‘Lab-leak’ proponents at Rutgers accused of defaming and intimidating COVID-19 origin researchers
Fraudsters. Liars. Perjurers. Felons. Grifters. Stooges. Imbeciles. Murderers. When it comes to describing scientists whose peer-reviewed studies suggest the COVID-19 virus made a natural jump from animals to humans, molecular biologist Richard Ebright and microbiologist Bryce Nickels have used some very harsh language. On X (formerly Twitter), where the two scientists from Rutgers University are a constant presence, they have even compared fellow researchers to Nazi war criminals and the genocidal Cambodian dictator Pol Pot. But now, their targets have had enough. A dozen scientists filed a formal complaint ...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 15, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news

‘We’re hurting.’ Trans scientists call for recognition and support from research community
Twenty-four scientists from around the globe—all of whom either identify as trans or have trans family members—have an urgent message for the scientific community: Sexual and gender minorities in science fields face various systemic barriers, and all members of the research community must strive to address them , the group writes today in Cell . “It will be tempting for people with prejudices—unexamined or not—toward trans people to dismiss this piece as ‘woke,’” says author Fátima Sancheznieto (she/her/ella), a biomedical and social scientist at the University of Wisconsin...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 14, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news

Is COVID-19 a Seasonal Virus Yet?
The most common respiratory viruses that cause flu, colds, and RSV tend to cluster in the fall and winter months. Though that means months of elevated risk for sickness, “cold and flu season” is a convenient time for public-health officials to remind people to get vaccinated and wash their hands more frequently. Experts had hoped that COVID-19 would follow that same pattern, but so far, that’s not the case. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] COVID-19 occurs in every season Both flu and RSV tend to plummet to near negligible levels in spring and summer before surging again in the fall ...
Source: TIME: Health - March 6, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news

What Happened When a Man Got 217 COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19 vaccines have been key to controlling the pandemic, but researchers in Germany report on one man who took the vaccination message to the extreme. The subject of the research published in Lancet Infectious Diseases is a 62-year-old man from Magdeburg, Germany who claims to have received 217 COVID-19 vaccinations within about 2.5 years. (German prosecutors confirmed he received 130 shots in nine months during an investigation into fraud; ultimately, they did not file criminal charges.) [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] It’s not clear why the man wanted so many vaccinations or how he obtained...
Source: TIME: Health - March 6, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news

‘I feel like myself again’: UCLA clinical trial offers hope for lymphoma patients
In June 2018, actor Hirotaka Matsunaga was supposed to be two weeks away from opening night of “The Swords of Sorrow: BURAI II,” a play set in 1800s Japan. The 39-year-old had been cast as the lead. It was the big break he had been working toward since he moved to the U.S. from Japan more than 20 years ago to pursue his dreams.But his cancer diagnosis and an unsuccessful course of chemotherapy had shut down the play.“Around November 2017, I had acute pain in my stomach for weeks, and it got so bad that it became difficult to eat,” Matsunaga said.After a particularly agonizing dinner, he checked himself into a hosp...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 5, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news

Lies and scandal: How two rogue scientists at a secret lab triggered a national security calamity
The release earlier this week of hundreds of documents has pulled the curtain back on an explosive national security case that led to the firing of two scientists from the Winnipeg-based National Microbiology Lab. (Source: CBC | Health)
Source: CBC | Health - March 2, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: News/Politics Source Type: news

Marion Ecob-Prince obituary
My wife, Marion Ecob-Prince, who has died aged 74, was a scientist who spent her career studying the neuromuscular junction, where nerves and muscle fibres meet. Working in laboratories in New York, Newcastle and Glasgow, she developed tissue culture techniques to study the progression of a range of neuromuscular diseases that can cause severe pain, muscle atrophy and numbness.Born in Heanor, in Derbyshire, to Anne (nee Ford), an assistant in a post office, and John Ecob, a delivery driver, Marion attended Spondon Park grammar school in Derby, where she was an excellent fencer, captain of the netball team and head girl. In...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 1, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Tony Prince Tags: Medical research Neuroscience People in science Medicine University of Bristol Harvard University Fencing Newcastle University Source Type: news

UCLA Researchers Discover Organisms in Semen Microbiome That Affect Sperm Motility and Male Fertility
Study findings could lead to new clinical laboratory testing biomarkers designed to assess for male infertility Clinical laboratories are increasingly performing tests that have as their biomarkers the DNA and enzymes found in human microbiota. And microbiologists and epidemiologists know that like other environments within the human body, semen has its own microbiome. Now, a […] The post UCLA Researchers Discover Organisms in Semen Microbiome That Affect Sperm Motility and Male Fertility appeared first on Dark Daily. (Source: Dark Daily)
Source: Dark Daily - March 1, 2024 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Jillia Schlingman Tags: Laboratory News Laboratory Pathology Laboratory Resources Laboratory Testing Molecular Diagnostics, Genetic Testing, Whole Gene Sequencing anatomic pathology clinical laboratory clinical pathology Dark Daily dark intelligence group Dar Source Type: news

UCLA Samueli to lead $4 million cell research project funded by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Key takeawaysThe grant will fund a three-year collaboration among researchers at UCLA, USC and Caltech to advance cell and tissue engineering technologies.The project, led by UCLA ’s Dino Di Carlo, will engineer, manipulate and analyze cell-to-cell interactions that underlie complex multicellular systems in the body.Di Carlo said he aims for the collaboration to develop into a long-term partnership across institutions to advance biotechnology in Los Angeles.The Chan Zuckerberg Initiativetoday announced a $4 million grant to support research led by the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering that will examine cellular behavio...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - February 29, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news

Scientist fed classified information to China, says Canada intelligence report
Report says Xiangguo Qiu secretly worked with Wuhan Institute for Virology and posed a ‘threat to Canada’s economic security’A leading research scientist at Canada ’s highest-security laboratory provided confidential scientific information to Chinese institutions, met secretly with officials and posed “a realistic and credible threat toCanada’s economic security” according to newly released intelligence reports.The dismissal of Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, has been shrouded in mystery ever since the couple were escorted from Winnipeg ’s National Microbiology Laboratory in 2019 and formally fi...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 29, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Leyland Cecco in Toronto Tags: Canada China Science Research Americas Source Type: news

Killer fungi detectives: inside the lab that may be fighting the next pandemic
Researchers in Adelaide are at the forefront of finding new fungal pathogens, which are spreading more because of climate change and can be deadly without effective drugsThe first tray of yellow-lidded specimen jars holds chunks of flesh – lung, perhaps, or muscle – some cerebrospinal fluid and another liquid, possibly from a brain abscess. The second holds a rainbow of colourful fungi, cultivated from those specimens.One growth is green and fluffy, like something you would find in a sharehouse fridge – penicillium, maybe. Another is a dark grey or brown, like animal fur. There are bright white fuzzballs and blackish...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 28, 2024 Category: Science Authors: Tory Shepherd Tags: Fungi Biology Infectious diseases Medical research Microbiology Science Australia news Adelaide Health South Australia Source Type: news

Ancient glue, crochet microbes, and more stories you might have missed this week
How did horses spread across North America? What can ancient DNA tell us about Down syndrome in people who lived long ago? And why is one microbiologist making bacteria out of yarn? Check out the answers below in some of our favorite selections from Science ’s daily newsletter, Science Adviser . Indigenous and Western scientists team up to reconstruct the history of North American horses Established in 1923, the Newcomb Cleveland Prize is AAAS’s oldest prize, awarded annually to the authors of an “outstanding” Science paper. This year’...
Source: ScienceNOW - February 23, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news

A deadly viral illness is exploding in West Africa. Researchers are scrambling to figure out why
Reporting for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. Irrua, Nigeria, and Kenema, Sierra Leone— Sitting on a bench outside the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) in Edo state in southwestern Nigeria in September 2023, Muhammed Luqman Dagana recounted his ordeal earlier in the year with Lassa fever, a deadly hemorrhagic disease of West Africa. At first the 33-year-old wasn’t alarmed—his fever, headache, body aches, and cough were innocuous enough. A doctor at his local clinic gave him antibiotics for typhoid fever and antimalarial drugs. But his symptoms persisted, so he tried anoth...
Source: ScienceNOW - February 22, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news

Scientists in Italy Develop Hierarchical Artificial Intelligence System to Analyze Bacterial Species in Culture Plates
New artificial intelligence model agrees with interpretations of human medical technologists and microbiologists with extraordinary accuracy Microbiology laboratories will be interested in news from Brescia University in Italy, where researchers reportedly have developed a deep learning model that can visually identify and analyze bacterial species in culture plates with a high level of agreement with […] The post Scientists in Italy Develop Hierarchical Artificial Intelligence System to Analyze Bacterial Species in Culture Plates appeared first on Dark Daily. (Source: Dark Daily)
Source: Dark Daily - February 21, 2024 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Jillia Schlingman Tags: Digital Pathology International Laboratory News Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment Laboratory Pathology Laboratory Testing AI Alberto Signoroni PhD American Type Culture Collection anatomic pathology antimicrobial ATCC bac Source Type: news

Proposed megafacility to breed monkeys in U.S. dismays activists and neighbors but excites scientists
Bainbridge, a rural town in southwestern Georgia with a population of 14,000, could soon become home to 30,000 additional residents: cynomolgus macaques. A new company called Safer Human Medicine (SHM) has announced plans to build an 80-hectare facility that would sell monkeys to universities, contract research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies that perform research on the animals. The breeding facility would dwarf others in the United States and could ease a serious shortage of monkeys for research. But it faces pushback from the local community and concerns from animal welfare groups about the company’s...
Source: ScienceNOW - February 20, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news