university of texas medical branch

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) A new study has shown previously unseen details of an anthrax bacteriophage -- a virus that infects anthrax bacteria -- revealing for the first time how it infects its host, and providing an initial blueprint for how the phage might someday be modified into a tool for the detection and destruction of anthrax and other potential bioterror agents.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Researchers have discovered a key mechanism used by intestinal cells to defend themselves against one of the world's most common hospital-acquired bacterial infections -- a mechanism they think they can exploit to produce a therapy to protect against the effects of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Researchers have developed a new candidate vaccine to protect against chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that produces an intensely painful and often chronic arthritic disease that has stricken millions of people in India, Southeast Asia and Africa.

The Natural Products Foundation (NPF) has announce the recipients of the 2011 NPF Scholarship Fund at the Natural Products Association MarketPlace trade show on June 24, 2011 in Las Vegas: Lauren Atwell of Oregon State University and Linda Sousse of the University of Texas Medical Branch.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Sylvatic dengue continues to flourish in Southeast Asia and West Africa, cycling between non-human primates and the mosquitoes that feed on them.

Since the 1970s, the virus has received little scientific attention -- a situation that badly needs to be remedied, according to the authors of "Fever from the forest: Prospects for the continued emergence of sylvatic dengue virus and its impact on public health," an article published online June 13 in Nature Reviews Microbiology.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) A universal influenza vaccine targeting a protein common to all strains of influenza A has safely produced an immune response in humans.

If proven effective, the vaccine could eliminate the practice of creating a new flu vaccine annually to match predicted strains, with major implications for global health.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine have published a study that offers a new understanding of a protein critical to physiological processes involved in major diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

This work could help scientists design drugs to battle these disorders.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Researchers have found a genetic solution to the puzzle of why the chikungunya virus infected millions of people after it was introduced to Asia in 2005 but infected almost no one after an earlier Asian introduction.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Suresh Bhavnani, an associate professor of biomedical informatics in the Institute for Translational Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, was recently honored for using advanced visual analytical methods to propose a new classification of asthma patients.

(University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston) Outbreaks of a mysterious and deadly disease in central China have been linked to a previously unknown virus.