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Popular Articles

NCB Chief Executive Awarded A Knighthood
Paul Ennals, Chief Executive of NCB, has been awarded a knighthood in the Queen"s Birthday Honours list.

Fate In Fly Sensory Organ Precursor Cells Could Explain Human Immune Disorder
Notch signaling helps determine the fate of a number of different cell types in a variety of organisms, including humans. In an article that appears in the current issue of Nature Cell Biology, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine report that a new finding about the Notch signaling pathway in sensory organ precursor cells in the fruit fly could explain the mystery behind an immunological disorder called Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.
News of the day
1.02B Chronically Hungry People Worldwide, U.N. Says
For the first time, the number of chronically hungry people worldwide is greater than 1 billion, according to a recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statement, the Financial Times reports (Blas, Financial Times, 6/19). The total number of hungry people is estimated to have reached 1.02 billion - an increase of 11 percent from last year"s 915 million, according to the agency, which based its estimate on analysis by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Rizzo, AP/Google.com, 6/20).
Oncology

Structure Of Bacteria Responsible For Traveler's Diarrhea Identified By Researchers

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), the Naval Medical Research Center and the National Institutes of Health, have solved the structure of thin hair-like fibers called "pili" or "fimbriae" on the surface of bacteria that cause traveler"s diarrhea. The findings, appear in the June issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and have important implications for creating better therapeutics against diarrheal diseases. According to the World Health Organization, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) bacteria causes the largest number of recorded community-acquired cases of childhood diarrhea in the developing world, and is the most common culprit in traveler"s diarrhea. ETEC uses surface "pili" or "fimbriae" to attach to host intestinal epithelia, an early, vital step in diarrhea pathogenesis. These fibers are essential for initiation of infection in the intestines by ETEC. According to the researchers, this study elucidates the mechanics of assembly of the fimbriae helical fibers as they exit the bacterium through a pore on the bacterial surface. "Atomic resolution detail of the proteins in the fibers and analysis of genetic variability among different clinical strains were combined to show that each bacterial strain presents a different outer surface of the major protein while preserving the protein components that are buried within the fiber," said senior author Esther Bullitt, an associate professor in the department of physiology and biophysics at BUSM. "Because of this, the antibodies produced against ETEC during one episode of infection are often not protective against later infections by other strains," she added. As a result of this new study, the researchers believe that developing a cross-protective vaccine will require a strategy that focuses on use of the tip protein as an antigen. "The structural findings reported here have bearing on research to help guide vaccine development." Funding for this study was provided by the NIH (NIGMS) and NCI) the United States Army and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. Gina DiGravio Boston University Medical Center


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