Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
•••

Francis Collins

BioArt: amyloid in the heart

What Abstract Expressionist artist painted this? Jackson Pollock?LewisW2013

Actually, the photo depicts amyloid plaques, a frequent topic in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. Pathologist William Lewis‘ photo reminds us that amyloid can also appear in the heart.

Amyloidosis of the heart is a set of complex diseases caused by the accumulation of cellular proteins that form an amyloid plaque. Although http://www.oakleyonorder.com/ amyloidosis was described more than 100 years ago, the causative proteins were not identified until recent chemical analyses were conducted. This image shows an amyloid plaque stained with Congo red stain and viewed through a polarized lens. The optical properties of the amyloid-forming protein cause it to appear green, while other matrix materials within the plaque appear as orange and blue.

The photo, which was one of the winners of the FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) 2013 BioArt competition, was featured on NIH director Francis Collins’ blog this week.

Lewis, who studies the effects of antiretroviral drugs on the cardiovascular system in his laboratory, reports that he came across the amyloid tissue sample as part of his duties as director of cardiovascular pathology: “It was beautiful.”

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Quinn Eastman in Heart Leave a comment

Excitement building over potential for universal flu vaccine

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, made a splash last week predicting the arrival of a universal flu vaccine in the next five years.

Francis Collins told USA Today he is "guardedly optimistic" about the possibility of long-term vaccination that could replace seasonal flu shots.

His prediction came at the same time as a report in Science identifying an antibody that can protect against several strains of the flu virus. Taking a look at the Science paper, how the scientists found the “super antibody” seems remarkably similar to how Emory’s Jens Wrammert, Rafi Ahmed and colleagues found a similar broadly protective antibody. Their results were published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in January.

In both cases, the researchers started with someone who had been infected with the 2009 H1N1 swine origin flu virus, sifted through the antibodies that person produced and found some that reacted against several varieties of the flu virus. There must be something special about that 2009 pandemic strain!

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment