-19, we need to regulate our immune systems to resemble those of batsCredit: Getty Images photo Bats are often considered patient zero for many deadly viruses affecting humans, including Ebola, rabies, and, most…

Agriculture

Cycad stem cuttings need wound sealants for successful propagation

Jul 9, 2020

Credit: Western Pacific Tropical Research Center, University of Guam The need to cover an open wound on cycad stem cuttings has been confirmed by the Western Pacific Tropical Research Center at the University of Guam in a study…

Technology and Engineering

COVID-19: Yin and yang and herd immunity

Scienmag Jul 8, 2020

Vaccines and herd immunity The Great Chinese Famine (1959-1962) was probably the greatest man-made disaster in history resulting in tens of millions of deaths. The responses to the famine and that to COVID-19 are all to similar,…

New multidisciplinary task force to combat COVID-19 pandemics is backed by Manchester expert

Jul 7, 2020

New network to be introduced at 13th Textile Bioengineering and Information Symposium A world-leading materials expert from The University of Manchester is helping to launch a new global task force to drive innovation in digital health to…

Agriculture

High-throughput sequencing tracks historical spread of grapevine viruses

Jul 7, 2020

Grapevine is infected by more than 90 viruses, with new viral species discovered yearly as a result of the newer technology introduced by High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS). Within the last decade, HTS is used for virome identification (the…

Biology

Repurposing public health systems to decode COVID-19

Scienmag Jul 7, 2020

Existing public health monitoring systems in the UK, could improve understanding of the risk factors associated with severe COVID-19 Existing public health monitoring systems in the UK, could improve understanding of the risk factors…

Infectious Emerging Diseases

Complications from COVID-19 may depend on von Willebrand factor in the blood

Scienmag Jul 6, 2020

Anna Aksenova, a senior research associate at the Laboratory of Amyloid Biology at St Petersburg University, has advanced a hypothesis that the severe course of COVID-19 may be associated with von Willebrand factor. It is one of the main…

Biology

Viruses beware: scientists show how bacterial ‘attack dog’ toxin disrupts protein…

Scienmag Jul 6, 2020

Credit: Pavel Odinev / Skoltech A team of Skoltech researchers from the Severinov laboratory and their colleagues have identified the way in which a component of a two-part bacterial self-defense system from the toxin-antitoxin…

Biology

Norovirus has two alternative capsid structures which change before infection

Scienmag Jul 6, 2020

Researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences and Kitasato University in Japan discover that mouse norovirus has two capsid structures and changes from one to the other before infection. Human norovirus also exhibited…

Infectious Emerging Diseases

Work begins on UK system for estimating COVID-19 cases from wastewater

Scienmag Jul 6, 2020

Sewage surveillance could effectively become 'canary in the coal mine' for COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseasesCredit: UKCEH Scientists will develop a standardised UK-wide system for detecting coronavirus in wastewater,…

Infectious Emerging Diseases

Grassroots dog vaccinations can help stop rabies, but not alone

Scienmag Jul 3, 2020

Rabies is preventable. Inequality has kept it a threat.Credit: © Ravi Ruparel. In the US, dying from rabies is virtually unheard of. But around the world, rabies kills 59,000 people every year. Ninety-nine percent of those deaths are…

Biology

How a mutation on the novel coronavirus has come to dominate the globe

Scienmag Jul 2, 2020

A small variation has made the novel coronavirus fitter--but not more deadlyCredit: La Jolla Institute for Immunology LA JOLLA--Flashback to mid-March: the novel coronavirus had reached San Diego, California. Few people could get…

Medicine & Health

How that preprint about a ‘more contagious strain’ of coronavirus changed in peer review

Scienmag Jul 2, 2020

Credit: Korber et al. / Cell On May 5, 2020, news broke about a reportedly more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2--the virus that causes COVID-19--based on a preliminary paper posted to the preprint server bioRxiv. The preprint…

Biology

“Targeting peptide” discovery offers hope as new, highly effective anti-inflammatory

Scienmag Jul 2, 2020

Designer peptide could become effective in reducing damage caused by COVID-19 infections TORONTO, ON (June 30, 2020) -- A collaboration between the University of Toronto's Faculty of Dentistry and the National Jewish Health in Denver --…

Medicine & Health

R&D of mRNA vaccine production technology against COVID-19 and further new coronavirus

Jul 1, 2020

TMIMS and iCONM started joint research Credit: 2020 Innovation Center of NanoMedicine June 4, 2020 - Kawasaki / Japan: The Innovation Center of NanoMedicine (President: Prof. Kazunori Kataoka, location: Kawasaki in Japan;…

Medicine & Health

Designing anew: Radical COVID-19 drug development approach shows promise

Jun 30, 2020

University of Washington's Baker Lab uses de novo computational design on TACC systems to create new therapeutics Credit: Ian C Haydon / Institute for Protein Design Nearly every drug that is, or has ever been, used was derived…

Medicine & Health

COVID-19 causes ‘hyperactivity’ in blood-clotting cells

Jun 30, 2020

Changes in blood platelets triggered by COVID-19 could contribute to the onset of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious complications in some patients who have the disease, according to University of Utah Health scientists. The…

Chemistry AND Physics

Face mask construction, materials matter for containing coughing, sneezing droplets

Jun 30, 2020

Simulated coughs and sneezes from mannequins show higher efficacy in multilayered, well-fitted cloth masks. Credit: CREDIT: Siddhartha Verma, Manhar R. Dhanak and John Frankenfield WASHINGTON, June 30, 2020 -- While the use…

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