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I previously blogged about honey bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) a disease that is destroying honey bee hives all over the world. While the incidence of the disease has been subsiding over the last year or so, it is still ravaging many hives. 

In the Wednesday edition of the online research journal PLOS a group of researchers from the University of Montana and the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland suggested that CCD may be caused by two infectious agents; a virus and a fungus. 

Previously, many entomologists and apiary experts believed that CCD was possibly caused by multiple RNA viruses or the effect of certain pesticides. However, samples collected hives affected by CCD contained both a virus and a fungus whereas both agents were absent in unaffected hives. 

The new study said the suspect virus is insect iridescent virus (IIV) (Iridoviridae), which is similar to a virus first reported in India 20 years ago, as well as a virus found in moths. The virus infects the insect digestive system and the abdomen of infected insects takes on a bluish-green or purplish hue. The fungus, Nosema ceranae, can infect insects following ingested of its spores. Laboratory cage trials with a strain of IIV type 6 and Nosema ceranae confirmed that co-infection with these two pathogens was more lethal to bees than either pathogen alone.

Authors of the study speculate that initial infection of bee with one of the two agents makes infected bees more susceptible to infection by the second agent. In other words, primary infection by one agent followed by secondary infection may be responsible for the devastating effects of CCD. Further research will be necessary to confirm that both agents are responsible for CCD.

Until next time.....

Good Luck and Do Good Science!!!!!!

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Vincent Racaniello, virologist extraordinaire and a BioCrowd co-founder is slated to appear on ABC World News this evening to discuss Rebecca Sloot’s new book entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The book details the life of little-known Henrietta Lack whose cancerous cervical cells (subsequently called HeLa cells by the scientists who managed to cultivate and immortalize them in the laboratory), revolutionized the field of virology and changed the way viral vaccines are manufactured.

Rebecca Skloot, the author, is an award-winning science writer, and a contributing editor at Popular Science magazine; she's worked as a correspondent for the NPR show RadioLab, and PBS Nova ScienceNOW. Her writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, Discover and others. The “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack” is her first book.

So, why is Vincent being featured on tonight’s newscast about the HeLa book? For those of you who don’t know, Vincent has spent almost 30 years unraveling the molecular mechanisms by which the polio virus causes disease. And, as many of you may know, HeLa cells are the cell line of choice to cultivate polio virus in the laboratory. In addition to cloning the polio virus receptor in HeLa cells, members of Vincent’s laboratory have elucidated the genes and their proteins responsible for the neurotrophic effects of the virus that can lead to paralysis from polio infections. Further, for those of you who may not know, Vincent, while a postdoctoral fellow in David Baltimore's laboratory, was the first to demonstrate that transfection of HeLa cells with cDNA made from polio virus genomic RNA (using the newly discovered HIV reverse transcriptase enzyme that resulted in Baltimore winning the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine) yielded infectious polio virions.

While Vincent’s findings greatly aided research to elucidate the underlying pathogenic mechanisms of the polio virus, it transformed and revolutionized the entire field of RNA virology. Prior to Vincent’s discovery, it was impossible to study the molecular biology of RNA viruses using recombinant methods because unlike DNA, there are no known RNA restriction enzymes. The ability to transcribe viral RNA into cDNA molecules that yield infection RNA viral particles permitted researchers to dissect RNA virus genomes (using recombinant DNA technology) to determine contribution of individual genes to viral pathogenesis.

Vincent, one of only a handful of virus pioneers, is now applying his considerable pioneering talents to social media because he believes that Web 2.0 tools like blogs, podcasts, videos and social networking sites can be successfully used for science education and improving the public understanding of the life sciences.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Viewing (ABC World News Tonight)!!!!!!

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A team of scientists from the UK report in this week’s edition of Nature that they were able to induce the formation of ribonucleotides using ribose, phosphate and the bases adenine, uracil, guanine and cytosine and environmental conditions that may have been present in the early history of the Earth. This had been a fundamental but elusive step in the early evolution of life on Earth.

The results of the study entitled “Synthesis of activated pyrimidine ribonucleotides in prebiotically plausible conditions” provide evidence that self-assembling RNA molecules were likely the first to be formed and were likely the first step in the evolution of life on Earth. According to John Sutherland of the University of Manchester a co-author of the study, “Ribonucleotides are simply an expression of the fundamental principles of organic chemistry,” said Sutherland. “They’re doing it unwittingly. The instructions for them to do it are inherent in the structure of the precursor materials. And if they can self-assemble so easily, perhaps they shouldn’t be viewed as complicated. It’s like molecular choreography, where the molecules choreograph their own behavior. In other words, the origins of life may be much simpler than previously imagined—so much for intelligent design! 

Evolution rocks! Hat tip to Steve Munro.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Experimenting!!!!

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Vincent Racaniello, an intrepid virologist and BioCrowd co-founder, has been keeping folks up to date on the swine flu outbreak on his blog. Today, Vincent wrote: “There are now 257 laboratory confirmed cases, with 7 deaths, in 11 countries. In the US there are 109 cases  in 11 states. There are many more suspected cases; together the statistics indicate widespread dissemination of the new H1N1 influenza virus. I no longer doubt that this is the next pandemic strain. WHO will probably soon raise the level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 5 to phase 6. Important questions include whether spread will continue in the northern hemisphere through the summer, or stop very soon, as is the case with most influenza virus outbreaks. Unfortunately the southern hemisphere seems in for an extended flu season. Will antivirals be useful in reducing morbidity and mortality? Will the virus returns to the north in a more virulent form in the fall? Can a vaccine be prepared in time?”

 For answers to these questions and others, please visit the Virology Blog or join BioCrowd to chat with Vincent. Check his virology blog for the most up-to-date swine flu information.

 Until next time... 

 Good Luck and Good Virus Hunting (or not)!!!!

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Kevin’s selection of websites this month are almost exclusively devoted to RNA—not one of my favorite molecules (Kevin must have been thinking transcriptionally rather than translationally when he compiled the list). Because I’m not an RNA enthusiast (call me crazy) I will list t the sites in no order of preference: 1) Patrocles - The Database of Polymorphic miRNA-Target Interactions 2) RNA Editing Website and 3) The RNA Modification Database.

Kevin also reviewed a website on devoted to ichthyology and another that focuses on taxonomy. My favorite selection this month is theBrown Recluse Spider Bite Site a must read for all of you arachnid neophytes out there. Who knew that spider bites could be result in the loss of arms or legs?

Kudos to Kevin!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Websurfing (try Stumble Upon and post biojobblog as one of your favs)

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There is mounting evidence that RNAi, once hailed as a panacea for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, may not be all that it was claimed to be. Yes, there are several new RNAi drug candidates in late stage clinical development but it isn’t clear, at this point, whether any of these products will ever make it to market. Companies like Allergan, Alnylam, Opko Health and Merck, which recently bought the RNAi company Sirna Therapeutics for $1.1 billion, have invested hundreds of millions of dollars and literally “bet the farm” on RNAi therapeutics.

The use of DNA and RNA as therapeutics is not a new or novel idea. Isis Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer and champion of oligonucleotide therapeutics, has only be able to bring a single, oligonucleotide-based product to market in the past 20 years. Ask any Isis executive and they will tell you that turning DNA or RNA into drugs is a challenging process that is fraught with many difficulties. Most notably, there are bioavailability, delivery and target specificity hurdles that most be over come before the utility of these drugs as therapeutic agents can be realized. That said the attractiveness of these molecules as therapeutics (and perhaps their real danger) is the simplicity and elegance of their mechanism(s) of action. Most scientists tend to “fall in love” with elegant and parsimonious solutions to complex processes—why would we not, they are type of discoveries that we all train and live for! And, as many of us know, when people “fall in love”, there is a tendency to overlook or not notice warning signs that things may not be as they seem.

The scientific community fell quickly and deeply in love with RNAi soon after the first papers appeared touting its benefits and possible therapeutic applications. Scientists were so convinced and confident about RNAi that they induced the financial community to invest billions of dollars into the emerging technology. The love and affection for RNAi reached its pinnacle in 2006 when two scientists, who played a crucial role in discovering its mechanism of action, won the Nobel Prize. Since then, the harsh realities of RNAi drug development have begun to be realized by companies that invested in the technology.

I have been around long enough to understand that there are fads in science. In the mid 1990s it was combinatorial chemistry, in the late 1990s it was genomics, proteomics and computational chemistry and in the 2000s it is RNAi. Don’t get me wrong–all of these technologies have helped to advance science and  provide researchers with sophisticated tools that have helped to expedite the drug discovery and development process. That said, none of these technologies, by themselves, yielded the plethora of new medications or therapeutics that their advocates promised. Industry veterans know that there are no easy solutions or panaceas in drug discovery and development. The process is inherently time-intensive, painstaking and tedious. And, despite what we scientists want to believe in our “heart of hearts,” there are no guarantees that simplicity and elegance will translate into safe and effective medications.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!

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