Novel virus may have jumped from monkeys to humans

Novel virus may have jumped from monkeys to humans

A viral outbreak at a California monkey research facility that killed 80% of the titi monkeys (right) it infected also sickened a researcher who worked closely with the animals, scientists reported on Friday at the Infectious Diseases Society of America conference in Vancouver, Canada (see news report in HealthDay)

California awards $72 million in grants for stem cell therapies

California awards $72 million in grants for stem cell therapies

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) yesterday announced awards worth $72 million to fund stem cell researchers in the state in a second series of grants meant to move experimental stem cell treatments into the clinic (press release).

African medical education gets a $130 million boost in NIH/PEPFAR initiative

African medical education gets a $130 million boost in NIH/PEPFAR initiative

When Francis Collins first took the helm at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) last year, he marked global health as one of five “themes” that would receive special priority from his office. A series of grants awarded to universities and health institutes in a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa announced today shows the NIH director is putting his money where his mouth – at least with the backup of the President’s Emergency Plain for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Can science help Millennium Development Goals succeed?

Can science help Millennium Development Goals succeed?

As participants of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit took stock of stalled progress on objectives set in a decade ago to measurably ease global poverty by 2015, the UN on Wednesday announced a $40 billion dollar push – the money pledged by numerous nations and organizations – to prevent the deaths of as many as 16 million mothers and children in the world’s poorest countries. [Reuters]

Stem cell litigants say no thanks to University of California participation

Stem cell litigants say no thanks to University of California participation

Both the plaintiffs and the defendants in a US lawsuit challenging the government’s right to fund research using human embryonic stem cells filed court documents declining to consent to another party – the University of California – from joining the case.  Read more

US government argues for stem cell stay

US government argues for stem cell stay

The legal battle over federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research in the US continues: in yet another court filing today (PDF here), government lawyers reiterated their arguments for why an appeals court should lift a ban on such funding imposed by a district court judge last month.  Read more