Latest research
The H5N1 influenza controversy: information is power, sharing information is powerful
By Professor Wendy Barclay, Chair in Influenza Virology, Imperial College London. Wendy spoke at last week’s Society of Biology Policy Lates debate on dual-use bioscience. The debate is summarised in a Storify. H5N1 is a worrisome strain of bird flu that currently does not spread between us because of the ‘species barrier’ created by virus-host … Continue reading
Is crowdfunding a conundrum?
By Zoe Martin, Education Policy Officer at the Society of Biology Everyone has ideas. I have them every day. Sometimes people think really hard about something and come up with an idea to make that something better. Many of these people are scientists. I am sure most readers are aware it normally takes more than … Continue reading
Salamanders, Doctor Who and the secret of regeneration
By Jess Devonport, Marketing and Communications Officer at the Society of Biology Matt Smith recently broke the internet by announcing that he would be leaving Doctor Who. This has come as something of a shock to fans, and has led to much debate over who the Eleventh Doctor will regenerate into (for what it’s worth, … Continue reading
A trachea grown from stem cells
by Dimitrios Beredimas, a blogger interested in stem cells Stem cells have the potential to help treat many serious medical conditions, including heart failure, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, retinitis pigmentosa, and debilitating spinal cord injuries.
Wake up and smell the … curry?
Professor Roger Bick MMedEd MBS is a researcher in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas. Every time I walk past an Indian restaurant my nasal passages expand, my salivary glands produce more saliva and I look to see if I have enough time to scarf down some tandoori chicken. … Continue reading
Action for Brain Injury Week
By Lauren Hoskin, intern at the Society of Biology This week, 13th-19th May, a campaign is being launched to highlight the hidden aspects of brain injury and help with the correct diagnosis of these potentially terminal conditions. The campaign is part of Action for Brain Injury (ABI) week, organised by Headway. Brain injury is an … Continue reading
Blood flow to tumours – new drugs and detection
Joanna Brunker, a PhD student at University College London and biological sciences & biomedical sciences gold medal winner at last night’s SET for Britain awards, describes her research into a new method for measuring blood flow which has the potential to improve our understanding and treatment of tumours. Tumours develop a chaotic system of blood … Continue reading
What makes HIV so dangerous?
By Jessica Davenport, Society of Biology The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has been in the news a lot over the past couple of weeks; from the functional cure of the two-year old child born with HIV, to the announcement that nanoparticles carrying bee venom can destroy HIV. But why is HIV so difficult for our … Continue reading
Lung-on-a-chip
In the news this week has been an interesting approach to replicating human disease in a ‘lung-on-a-chip’ device. The lung-on-a-chip, which is about the size of a USB stick, contains hollow channels lined with living human cells. Applying a vacuum to two channels along the side of the chip allows it to recreate the way … Continue reading
Testing for horse D-N-eigh
by Zoë Martin, Society of Biology In light of the horsemeat scandal I was interested in understanding a bit more about how we determine what species are actually populating the products on supermarket shelves. Testing facility websites reveal that the food industry mainly relies on two techniques to detect horse meat in beef: the protein-based … Continue reading