genes and development

(Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) Every year, about 500 million people worldwide are infected with the parasite that causes dysentery, a global medical burden that among infectious diseases is second only to malaria.

In a new study appearing in the June 15 issue of Genes and Development, Johns Hopkins researchers may have found a way to ease this burden by discovering a new enzyme that may help the dysentery-causing amoeba evade the immune system.

(University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center) Efforts to protect the tumor-suppressor p53 could just as easily shelter a mutant version of the protein, causing cancer cells to thrive and spread rather than die, according to research by scientists at the University of Texas M.

D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the current issue of the journal Genes and Development.