News

Evolution of the Sexes: What a Fungus Can Tell Us
Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences. In fact, a new finding from Duke University Medical Center shows that some of the earliest evolved forms of fungus contain clues to how the sexes evolved in higher animals, including that distant cousin of fungus, the human.
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Marchuk and Perfect Selected as 2007 Fellows of AAAS
Douglas Marchuk, PhD, professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and co-director of the University Program in Genetics and Genomics (UPGG); and John Perfect, MD, professor in the Departments of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and director of the Duke University Mycology Research Unit (DUMRU) have been selected as 2007 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general federation of scientists.
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Genetic Variant Linked to Odor Perception
Why the same sweaty man smells pleasant to one person and repellant to another comes down to the smeller's genes. Duke University Medical Center researchers demonstrated that genetic variants of odor receptors within the nose determine how a particular odor is perceived. The researchers, led by Duke's Hiroaki Matsunami, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology, published the results of their experiments early online September 16 in the journal, Nature.
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Valdivia Receives Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award
Raphael Valdivia, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the Duke University Medical Center, was selected to receive the Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award from the ASM for 2007. Dr. Valdivia is honored for his established record of creative and independent research in the area of molecular and cellular microbiology.
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Living View in Animals Shows How Cells Decide to Make Proteins
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have visualized in a living animal how cells use a critical biological process to dice and splice genetic material to create unique and varied proteins.
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Chlamydia Escapes Defenses by Cloaking Itself With Lipids
Duke University Medical Center microbiologists have discovered that the parasitic bacteria Chlamydia escapes cellular detection and destruction by cloaking itself in droplets of fat within the cell.
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Study May Reveal Custom-Tailored Cancer Treatments
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have taken another step toward curing cancer. Joseph Nevins, Barbara Levine Professor of Breast Cancer Genomics, has headed a new study that may eventually allow doctors to tailor drug prescriptions for individual patients.
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Novel Plague Virulence Factor Identified
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have identified a previously unknown family of virulence factors that make the bacterium responsible for the plague especially efficient at killing its host.
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New Strategy Guides Selection of Best Drugs for Individual Cancer Patients
Choosing the best cancer treatments is often akin to throwing darts at a massive corkboard, hoping to hit the desired target. But scientists have now developed a novel method for selecting the most effective anti-cancer drugs based on the patient's unique tumor activity.
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Thomas Petes Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Three members of the Duke University faculty, including Thomas D. Petes, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this week.
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