WIKIMEDIA, RSABBATINIMalaria parasites are less virulent to rodent hosts if they’ve been delivered by a mosquito vector, according to new research published this week (May 29) in Nature. The exact mechanism for the change in virulence is unclear, though it correlates with a protective immune response and the altered expression of a set of antigen-encoding genes, which may serve as promising vaccine targets.
“This is an extraordinarily stimulating paper, and should be the start of quite a lot of new work,” Andrew Read of Penn State University told The Scientist. “These results suggest that genes that are being affected by the mosquito transmission route are key players in determining how nasty the parasites are and how sick people get.”
WIKIMEDIA, AREYNDon’t neglect your grant-review duties, argue David Irwin, Stephen A. Gallo, and Scott R. Glisson of the American Institute of Biological Sciences’ Scientific Peer Advisory and Review Services (SPARS) Department in Reston, Virginia. Serving on grant review panels can help spur learning and collaboration that leads to new science, having your grant reviewed can be equally important in shaping scientific progress, they add. “At the very least, reviewers will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the application, usually coupled with a scientific merit score, which are then communicated back to the applicant,” they wrote. “Thus begins a subtle dialogue between reviewer and ‘reviewee.’”
WIKIMEDIA, THEGREENJ
The H7N9 bird flu virus currently circulating in China is transmissible between ferrets, according to a paper published yesterday ...
