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Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and National University Health System (NUHS) have identified new genetic variants that increase susceptibility to several infectious diseases including tuberculosis and malaria.

With greater understanding of the role of the gene implicated, it is hoped the findings could one day lead to better therapies and vaccines.

Durham, NC – Social status in paper wasps is established earlier in life than scientists thought, says a study published this month in the journal PLoS ONE.

DALLAS – May 20, 2010 – Patients with chronic kidney disease who have been diagnosed with depression are twice as likely to be hospitalized, progress to long-term dialysis treatments or die within a year as those who are not depressed, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

Boca Raton, FL – May 19, 2010 – David H. Fater, CEO of Vicor Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: VCRT), today announced the initial results of a study designed to analyze data from the Merte Subita en Insufficiencia Cardiaca (MUSIC) Trial using its PD2i® algorithm and software. Vicor Technologies is a biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative, non-invasive medical devices using its patented, proprietary PD2i® nonlinear algorithm and software.

BOSTON (5-19-10) -- Sequencing DNA could get a lot faster and cheaper – and thus closer to routine use in clinical diagnostics – thanks to a new method developed by a research team based at Boston University. The team has demonstrated the first use of solid state nanopores — tiny holes in silicon chips that detect DNA molecules as they pass through the pore — to read the identity of the four nucleotides that encode each DNA molecule. In addition, the researchers have shown the viability of a novel, more efficient method to detect single DNA molecules in nanopores.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Wheat plants found to be resistant to Hessian fly larvae may be calling in reinforcements to build up rigid defenses.

GALVESTON, Texas — Why do people become physically weaker as they age? And is there any way to slow, stop, or even reverse this process, breaking the link between increasing age and frailty?

In a paper published online this Wednesday in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers present evidence that answers to both those questions can be found in the way the network of blood vessels that threads through muscles responds to the hormone insulin.

A new study by a team of researchers led by Jeffrey Peng, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, is using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), to move drug design into groundbreaking consideration of the dynamic flexibility of drugs and their targets.

At the University of Oklahoma WATER Center, researchers are working to provide solutions in developing countries where clean, safe water is nonexistent. According to Center Director David Sabatini, 1 billion people in the world do not have a safe water supply, which leads to 2 million deaths a year.

A University of Rochester study helps to explain why men get liver cancer more often than women and opens the door for a new treatment pathway, by showing a direct link between the androgen receptor, which is more active in men, and the hepatitis B virus as it relates to the deadly cancer.

The study is published May 19, 2010, in Science Translational Medicine, a new journal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS.

Researchers have identified how a normal response to infection, one that usually serves to limit the amount of inflammation, actually contributes to disease progression and viral persistence in HIV-infected patients.

The findings, published in the May 19 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, offer important opportunities for further research, both for treatment of long-term persistence of HIV in those who are infected and for prevention of infection in those who are not, according to the study team.

Researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine have developed a novel influenza vaccine that could represent the next step towards a universal influenza vaccine eliminating the need for seasonal immunizations. They report their findings today in the inaugural issue of mBio™, the first online, open-access journal published by the American Society for Microbiology.

New research shows that nearly 1 in 5 cases of infection with the potentially deadly fungus Cryptococcus neoformans are caused by not one but multiple strains of the pathogen. Researchers from the Institut Pasteur and the University of Minnesota Medical School report their findings today in the inaugural issue of mBio™, the first online, open-access journal published by the American Society for Microbiology.

An international team led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators today released data detailing the effectiveness of nearly 310,000 chemicals against a malaria parasite that remains one of the world's leading killers of young children.