• Beating mosquitoes at their own game

    Japanese researchers came up with a brilliant idea: why not use mosquitoes as “flying vaccinators” or “flying syringes”? Normally, when mosquitoes bite, they inject a tiny drop of saliva that prevents the host’s blood from clotting; the Japanese group decided to add an antigen — a compound that triggers an immune response — to the mix of proteins in the insect’s saliva; it worked

  • Nuclear Medical Center established for early detection of injuries

    The Israeli military uses a new technology which allows early detection of injuries sustained by soldiers better than any other diagnostic tests; the system uses a new nuclear medicine system, which includes a new nuclear camera; the new camera has a sensitivity of 100 percent for diagnosing stress fractures, enabling the diagnosis of an injury already at the stage of a minor fracture and prevents it from worsening

  • iPhone app saves lives

    A new iPhone app guides users as to what to do when resuscitating critically ill patients in cardiac arrest or near cardiac arrest; depending on the age and condition of the patient, the user follows certain prompts to remind them of what to do

  • The political economy of food safety

    Everyone wants safer food, but making food safer costs money; experts say that it is the small mom-and-pops that have not kept up with technology and innovation; these “fringe” suppliers and food processors would likely find the cost of tighter food safety plans, inspections, and mandatory recalls too onerous for doing business

  • How best to protect first responders from anthrax

    The first responders who rushed to Senator Tom Daschle’s office on 15 October 2001 were protected by personal protective equipment (PPE); yet, nasal swabs taken from them after they got out of the building revealed that some had been exposed to anthrax; experts argue that first responders and emergency personnel should all be vaccinated

  • Food flavoring widely used in U.S., Canada found to be contaminated with salmonella

    Flavoring agent in a wide range of processed foods, including dips, salad dressings, chips, sauces, hotdogs, soups, and frozen dinners, found to be contaminated with salmonella; agent produced by Las Vegas-based Basic Food Flavors; U.S. and Canadian food authorities consider what measures to take, including recalls

  • Two New York labs to develop anti-botulism drugs

    U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook University’s Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery to receive $1.4 million in Department of Defense research funds to develop anti-botulism drugs

  • NRC panel has "high confidence" in Fort Detrick BioLab's security procedures

    The U.S. Army plans to expand its biocontainment laboratories at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, to study deadly pathogens; a few incidents at the lab heightened security concerns in the neighboring communities, but National Research Council report finds that current safety procedures and regulations at the labs meet or exceed accepted standard

  • New ways found to tackle deadly South American hemorrhagic fever viruses

    New World hemorrhagic fevers are nasty, serious, and often fatal diseases which cause Ebola-like symptoms; most outbreaks occur in rural regions of Bolivia, Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil; the outbreaks of New World hemorrhagic fever tend to be brief and brutal, with mortality rates of 20 to 30 percent; scientists have discovered exactly how one type of New World hemorrhagic fever virus latches onto and infects human cells, offering a much-needed lead toward new treatments

  • Foodborne illness costs U.S. $152 billion annually

    The most comprehensive study of the subject finds that the cumulative cost to Americans of foodborne illnesses is $152 billion annually; the cost per case for an individual is $1,850 on average; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are 76 million new cases of food-related illness in the United States every year, resulting in 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations

  • New way to control disease-spreading mosquitoes: Prevent them from urinating

    Aedes aegypti mosquitoes transmit the virus that causes dengue fever, putting 40 percent of the world’s population at risk of catching the disease, and causing 50 million to 100 million infections and 22,000 deaths annually; researchers find a way to control the mosquitoes: Prevent them from urinating as they feed on blood

  • Useful tree provides low-cost water purification method for developing world

    A billion people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America are estimated to rely on untreated surface water sources for their daily water needs; of these, some two million are thought to die from diseases caught from contaminated water every year, with the majority of these deaths occurring among children under five years of age; seeds from the Moringa oleifera tree, can produce a 90.00 percent to 99.99 percent bacterial reduction in previously untreated water

  • iBio to license vaccine production facility using green plant technology

    iBio will license the iBioLaunch platform to G-Con, LLC, a private Texas company; the “GreenVax Project” uses Nicotiana plants grown hydroponically; the green plant technology platform holds the promise of shortening vaccine production from months to weeks

  • PharmAthene says its anthrax vaccine is superior to first-generation vaccine

    PharmAthene’s anthrax vaccine, called SparVax, will require three doses over a 60-day period — the first-generation vaccine requires five doses over 18 months; a course of treatment with the currently available vaccine costs about $125; SparVax would cost just $45 a treatment

  • $150 million anthrax vaccine contract goes to firm with close Democratic Party ties

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on the evening of 29 December that it was awarding PharmAthene $150 million to develop and produce an anthrax vaccine; FOXNews notes the strong ties to the Democratic Party of senior company executives