Life Sciences and Chemistry

Antibiotics can save lives. But the increasing occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria presents a number of challenges for researchers in medicine.

Veterinary medicine is no exception and Dr. Elizabeth Davis, assistant professor of equine internal medicine at Kansas State University, is working to help improve alternative methods for combating infectious diseases in horses. “In veterinary medicine and medicine in general, we’re running out of antibiotics, so we have to be

A team of European researchers plans to perfect techniques for producing antibodies and vaccines, obtained from plants, to prevent and treat major human diseases, such as AIDS, rabies and TB. The idea is to use genetically modified (GM) crops eventually to produce plant-based pharmaceuticals. Pharma-Planta is a consortium of eleven European countries and South Africa which, thanks to €12 million in EU funding, plans to produce vaccines and other treatments for major diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, rab

EMBO fellowships extend eligibility criteria to promote equal opportunities

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) today announced pioneering new eligibility criteria for its long-term and short-term fellowships. The new criteria cater for applicants with childcare commitments and scientists returning to work after a career break for childcare reasons. Further amendments aim to attract applicants from outside Europe and to encourage international mobility and collaborati

Researchers at the University of Dundee with colleagues at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have discovered how the sand-fly spreads one of the world’s most serous tropical diseases – Leishmaniasis.

With reported British deaths due to the sand-fly bite, the researchers have worked out how the Leishmania parasite has manipulated the sand-fly as the perfect transmission system for itself.

This paper, to be published in Nature by Matt Rogers and Paul Bates from the Liverpool

New sources of computing power – derived from such novel areas as neuron-like cells and powerful chemical reactions – could form the heart of the next generation of computers. The University of the West of England and four research partners have just won £1.8 million in government funding to carry out research into computers that are inspired by nature. This means UWE is playing a key role in two out of only five nationally funded projects aimed at such exciting multidisciplinary research.

A biological process in plants, thought to be useless and even wasteful, has significant benefits and should not be engineered out — particularly in the face of looming climate change, says a team of UC Davis researchers.

The researchers have found that the process, photorespiration, is necessary for healthy plant growth and if impaired could inhibit plant growth, particularly as atmospheric carbon dioxide rises as it is globally. Their findings are published this week in the Proceedings