Public release date: 31-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Cody Mooneyhan cmooneyhan@faseb.org 301-634-7104 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

The mere mention of the word "herpes" usually conjures negative images and stereotypes, but most people have been infected with some form of the virus. For most, a sore appears, heals and is forgotten, although the virus remains latent just waiting for the right circumstances to come back. Now, the mystery behind what triggers the virus to become active again is closer to being solved thanks to new research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology's November 2012 issue. In the report, scientists show how the immune system may lose its control over the virus when facing new microbial threats, such as when it must fend off other viral invaders or bacteria.

"Because almost all people are infected by one or more herpes family viruses during their lifetime, the potential impact of these findings are significant," said Charles H. Cook, M.D., FACS, FCCM, director of surgical critical care at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio, and a researcher involved in the work. "We hope that by understanding how these latent viral infections are controlled that we can prevent reactivation events and improve people's lives."

To make this discovery, researchers studied mice with latent herpes family cytomegalovirus (CMV) during severe bacterial infections. They found that T-cells responsible for CMV control were reduced significantly during a new infection with bacteria. This, in effect, reduced the "brakes" which kept the virus under control, allowing the virus to reactivate and cause disease. When the immune system eventually sensed the reactivation, the memory T-cell levels returned to normal, effectively restoring the body's control over the virus.

"Finding ways to control herpes flare ups is important, not only for the health of the person with the virus, but also for preventing its transmission," said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "This report highlights the important interplay when we are 'co-infected' with more than one microbe and provides important insights into why the immune system sometimes fails as well as how it can regain control of latent herpes virus infections."

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The Journal of Leukocyte Biology publishes peer-reviewed manuscripts on original investigations focusing on the cellular and molecular biology of leukocytes and on the origins, the developmental biology, biochemistry and functions of granulocytes, lymphocytes, mononuclear phagocytes and other cells involved in host defense and inflammation. The Journal of Leukocyte Biology is published by the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

Details: Jonathan Campbell, Joanne Trgovcich, Michelle Kincaid, Peter D. Zimmerman, Paul Klenerman, Stuart Sims, and Charles H. Cook. Transient CD8-memory contraction: a potential contributor to latent cytomegalovirus reactivation. J Leukoc Biol 92:933-937; doi:10.1189/jlb.1211635 ; http://www.jleukbio.org/content/92/5/933.abstract

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How and why herpes viruses reactivate to cause disease

Complacency is costing us some of our best soils, says ecologist and educator Nicole Masters.

New Zealand is losing 11 tonnes of topsoil per hectare a year, more than 10 times the global average, she said during a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day held at Claire Parkes and Simon Vincent's farm near Wakefield in the Nelson region, and attended by about 35 farmers.

"We live in one of the most blessed soil environments in the world.

"We are fertile, we have good carbon and beautiful rainfall, but we are losing all this topsoil and it's not sustainable."

Australia, where she did a lot of work attempting to restore soils depleted by sedimentation, was paying the price for a lack of action.

She wants farmers here to be proactive and take a more holistic approach to managing their properties.

Many already knew through keen observation much of what needed to be done and just required help "putting all the pieces of the puzzle together".

Masters, a director of Integrity Soils and spokeswoman for the Association of Biological Farmers, said focusing on soil health was not only good for the environment, but made economic sense.

"If you are not looking after your underground workforce, it will cost you in fertiliser use and retention, erosion control, sedimentation and water quality."

Many animal health and weed problems could be traced back to the soil, she said.

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Soil biology is key to saving fertility

ERIE, Pa. (AP) Mercyhurst University senior Drew Spacht grew up in a beer-loving household.

His grandfather owned a beer distributor in North East. His father has been a home brewer for 15 years.

So, when he found out his school was growing fresh hops, he did what came natural.

He found a way to make beer.

Again and again.

Spacht, a 21-year-old biology major, recently bottled his third batch of 'Hurst Pale Ale in the kitchen of his parents' Harborcreek home.

He's expecting good results.

"I liked the second batch more than the first," Spacht said. "I've tweaked the recipe a little bit each time. I'm never totally satisfied with what I do."

He describes the beer as an "inviting" medium-bodied beer with a citrus aroma.

The first beer brewed by the Mercyhurst student was distributed to school administrators and professors in spring 2011.

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Biology student at Pa.'s Mercyhurst brews own beer

George Churchhe of the beard, tall mans lope and overwhelming credentialshas hit the circuit to promote a new book: Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. As the title explains, the book explores the field of synthetic biology, which centers on how man can program DNA to create things ranging from new fuels to seeds that grow into fully-formed houses. This subject often veers into the fanciful, and Church keeps up that tradition. Yet when he says things about bringing Neanderthals back to life, you have to take notice instead of chuckling.

For about the last 35 years, Church has been at the cutting edge of genetics and radical biology in academic and entrepreneurial settings. Today, hes the professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, the super-sought-after adviser to more than 20 companies in genetics and synthetic biology, and co-founder of a handful of companies. Church, 58, relishes the academic side of his work and has scores of researchers doing cutting-edge stuff at his Harvard lab. That said, he likes to make sure that people see him as a man of action and not just some big brain in an ivory tower. I still do things with my own hands, he says.

Regenesis opens with some fairly fantastic notions. For one, theres talk of going all Jurassic Park on the world and bringing mammoths and other creatures back from extinction. Why would we want to do such a thing? Well, it turns out that mammoths clomped around in the tundra and stopped trees from growing and taking over vast grasslands. The increase in trees since their disappearance has contributed to warmer temperatures because the trees dont reflect light or consume carbon dioxide as well as grass. We need practical reasons as well as inspirational ones with this technology, Church says.

The thought experiment turns more intriguing when the subject of Neanderthals comes up. Church has tests running in the lab around Neanderthal cells as he tries to determine what this species might have looked and acted like. I am 3.8 percent Neanderthal, says Church, who has had his genome sequenced. One of my ancestors mated with a Neanderthal, and I am not embarrassed by that.

Church figures its only a matter of time and proven safety before people start picking out traits for their offspring and cloning entire children. Almost all technology in this area is banned until it works, Church says. In vitro fertilization was banned, and now it is immoral to deny an infertile couple their birthright to have a child produced by their bodies. At some point, someone will come up with an airtight argument as to why they should have a cloned child. At that point, cloning will be acceptable. At that point, people will already be choosing traits for their children. What politician will tell a parent that they cant spend their hard-earned money on getting an extra 50 SAT points for their child as long as its safe?

Right, but what about the Neanderthals? I cant let that one go.

We have lots of Neanderthal parts around the lab. We are creating Neanderthal cells. Lets say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid. Were they superstrong or supersmart? Who knows? But theres one way to find out.

While controversy often accompanies such talk, Church says hes avoided slings and arrows throughout his career. Ive been bracing for the backlash for 20 years, he says. Its important to have discussions about these complex issues early and in a rational manner before the technology gets ahead of the talk, he adds. Lets do some safety engineering first and come up with some solutions to problems, he says.

How far off is this brave new world? Well, according to Church, probably not far at all. The cheap human genome was supposed to arrive 50 years from now, he says. It arrived this year. What if a cheap Neanderthal or mammoth arrives 50 years ahead of time?

Church reckons that training seeds to grow into chairs or houses should be well within in our reach. Trees are essentially growing chairs, he says. There are lots of primates that sit and sleep in them. Thats not visionary.

Excerpt from:
Neanderthal Babies All Around: Synthetic Biology Is Closer Than You Think

ScienceDaily (Oct. 31, 2012) The puzzle about the ancestral function of toll-receptors has been solved. For more than 25 years, researchers from medicine and biology have been studying toll-receptors, revealing functions in immune defence on the one hand and developmental biology on the other. A research team from Kiel University (Germany) is now reporting that toll-receptors have primarily served to identify germs and to control bacterial colonisation of organisms -- typical immune defence functions.

The study was now published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and has implications for human medical research.

Studying cnidarians, we were able to show that toll-receptors have been involved in immune defence already in this evolutionarily old phylum and that cnidarians can therefore serve as model organisms for human immunology research," says Thomas Bosch from the Zoological Institute of Kiel University who led the project. Toll receptors exist in many animal species as well as humans. Cnidarians are convenient research objects, because they live in plain aquaria, have a simple genome, and can be examined easily in experiments. Furthermore, they live in association with few types of bacteria compared to humans. As many fundamental research questions in medicine cannot be studied directly in humans, for ethical and practical reasons, fundamental toll-receptor research can now be carried out with cnidarians instead.

With two Nobel Prizes dedicated to toll-receptor research in recent history, the topic has proven to be of major importance for science and society. In 1985, the so-called toll-receptors were first discovered as a key factor in embryonic development of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). For these findings, Christiane Nsslein-Volhard, Edward Lewis und Eric Wieschaus were awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for medicine. Toll-receptors again received much attention in science when researchers discovered a new function: in both the fruit fly as well vertebrate animals -- evolutionarily much younger than insects -- the toll-receptor helped to identify germs. Biologists Jules Hoffmann, Bruce Beutler and Ralph Steinmann received the Novel Prize for medicine for these astonishing results in 2011.

Scientifically, the subsequent question was: Which function -- regulation of embryonic development or immune defence -- was first in evolution? In order to solve this puzzle, scientists of Kiel University in cooperation with Max-Planck-Institute of Evolutionary Biology Pln studied the function of toll receptors in an evolutionarily very old group, cnidarians, that have been existing for more than 600 million years. The scientists compared morbidity and bacterial colonisation of regular and genetically modified polyps of the genus Hydra. The study resulted in strong evidence for immunobiological functioning of the toll-receptors, implying that developmental functions of the toll-receptor are characteristic of insects, which are evolutionarily much younger.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet zu Kiel.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Evolutionary biology: Researchers solve toll-receptor puzzle

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sapphire Energy, a world leader in producing crude oil from algae, and Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), the pioneers of the cross-disciplinary and integrative systems approach to research, today announced a strategic partnership to further the scientific research and development of algae biofuels. Through this partnership, the companies will focus on applying systems biology solutions to algae with the goal of significantly increasing oil yield and improving resistance to crop predators and environmental factors in order to further the advancement of commercialized algae biofuel production.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120402/SF80367LOGO)

"Sapphire is dealing with one of the most complicated problems known to humans: how to make fuel from a renewable resource," said Nitin Baliga, director of Integrative Biology at ISB."Together, we have complementary expertise that willallow us to understand, reverse engineer and rationally alter the gene networks for fuel production in algae."

"Sapphire Energy has developed the premier biotechnology platform for producing and harvesting algae which we see as having incredible biological potential," said Alex Aravanis, chief science officer (CSO) at Sapphire Energy. "By working with ISB to apply their systems biology approach, we're able to more rapidly identify genes and regulatory pathways that can increase yield and move us toward our goal of making Green Crude a market viable, crude oil alternative."

"Sapphire has embarked on one of the most exciting new technologies of our decade to produce crude oil from algae at scale," said Leroy Hood, president of Institute for Systems Biology. "By linking Sapphire's expertise in algae with ISB's cross disciplinary approach to biology, we hope to reverse engineer the gene networks in algae and create strategies that will significantly improve the yield of green oil and crop protection and reduce significantly the time to market."

Sapphire Energy produces algae crude oil, known as Green Crude, which is renewable, low carbon and can be refined using typical refinery configurations into Naphtha, diesel and kerosene (jet fuel). Today, the company has pioneered much of the science along the algae-to-energy value chain from biology, cultivation, harvest and extraction. The company recently began operating the first phase of its 300-acre commercial demonstration Green Crude Farm, also known as an Integrated Algal Bio-Refinery, in Columbus, New Mexico, in partnership with the US Department of Energy. The Green Crude Farm is expected to produce approximately 100 barrels of Green Crude per day, and be completed the end of 2014.

In addition, Sapphire Energy operates a 22-acre research and development facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where it can swiftly develop new technology and apply it from bench to demonstration scale. In previous pilot activities, the company successfully provided Green Crude oil that was used to produce jet fuel for the first flights using algae-derived jet fuel, including a Continental Airlines 737-800 and a Japan Airlines 747-300.

ISB, a world leader in systems biology, combines the massive amounts of different kinds of data that can be generated with today's high throughput biology to build detailed genetic models of complex processes, such as crude oil production by algae. These models can then be validated and used to make predictions about how to change the algae or their environment to improve yield and overall crop performance.

About Sapphire Energy: San Diego-based Sapphire Energy is pioneering an entirely new industry Green Crude production with the potential to profoundly change America's energy and petrochemical landscape for the better. Sapphire's products and processes in this category differ significantly from other forms of biofuel because they are made solely from photosynthetic microorganisms (algae and cyanobacteria), using sunlight and CO2 as their feedstock; are not dependent on food crops or valuable farmland; do not use potable water; do not result in biodiesel or ethanol; enhance and replace petroleum-based products; are compatible with existing infrastructure; and are low carbon, renewable and scalable. Sapphire has an R&D facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and is currently operating the first Integrated Algal Bio-Refinery in Columbus, New Mexico. For more information, visit http://www.sapphireenergy.com or:

About ISB: The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is a world-renowned, non-profit research institute headquartered in Seattle that is dedicated to the study and application of systems biology. Founded in 2000,ISB seeks to unravel the mysteries of biology while identifying strategies for predicting and preventing diseases, solving energy and environmental issues, and improving K-12 science education. ISB's systems approach integrates biology, computation and technological development, enabling scientists to analyze all elements in a biological system rather than one gene or protein at a time. ISB has 11 faculty members and about 230 staff.

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Sapphire Energy and Institute of Systems Biology Partner on Commercial Algae Production