All University of Pennsylvania articles
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NewsDespite increase in U.S. cases, worry about West Nile virus remains low
Despite this season’s growing number of cases, relatively few Americans worry about becoming infected by West Nile or by dengue fever, another mosquito-borne illness, according to a survey of nearly 1,700 U.S. adults.
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NewsAI uncovers new antibiotics in ancient microbes
Researchers used artificial intelligence to identify previously unknown compounds in Archaea that could fuel the development of next-generation antibiotics.
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NewsMirror molecules deliver a one-two punch to superbugs to fight infections
Researchers have created mirror-image molecules that both kill pathogens outright and rally the immune system—an advance aimed at the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance.
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NewsAmericans say benefits of MMR vaccine for children outweigh risks by nearly 5-1
While many Americans know how measles can spread, most cannot accurately estimate the prevalence of complications associated with measles such as hospitalization or the risks it presents during pregnancy, according to a new survey.
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NewsNew AI technique can uncover antiviral compounds using limited data
Artificial intelligence algorithms have been combined with traditional laboratory methods to uncover promising drug leads against human enterovirus 71 (EV71), the pathogen behind most cases of hand, foot and mouth disease.
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NewsScientists develop new natural killer cell strategy to target HIV
Scientists have successfully identified a new approach using natural killer (NK) cells to target and kill the HIV-positive cells that allow the virus to persist. They genetically modified NK cells to express CD64, a protein not normally expressed by NK cells.
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NewsFungal protein yields new ways to modulate cell activity remotely
A new study introduces tools that remotely and non-invasively communicate with and control the activity of engineered cells once they’ve entered the body. It focuses on a fungal protein the team have developed called Melt, which can be toggled by temperature.
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NewsResearchers launch a pioneering project to study the human virome puzzle
The research, which will explore the universe of viruses living in the human body, is fueled by a $20-million grant from the National Institutes of Health.
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NewsCases of whooping cough growing, but knowledge about it is lacking
Many in the public are not familiar with symptoms of whooping cough. Almost a third of respondents (30%) are not sure if pertussis is the same as whooping cough and not sure (30%) whether a vaccine exists to prevent it.
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NewsStudy uncovers first evidence of resistance to standard malaria treatment in African children with severe malaria
Researchers have uncovered evidence of partial resistance to artemisinin derivatives — the primary treatment for malaria — in young children with severe, or ’complicated’ malaria.
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NewsmRNA vaccine created to prevent and treat C. difficile
The vaccine is the first mRNA vaccine against C. difficile and would be the first vaccine in general to successfully ward off the bacterial infection.
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NewsLong-term low-dose antiviral treatment benefits patients with eye disease and pain from shingles
Long-term, low-dose antiviral treatment reduces the risk for potentially vision-damaging bouts of inflammation and infection, as well as pain, which occur when shingles affects the eye, according to new research.
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NewsResearchers uncover new infection-fighting molecules through ‘molecular de-extinction’
A new study has uncovered sequences for ancient antimicrobial agents in the genomic data of extinct species, offering new hope for the development of antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral treatments.
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NewsComprehensive meta-analysis pinpoints what vaccination strategies different countries should adopt
A new paper offers the first comprehensive meta-analysis examining what types of vaccine intervention strategies have the greatest effect, and whether different intervention strategies work better in different countries.
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NewsResearchers reveal how a bacterium supports healing of chronic diabetic wounds
New research shows that the bacterium, Alcaligenes faecalis (A. faecalis), can facilitate healing of hard-to-treat wounds among people with diabetes.
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NewsScientists pinpoint how a red seaweed reduces methane emissions from cows
New research into the microbiome of cattle rumen has implications for addressing a leading contributor to climate warming.
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NewsAI helps mine genetic elements from ancient genomes to tackle antibiotic resistance
Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence tool to mine the vast and largely unexplored biological data—more than 10 million molecules of both modern and extinct organisms— to discover new candidates for antibiotics.
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NewsLargest-ever antibiotic discovery effort uses AI to uncover potential cures in microbial dark matter
Researchers used machine learning to search for antibiotics in a vast dataset containing the recorded genomes of tens of thousands of bacteria and other primitive organisms, yielding nearly one million potential antibiotic compounds.
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NewsFalse belief in MMR vaccine-autism link endures as measles threat persists
As measles cases rise across the United States and vaccination rates for the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine fall, a new survey finds that a quarter of U.S. adults do not know that claims that the MMR vaccine causes autism are false.
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NewsKnowledge is a factor in closing black-white COVID-19 vaccination gap
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Americans were more hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine than were White Americans. As the pandemic went on, however, the disparity in vaccination rates between Black and White adults declined. Source: Baltimore County Government People queueing to be vaccinated, 23 December 2020 ...