An antibiotic and a protein can work together to fight radiation-induced infections better than either can manage alone. Doctors already use antibiotics to treat radiation sickness. But the addition of a protein from the immune system — bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI), which acts against poisons called endotoxins — improves the survival rate of irradiated mice, according to a study published today in Science Translational Medicine Continue reading Dynamic duo helps to heal irradiated mice
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Vikings Navigated With Translucent Crystals?
In some Icelandic sagas—embellished stories of Viking life—sailors relied on so-called sunstones to locate the sun’s position and steer their ships on cloudy days.
The stone would’ve worked by detecting a property of sunlight called polarization. Continue reading Vikings Navigated With Translucent Crystals?
Transatlantic PML
The European Medicine Agency and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published in September the proceedings of a joint workshop held to address questions related to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and sometimes fatal brain disease that can occur as an adverse drug reaction to some therapeutics that affect immunological functions. The meeting attended by 170 regulators, academic scientists, funding bodies and clinical researchers, called for work on animal models, predictive biomarkers and long-term studies. “No one company is going to answer all the questions; they’re going to be answered by research consortia,” says co-convener and European Medicines Agency (EMA) pharmacovigilance head Peter Arlett. Continue reading Transatlantic PML
Spanish institute faces cash crisis
A flagship biomedical research facility in Valencia, built during the heady days of the last economic boom, is now going bust. It is a casualty of Spain’s deep spending cuts and, some say, of poor management.
The Prince Felipe Research Centre (CIPF), which hosts 260 scientists and has produced high-profile publications in regenerative medicine and biochemistry, announced an emergency financial plan on 19 October that would see about 100 research staff lose their jobs, and roughly halve salaries for those who remain. Continue reading Spanish institute faces cash crisis