This is destined to be one of the key HIV papers of this decade, if not longer.
–Robert Gallo
I’m a real fan of unconventional thinking and scientists who are unafraid of venturing outside of their comfort zones. So, when I read the story of the discovery of new potential drug targets against HIV in Science recently, [...]
Obesity-associated improvements in metabolic profile through expansion of adipose tissue
Obesity is bad for you, right? Not so quick. It’s been known for decades that deficiencies of fat in unusual to rare syndromes known as lipodystrophies (aka lipoatrophic diabetes) can cause early-onset severe insulin resistance and eventually diabetes. Based on these cases, clinical researchers surmised that fat [...]
Common virus may contribute to obesity in some people
Last September, I noted that the epidemiology of modern obesity (in the last couple decades) strongly suggests transmissible or pervasive environmental factors–more persavive even than junk food and sedentary behavior–at work in its etiology. Now, Magdalena Pasarica, M.D., Ph.D., of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and her [...]
The AOP of the July Nature Medicine contains the article “Neuropeptide Y acts directly in the periphery on fat tissue and mediates stress-induced obesity and metabolic syndrome” by Kuo et al from Georgetown U. I’ve only read the abstract and stories so far (like this one from the Scientist and the press release from GU), but it’s [...]
Amidst the depressing industry news that has been crossing my email lately–allegations of rampant fraud and public deception at BMS and Lilly, respectively, among the more disturbing–I’ve decided to focus one of my final posts of the year on some refreshingly positive basic research news of high therapeutic relevance. I’d classify these two independent research [...]
