| Potentially Good Bird Flu News
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| Date and Time |
- | Jan. 26th, 2006, 11:44 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  sleepy | |
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| University of Pittsburgh researchers announced they have genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine from the critical components of the deadly H5N1 virus that completely protected mice and chickens from infection. Avian flu has devastated bird populations in Southeast Asia and Europe and so far has killed more than 80 people.
Because this vaccine contains a live virus, it may be more immune-activating than avian flu vaccines prepared by traditional methods, say the researchers. Furthermore, because it is grown in cells, it can be produced much more quickly than traditional vaccines, making it an extremely attractive candidate for preventing the spread of the virus in domestic livestock populations and, potentially, in humans, according to the study, published in the Feb 15 issue of the Journal of Virology and made available early online.
"The results of this animal trial are very promising, not only because our vaccine completely protected animals that otherwise would have died, but also because we found that one form of the vaccine stimulates several lines of immunity against H5N1," said Andrea Gambotto, M.D., assistant professor in the departments of surgery and molecular genetics and biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and lead author of the study.
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| On the Green Stream
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| Date and Time |
- | Jan. 25th, 2005, 09:41 pm | |
| Current Mood |
- |  high | |
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i saw a quiz in a friend's journal that said earth was a quiet, shy, and kind planet. earth is none of those things. earth is a rough, survival of the fittest kind of place that's been twisted up into a complex game run by money which is largely ill-gotten gains by the richest. outshing the sun in radio emissions, earth is hardly quiet or shy. do people really think of earth as a happy fun place where squirrel and deer live happy little lives? no, they're terrified. afraid of everything. because they have to be. even top predators have to worry about defending their territory and not starving to death as humans encroach more and more on their lands.
i choose to believe that life has sprouted elsewhere in the solar system. i believe life is probably commonplace. life arose quickly on earth after it cooled down enough to be hospitable. i think titan is still a good candidate for life. it wouldn't be life like we know it, but who knows what different chemical reactions could have occurred in it's cold organic slurry.
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