The Daily Dose – Llama, llama, llama… antibody?

<img alt=“llamas.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/nm/spoonful/llamas.jpg” width=“250” height=“174” align=“right” border=0 hspace=“10px”/>

— Forget The Biggest Loser—try The Biggest Salt Reducer. If Americans reduced their daily salt intake by half a teaspoon, researchers estimate that up to 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths would be avoided. The findings follow New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s initiative to reduce salt in restaurant dishes and packaged food by 25% over the next five years; Bloomberg hopes the campaign will spread to other cities and states. (NYTimes)

— Pfizer is making further inroads into China, saying it hopes to add 900 representatives by the end of the year for 3,200 total. Pfizer isn’t the first, however: Last year, Eli Lilly said it would be hiring hundreds in China, while cutting 35,000 jobs overall; similarly, Novartis said it plans to put $1.25 billion toward research and development in China. (FiercePharma)

— A review of 23 studies found that insulin pumps are better than injections among patients with type 1 diabetes. People with pumps had, on average, lower levels of a marker for blood sugar than their counterparts who injected insulin. The findings lend support to developing an artificial pancreas, which you can read about in our recent blog post. (Reuters)

— Llama antibodies can identify all seven forms of highly dangerous botulinum neurotoxin, according to research in PLoS One. The llamas’ flexible antibodies work well as markers and could lead to treatment against this toxin in the event of a terrorist attack, researchers say. Yes, you read correctly: Llamas—a recent star of YouTube—are the new warriors in the fight against terrorism. (ScienceDaily)

Image by nagillum via Flickr Creative Commons

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