Developing a vaccine for HIV may be harder than researchers thought, according to linkurl:a study;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature07746.html published online in Nature. Just as the virus develops resistance to antiviral drugs, it also evolves to evade the human immune system on a population-wide level, the researchers report.Human Immunodeficiency Virus Image: NIAID Previous studies have examined the interaction of viral evolution with the human immune system in s

The National Institutes of Health received a 3% increase in funds in the draft 2009 budget, released today (Feb 23) by the US House of Representatives, giving the agency a total of $30.3 billion, linkurl:ScienceInsider;http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/02/2009-budget-win.html reports. Adjusted for inflation, the sum essentially leaves the agency's funding flat. The announcement comes after last week's decision to provide a two-year infusion of $10 billion for the NIH as part of t

The US Senate and House of Representatives have hammered out the differences between their versions of the economic recovery bill, to the tune of $10 billion for the National Institute of Health, according to early reports. This sum, which was approved in the Senate version of the bill earlier this week, includes $8.5 for research and $1.5 for rebuilding agency facilities, according to linkurl:ScienceInsider,;http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/02/science-headed.html which stresses

Researchers have helped resolve a long-standing debate about which precursors in the developing mammalian embryo give rise to blood cells, after tracking the birth of these cells using in-vivo imaging that lasts for days, according to linkurl:a report;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7231/full/nature07760.html in this week's Nature. The study is one of a handful of papers to come out in recent months to examine the question of hematopoietic cell origin. "I would say the nice thing abo

A New Jersey infectious disease lab seems to be plagued with an inability to keep track of research mice infected with dangerous pathogens. The facility, part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, seems to have misplaced two frozen carcasses of mice infected with bubonic plague last December, the linkurl:New Jersey Star Ledger;http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-12/123398465742360.xml&coll=1&thispage=2 reported this weekend. According to the facility,

The army's top infectious disease institute suspended its biodefense research on Friday (February 6) after finding problems with its system for keeping track of the dangerous pathogen stocks found in its labs. The blog linkurl:ScienceInsider;http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/02/us-army-lab-fre-1.html obtained an internal memo from the institute, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRID), informing employees it had begun an extensive inventory that

The US Food and Drug Administration today approved the first-ever drug manufactured via a genetically engineered animal, opening the door for the wider use of such methods for producing drugs in the future. The drug, ATryn, is a protein replacement treatment for people afflicted with a rare blood-clotting disorder called hereditary antithrombin deficiency, who are at risk of thrombosis. It is made by genetically engineering goats to produce the human version of the protein in their milk. ATry

The first-ever genome-wide scan of synesthesia may illuminate how genetics drives complex cognitive traits

Tom Daschle, the much lauded pick for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced this afternoon that he'll be withdrawing his nomination in light of tax irregularities that have cropped up during the review. "I will not be the architect of America's health care reform, but I remain one of its most fervent supporters," Daschle said in a statement, according to the linkurl:Washington Post.;http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/02/03/daschle_withdraws.html News

What is a "part," anyway? And how can I compare yours to mine?

Brick by Brick All Photos courtesy of iGEM and David Appleyard Now five years old, a student competition in synthetic biology embodies the struggles of the emerging discipline. By Alla Katsnelson n a November weekend, more than 800 people gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to show off six months of hard work. Each person wore one of 84 different shirts; some had a classic, young, professional design, while others ado

Credit: Courtesy of Thomas von Zglinicki and PLoS Biology" /> Credit: Courtesy of Thomas von Zglinicki and PLoS Biology The paper: J. F. Passos et al., "Mitochondrial dysfunction accounts for the stochastic heterogeneity in telomere-dependent senescence," PLoS Biology, 5:1138, 2007. (Cited in 31 papers) The study: To investigate why cells senesce at different rates, Thomas von Zglinicki of