The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Bacterial Response to Starvation Breeds Resilience McGill University ♦ Published in Science, November 18, 2011 Biofilms are one of the primary mechanisms by which bacteria evade the toxic effect of antibiotics. Using a process known as quorum sensing bacteria can communicate amongst one another to accumulate in unison on a surface, living, synthetic, or natural. The [...]

NF-κβ1 Restrains Maturation of Dendritic Cells Ontario Cancer Institute ♦ University of Toronto Published in Nature Medicine, November 13, 2011 Dendritic cells (DCs) are critical for adaptive immune response, however if their proliferation becomes overzealous or their survival too prolonged they can cause autoimmunity. While most researchers have focused on the factors that stimulate DC [...]

Genetically Modified MSCs for Acute Kidney Injury McGill University ♦ Published in Molecular Therapy (npg), November issue A research group has taken mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and enhanced them with a gene encoding erythropoietin (Epo) to show that they can be used to treat acute kidney injury (AKI). To generate a mouse model of AKI [...]

Native Microbiota Stave Off Infection University of British Columbia ♦ Published in PLoS ONE, October 28, 2011 Genetics can contribute to host susceptibility to microbial infection but are there other causes? A growing body of evidence points to the composition of microbial flora in the intestine as a key factor in how mammals respond to [...]