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DARPA wants "plant-based production system" to help combat flu
DARPA says that “Recent advances funded by DARPA and others have demonstrated the viability of plant-based protein expression technologies for the production and purification of cGMP-compliant medical countermeasures…”
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Cities need to prepare for a home-made nuke
An explosion of ten kiloton nuclear bomb in a city would be disastrous; as catastrophic as such an attack would be, it would not level an entire city, and a timely response could save many lives
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U.S. to vaccinate millions against swine flu
The U.S. federal government will target children this fall for pandemic flu vaccination campaign — the largest since the 1950s polio vaccination effort
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Swine flu advances in southern hemisphere
In the southern hemisphere it is winter, and people there are in the midst of the winter flu season; swine H1N1 virus seems to be replacing the seasonal flu viruses that circulated till now — classic pandemic behavior
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More tests in the U.S. for Tamiflu-resistant swine flu
A third patient has been infected with a Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu; U.S. health officials are stepping up testing of swine flu cases for Tamiflu resistance
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Biohazards to be studied in Memphis
The University of Tennessee at Memphis inaugurates a new Level 3 Biohazard lab to develop new vaccines and antibiotics
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New method for combating the flu
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s researchers develop a new tool to combat the flu; the discovery is a one-two punch that targets the illness on two fronts, going one critical step further than any currently available flu drug
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Swine flu kills by binding to cells deeper in the lungs
Unlike seasonal flu, which binds almost exclusively to cells in the nose, swine flu binds deeper, in the lung’s trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles; the pandemic virus also replicated more, and caused more damage
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DARPA wants to stop biothreats before they spread
DARPA is looking to accelerate the response to pathogens, stopping the bugs before they even start; the goal: persistent, universal immunity by speeding up long-term resistance to new and unknown pathogens
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Drug-resistant swine flu strain killed with Tamiflu alternative
A Danish patient came down with swine flu, but the strain proved resistant to Tamiflu, which is produced by Roche; doctors used the drug Relenza from rival GlaxoSmithKline to kill the resistant strain
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First batch of swine flu vaccine shipped
Connecticut-based company ships first batch — 100,000 doses — of its swine flu vaccine; Protein Sciences Corporation uses insect cell technology to develop the vaccine
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Scientists block Ebola infection in cell-culture experiments
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered two biochemical pathways that the Ebola virus relies on to infect cells; breakthrough could lead to first therapy for deadly disease
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New lethal virus discovered in Africa
Scientists identify a lethal new virus — called Lujo — which has already killed four people in Zambia and South Africa; the bug comes from a family of viruses found in rodents
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DHS develops medical scanner-at-a-distance device
The first task of first responders arriving on a scene of a disaster is quickly and accurately to sort the living casualties by priority order for medical care; new device assesses — from a distance — the medical condition of those injured in the disaster; it does so by using laser doppler vibrometry and a camera to measure pulse, body temperature, and muscle movements such as breathing
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World's swine flu cases top 6,000
There are now 33 countries reporting an estimated total of 6,080 confirmed swine flu cases, including 3,009 in 45 U.S. states, 2,446 in Mexico, and 358 in Canada; the death total is relatively low — 65, of which 60 were in Mexico, three in the United States, one in Canada, and one in Costa Rica
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