Measuring the impact of post-genomics on Mediterranean populations
A recent Genomed-Health 2005 workshop in Tunisia, supported by the European Commission, highlighted the role of the life sciences in improving health in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Delegates at the event also discussed the importance of Euro-Mediterranean partnerships in order to capitalise on post-genomic research. The life sciences ?in particular following the mapping of t...A new study examines how shared pathogens affect host populations
Many pathogens are able to infect multiple species within a community and are commonly transmitted across species. Cross-species transmission is often associated with pathogen emergence and therefore has been considered as a negative factor for humans, wildlife, and species of agricultural importance. Many pathogens like malaria, Lyme disease or West Nile encephalitis that infect multiple hosts a...New discovery: Molecular variation in one gene affects the growth of natural populations
For the first time, ecologists have been able to show that molecular variation in one gene may affect the growth of a population in its natural habitat. Research Professor Ilkka Hanski, University of Helsinki, and Dr Ilik Saccheri, University of Liverpool, UK, discovered that the population growth of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) is affected by the allelic composition of th...Treating populations infected with HIV and latent TB could speed the emergence of drug-resistant TB
In 2005, 46 regional Ministers of Health in Africa declared that a dramatic rise in tuberculosis (TB) cases was cause for emergency. In some African countries, annual TB case notifications have increased as much as four-fold over the past 15 years. The main culprit? The emergence of HIV. When individuals are infected with both HIV and TB, they are more likely to progress from latent TB infection...Escapee farmed salmon infiltrate fitter wild populations
There is growing concern about the threats that farmed Atlantic salmon escapees constitute to wild salmon populations. In new research published in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers have found scientific e...Monitoring Microbial Populations Using Real-Time qPCR on the MJ Research Opticon 2 System
Hans-Peter Horz, Ph.D.1, Richard Kurtz, Ph.D.2, David Batey, Ph.D.2 and Brendan Bohannan, Ph.D.1 1Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 2MJ Research, Incorporated, South San Francisco, CA The levels of the amoA gene were used to measure the a...Laser Capture Microdissection of muscle fiber populations and expression analysis by RT-PCR
To locate gene products in distinct muscle fiber populations of different muscle allotypes, a novel protocol was established. A rapid method to distinguish muscle fiber types using histochemistry and...Diabetes- a Threat to Several Indigenous Populations
With traditional habits being replaced by Western lifestyles and diets, diabetes now looms as a deadly threat to several indigenous populations across Asia, the Pacific// and the Americas, according to medical experts. Professor Martin Silink, head of the Brussels-based International Diabetes Foundation, said that indigenous people appeared to have a greater genetic risk of contracting...Researchers Make Progress in Studying Genetic Traits of India-born Populations
Despite the fact that the people of India constitute more than one-sixth of the world's entire population, they have been underrepresented in studies related //to genetic diseases. And with the growth of modernization, complex genetic diseases associated with urban and western lifestyles have risen to near-epidemic proportions, making genetic cataloging and association studies of particul...