STEPHEN GIREResearchers at Harvard University and their international colleagues have sequenced 99 Ebola virus genomes isolated from the blood of 78 patients in Sierra Leone—one of four countries at the center of the ongoing, largest-ever Ebola outbreak—and made them available online within days. Their analysis of all the sequences was published in Science this week (August 28).
“This analysis will provide the backbone for tracking the virus as it spreads, and to see if future outbreaks outside of these countries are connected both epidemiologically and genetically,” emerging infectious diseases researcher Matthew Frieman from the University of Maryland School of Medicine who was not involved in the work told The Scientist in an e-mail. “The ability to deep sequence virus samples rapidly, inexpensively, and safely has opened up a window in to genomic surveillance that did not exist before.”
WIKIMEDIA, MARK HARKINInvestigators at MIT have used optogenetics to make mice enjoy spending time in a place they were previously conditioned to fear, according to results published in Nature this week (August 27). The team was able to switch the animals’ memories by manipulating connections between neurons in the hippocampus and amygdala.
Elizabeth Phelps, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University who was not involved in the ...
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