Editor’s Selections: Can gene therapy eradicate HIV, Spiny dogfish munch viruses, and science at Cold Spring Harbor
September 23rd, 2011 Editor's Selections No Comments
Vincent Racaniello selects several notable posts each week from molecular and cellular biology and virology. He unravels viruses at virology blog.
<img title=”Vincent Racaniello” src=”http://researchblogging.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/smallvincent.jpg” alt=”Vincent Racaniello” width=”47″ height=”47″ />Vincent Racaniello selects several notable posts each week from molecular and cellular biology and virology. He writes about viruses at <a href=”http://www.virology.ws” target=”_blank”>virology blog</a>.
- HIV-1 infection of cells requires two receptor proteins, CD4 and CCR5 or CXCR4. Mutations in the CCR5 gene that occur naturally in human populations block HIV-1 infection. Can such mutations be introduced into humans to prevent infection?
- Spiny dogfish tend to be highly resistant to viral infection, despite the fact that sharks don’t have the same kind of adaptive immune system found in humans and other “higher” vertebrates. This may be a consequence of the compound squalamine, found in sharks, which is can inhibit viral replication in humans.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a magical and beautiful place for science that has spawned eight Nobel laureates. There you might learn why ticks are successful ninjas, why lady bugs are highly evolved, and that we are still discovering bacterial species in the small intestine.
I’ll be back next Friday with more selections.
