In one of the first potential applications of synthetic biology, an emerging field that aims to design and build useful biomolecular systems, researchers from MIT and Boston University are engineering viruses to attack and destroy the surface "biofilms" that harbor harmful bacteria in the body and on industrial and medical devices.

A virus that has been specifically designed by scientists to be safe to normal tissue but deadly to cancer is showing early promise in a preliminary study, researchers said today at the ESMO Conference Lugano (ECLU), Switzerland.

The reality of the threat from vector-borne diseases has been recognized and the problem is prompting research scientists to take a strong interest. Most of these infections, classified as emerging or re-emerging diseases, are linked to ecosystem changes, climatic variations or pressure from human activities.

Genomic instability-the rearrangement of chromosomes or an abnormal number of chromosomes-is a hallmark of many human cancers. Although the source of genomic instability has been established for many inherited human cancers, the processes and genes involved in cancers that that are not inherited but arise sporadically remain largely unknown.

Analyzing 30 years of data detailing a large rabies virus outbreak among North American raccoons, researchers at Emory University have revealed how initial demographic, ecological and genetic processes simultaneously shaped the virus's geographic spread over time. The study appears online in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.

UT Southwestern Medical Center has joined a national clinical trial to identify the long-term health effects of West Nile virus infection and to learn more about the disease's progression, symptoms and mortality.

An ongoing effort to identify the microorganisms that make us sick has discovered a new virus potentially linked to unexplained respiratory infections.

A team of scientists at the University of Missouri-Columbia has discovered a way to create engineered minichromosomes in maize and attach genes to those minichromosomes. This discovery opens new possibilities for the development of crops that are multiply resistant to viruses, insects, fungi, bacteria and herbicides, and for the development of proteins and metabolites that can be used to treat human illnesses.

McAfee, Inc. today announced the availability of Rootkits Part 2: A Technical Primer, a whitepaper designed to help IT security professionals better understand the technologies that make stealth possible on the Microsoft Windows platform

Microsoft Corp. is addressing customer frustration with the complexity of security products in a new integrated marketing campaign launched today called Easy, Easier (http://www.easyeasier.com).

How is virus as for example HIV and bird flu able to make the cells within a human body work for the purpose of the virus? Researchers at the University of Copenhagen shed new light on this question.

Antibiotics are prescribed for approximately 82 percent of acute sinus infections and nearly 70 percent of chronic sinus infections, despite the fact that viruses are by far the most frequent cause of this condition, according to a report in the March issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.