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Weizmann Institute Scientists Reveal the Shape of a Protein That Helps Retroviruses Break into Cells

Retroviruses are among the trickier and more malicious disease agents, causing AIDS and cancers such as leukemia. The viruses manage to sneak into cells with the help of special protein assemblies scattered all over their surfaces. These retrovirus surface proteins cause the membrane envelope of the virus to fuse with the membrane of the cell, spilling virus RNA into the cell to wr

Having vaccines developed by computer may sound unnerving but the increasing role of computer modelling in the development of new vaccines could bring new products onto the market quicker, benefiting patients and saving pharmaceutical companies millions of pounds.

Researchers using informatics and computer modelling can help scientists to uncover and harness the hidden patterns in the wealth of DNA and protein sequences that modern bioscience generates and cut the number of compoun

Imagine a firefighter scrambling through a burning building, searching for survivors of a devastating explosion. Injured people on the far side of a brick wall, but out of reach. However, the partner on the other side promptly smashes through the wall, clears a path so both can help the survivors. Science fiction perhaps? No, this is exactly the scenario that partners in the PELOTE project have been working on.

Libor Preucil, from the Czech Technical University in Prague and coor

In a study of mothers with a history of preeclampsia, a hypertension complication in pregnancy affecting five percent of all women, researchers at Yale have found that these women have an increased lifetime risk for cardiovascular illness and death.

“Even when a mother’s blood pressure returns to normal after delivery, preeclampsia might increase her risk of life–threatening cardiovascular disease,” said lead author Edmund F. Funai, M.D., associate professor and co–chief, Divis

A team of scientists from Colombia, the United States and elsewhere has successfully completed a 15-year-plus search for the genetic problems behind the very rare Roberts syndrome, whose physical manifestations often include cleft lip and palate and shortened limbs that resemble those of babies whose mothers took thalidomide during pregnancy.

The discovery, which is reported in the April 10 advance online section of Nature Genetics, proves that genes behind very rare inherited d

Millions of painted lady butterflies that fluttered into California’s Central Valley in the last week of March could be just the advance guard of one of the largest migrations of the species on record, said Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at UC Davis.

“This may be the biggest migration of modern times,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said he is getting reports of “billions” of butterflies around Trona, near Death Valley, and in the San Fernando Valley. M