An international team of scientists and clinicians from the United States and Saudi Arabia are working to develop gene therapy for treating a rare, hereditary retinal disease. The therapy has been shown to restore lost vision in animal models of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Their work is being funded in part by a $1.5 million grant from the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research in Saudi Arabia, where the recessive gene mutation that leads to the eye disease RP has been found in children from several families.
Biomolecular computers, made of DNA and other biological molecules, only exist today in a few specialized labs, remote from the regular computer user. Nonetheless, Tom Ran and Shai Kaplan, research students in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute"s Biological Chemistry, and Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Departments have found a way to make these microscopic computing devices "user friendly," even while performing complex computations
and answering complicated queries. Shapiro and his team at Weizmann introduced the first autonomous programmable DNA computing device in 2001. So small that a trillion fit in a drop of water, that device was able to perform such simple calculations as checking a list of 0s and 1s to determine if there was an even number of 1s. 
Physical education (PE) in schools is one of the main tools used to increase physical activity and to prevent childhood obesity, and PE-related injuries are on the rise. Although increasing physical activity may reduce obesity, it may also increase the risk of injury. While recognizing that PE classes and physical activity are important components in combating obesity, parents and school administrators should remain vigilant for injuries. A recent study conducted by the Center
for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children"s Hospital, found that the number of PE-related injuries to elementary, middle and high school students in the United States increased 150 percent between 1997 and 2007. 
Sirtuin proteins have been shown to promote longevity in many organisms, and increased expression of one sirtuin protein, SIRT3, has been linked to increased human lifespan. New data, generated in mice, by Mahesh Gupta and colleagues, at the University of Chicago, Chicago, has revealed that Sirt3 helps protect the mouse heart. In the study, the heart of mice lacking Sirt3 was found to show signs of becoming enlarged (a process known as cardiac hypertrophy), at about 8 weeks
of age. Further, these mice responded dramatically to conditions that induce cardiac hypertrophy, whereas mice overexpressing Sirt3 were protected from cardiac hypertrophy under the same conditions. Additional analysis revealed the mechanism by which Sirt3 blocks the cardiac hypertrophic response, thereby providing protection to the mouse heart. 
Two common anti-influenza drugs - Relenza and Tamiflu - appear equally effective at preventing common flu symptoms when given before infection, say researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine. However, data is lacking on the effectiveness and safety of the two drugs in vulnerable groups such as the very young and people with compromised immune systems. The researchers pooled and analyzed the data from seven previously published studies because countries around
the world are stockpiling these and other drugs for possible use in the current H1N1 pandemic, as well as for future influenza pandemics. Their results will be published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Aug. 4. Together, the studies, published between 1999 and 2007, indicated that individuals treated with either of the drugs were less likely to develop symptomatic influenza (that is, to both test positive for influenza infection in laboratory tests and to experience flu symptoms like fever, headache, muscle
aches and coughing) than did those who had received the placebo. Those who received the drugs were, however, no less likely to become infected.