Herpes simplex virus type 2 has managed to evade vaccine strategies to date, although DNA vaccines might finally offer a solution. [ + ]

A radical new type of vaccine is on the horizon, one that uses the body’s own cellular machinery to provoke a comprehensive immune response. DNA vaccines offer many advantages over conventional vaccines. [ + ]

Lab managers need to avoid being too risk averse when working to accommodate researchers’ needs. [ + ]

Keeping a life science lab running smoothly and safely has become an increasingly complex and demanding task. [ + ]

US technology company, Danaher, is to acquire Beckman Coulter in a deal worth US$6.8 billion. [ + ]

Astrobiologist Charles Lineweaver on the implications on cancer research of his recent paper suggesting cancer cells are like early multicellular life. [ + ]

Dr Uta Wille bridges the gap between chemistry and biology and is bringing her unique insight to bear on the role played by free radicals in damaging DNA. [ + ]

The eagle-eyed among us rally to red and the Mr Magoos are wooed by blue.

The Excellence in Research for Australia 2010 report shows that Australian researchers produce world class output in immunology, quantum physics and history, but fall behind in other areas. [ + ]

Professor Steve Wilton presented the results of a recently completed clinical trial on a promising new genetic therapy for patients with muscular dystrophy at the AH&MR Congress. [ + ]

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have revealed a cunning mechanism employed by viruses that interferes with the function of dendritic cells. [ + ]

Susan Clark’s team at the Garvan Institute is revealing the complex epigenetic mechanisms that allow various cancers to stifle cellular defences. [ + ]

Transmembrane proteins are key determinants of the pharmacokinetics of drugs and their characterisation is of increasing importance for the pharmaceutical industry.

Developments in technologies for building spectroscopes and spectrometers have advanced in leaps and bounds since the first commercial infrared spectroscope was developed in the 1940s and the first FT-IR spectrometer came on the market in 1969. Today, spectrometry is moving out of the lab and into the field and the process plant.

A Delft University of Technology researcher, Jean-Paul Meijnen, has ‘trained’ bacteria to convert all the main sugars in vegetable, fruit and garden waste efficiently into high-quality environmentally friendly products such as bioplastics.