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Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, was interviewed by the Huffington Post Science editor David Freeman. Meyers, a pioneer in the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, discusses Ebola and how outbreaks of infectious diseases are governed by complex mathematics.
The following excerpt is from an article and podcast by Jorge Salazar, published August 12, 2014 on the TACC website:
Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a technique to move and position a single bacterium using a highly focused laser. The precise control offered by this tool will allow researchers to better study how bacterial biofilms form.
A common practice millions of Americans partake in to stay healthy is actually doing much more harm than good and may be contributing to the spread of drug-resistant disease.
Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that a protein produced by the influenza A virus helps it outwit one of our body's natural defense mechanisms. That makes the protein a potentially good target for antiviral drugs directed against the influenza A virus.
Ribosomes are essential for life, generating all of the proteins required for cells to grow. Mutations in some of the proteins that make ribosomes cause disorders characterized by bone marrow failure and anemia early in life, followed by elevated cancer risk in middle age. These disorders are generally called “ribosomopathies.”
![ribosome-export-landscape.jpg](/images/easyblog_shared/2014/ribosome-export-landscape.jpg "In this illustration, ribosomes emerge from the nucleus and undergo their final maturation in the cytoplasm. This is where the "test drive" happens. Illustration credit: Marianna Grenadier/University of Texas at Austin.")
A team led by Chris Sullivan, a professor of molecular biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has provided the first positive evidence that RNA interference (RNAi), a biological process in which small RNA molecules prevent genes from being expressed, does not play a role as an antiviral in most body, or “somatic,” cells in mammals.
By caging bacteria in microscopic houses, scientists at The University of Texas at Austin are studying how communities of bacteria, such as those found in the human gut and lungs, interact and develop infections.
The problem with chronic wounds, and the solution, may lie in the war between two bacteria, says Marvin Whitely.
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