This year, the Frontiers of Retrovirology conference was held in the historic city of Cambridge and was a great success. A selection of the world’s leading researchers in human and animal retroviruses delivered inspiring and exceptional talks. Throughout the event, tributes were paid to Kuan-Teh Jeang, founder of the conference and of Retrovirology,… Read more »
In a new review article published today in Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases (JVATiTD), Anna Nekaris and colleagues review the remarkable biochemistry and etiology of slow loris venom. The slow loris (Nycticebus spp.) is the world’s only venomous primate, just one of seven venomous species of mammal. From a defensive posture,… Read more »
Written by Dr Adele Murrell, University of Bath, UK A long time ago, when we still used restriction enzymes to identify polymorphisms and the term “epigenetic” was used to dismiss quirky data that did not obey the central dogma of ‘DNA-makes-RNA-makes-protein’, we used to think of genes as linear sequences of bases in a sea… Read more »
Written by Dr Anne-Marie Baird, St. James’s Hospital/Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Worldwide, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer related mortality, with the incidence growing dramatically in both females and non-smokers. Survival rates continue to remain poor, with five year survival rates at approximately 15%. This figure has remained relatively unchanged in the… Read more »
Written by Henry Heng, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cytogenetics Privacy and ethical concerns about the publication of the HeLa cell genome sequence have generated a great deal of commentary. In addition to a number of pieces from well-known scientific journals (1-2), the New York Times has also joined this interesting discussion (3). Today, regulations require informed… Read more »
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Koalas living at the edge of their natural habitat range behave differently to those living well within in it, finds a study published in Movement Ecology this week. The research has implications for conservation, hinting that a ‘one strategy fits all’ approach is not the best tactic for animals like the koala, which straddles… Read more »
Today marks the publication of a special article collection in Veterinary Research on the subject of zoonosis and parasitosis in the Indian Ocean islands. Zoonoses, infectious diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, place a significant burden on public health. An estimated 60% of human pathogens are zoonotic in origin. The Indian Ocean islands,… Read more »
1Many nuclear power stations in the UK are built on the coast, where the easy availability of sea water offers a natural solution to cooling the carbon dioxide used to moderate the reactor temperature. Hinkley Point B station is situated on the Bristol Channel for just this reason, and as one adventitious consequence, its water… Read more »
Written by Professor Lucia Altucci, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli It is becoming increasingly clear that cancer is not only a genetic but also an epigenetic disease. Improper deposition of epigenetic marks is one of the hallmarks of cancer and the notion that epigenetic modifications can be critically involved in the pathogenesis of… Read more »
Whether it’s the darkness of underground waterways, the freezing chill of the arctic or the dry and dusty desert, humans have long held a fascination with environmental extremes and the creatures that inhabit these inhospitable surroundings. To find life in these most unlikely of places, without light, or warmth, or water is one of Earth’s… Read more »