Methylation in twins

A longitudinal study of DNA methylation in twins at birth and 18 months finds that some loci drift in methylation status

Cost-effective prevention of hospital falls

Economic analysis of a clinical trial shows that a patient education program to prevent falls in hospitalized elderly people is effective and cost-saving, provided 4% of these patients would otherwise fall under usual care.

Novel hantavirus in Eurasian shrews

A PCR screen of soricine shrews captured over three years in Poland identified a new hantavirus, Boginia virus, with unknown pathogenic potential.

Overcoming the obstacles to HIV immunity

Can the immune system be induced to protect itself against HIV infection? Andrew McMichael gives his perspective in an interview, explaining the challenges faced in making a vaccine  and why he remains optimistic about the potential of eliciting strong T cell responses for controlling the virus.

HIV receptor gymnastics

Robin Weiss, in an article to mark the 30^th anniversary of the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reviews the complex interactions of the virus with the specialized surface molecules by which it gains entry into cells, and how this has led to drugs that block it.

Collagen scaffolds in regenerative medicine

Dental pulp- and amniotic fluid-derived stem cells seeded into collagen scaffolds repair large cranial bone defects in a rat model and are involved in vascularization of the implant.

CMR useful in detecting fetal heart defects

Fetal Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance yielded the same diagnosis as postnatal findings more often that routine obstetric ultrasound, showing promise for CMR as a diagnostic tool for assessment of congenital cardiovascular abnormalities.

T cells permit early diagnosis of GVHD

Alloreactive T cells are present in the blood 2 weeks before the onset of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) symptoms in a mouse model, suggesting these cells could be measured to allow early diagnosis and timely therapeutic intervention.

Immune escape in neural stem cell transplantation

Maintaining CD70 expression may enable continued immune escape in neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation as interaction between CD70 on NSCs and CD27 on T cells initiates NSC-induced CD4⁺ T cell apoptosis.

New perspectives on genomic diversity

Manfred Kayser and colleagues propose that some of the genetic variation we see across human populations may occur due to demographic events in recent history rather than ancient history.