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A mosquito-borne disease often known as “break-bone fever” has found a new enemy in a unique type of mouse. The first animal model to test potential treatments for the dengue fever virus – an immuno-suppressed mouse that has been transplanted with human cord blood cells – was developed last year by Dr. Rebeca Rico-Hesse at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. Now, with a new $111,000 pilot study grant from the Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, Dr. Rico-Hesse will strive to enhance the model so it can be used to test candidate vaccines and help researchers learn more about immune factors that contribute to varying disease severity among individuals.
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Read and view news coverage of philanthropic gifts to SFBR that are "ramping up" the power of the organization's already world-renowned genetic research resources.
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Gifts from the AT&T Foundation and the Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation are “ramping up” the power of SFBR’s already world-renowned genetic research resources. The donor-funded enhancements should dramatically accelerate the speed with which SFBR researchers can hunt for genes that influence our susceptibility to complex human diseases as varied as heart disease, diabetes, brain disorders and cancer.
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San Antonio made the short list Wednesday for a half-million-dollar federal research laboratory that will study potentially deadly agricultural pathogens such as foot-and-mouth disease and other illnesses that could disrupt the nation's food supply and possibly spread from animals to people.
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Sites in Texas and four other states are finalists for a $450-million national lab aimed at biological and agro-defense.
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The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that San Antonio is a finalist for a new $450-million National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility.
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Experts in diverse fields such as genetics, anthropology and epidemiology have formed a consortium dedicated to bringing new strategies to the fight against tuberculosis.
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The Board of Trustees for the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research has elected J.R. Hurd as its new Chairman. Hurd’s election on June 28 follows John Kerr’s decision to step down from this volunteer leadership position after chairing the board since 1998. Kerr will continue to serve as an SFBR trustee, and he will remain SFBR’s Interim President as the board conducts a search to fill the full-time position.
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Scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research have developed a new tool in the battle against a potential biological weapon, Lassa fever, which kills several thousand people each year and leaves thousands more with disabilities such as deafness and liver damage. In an article in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Virology, SFBR scientists Jean Patterson and Ricardo Carrion Jr. and colleagues detail the development of a new animal model, the marmoset monkey, for use in Lassa fever research.
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A tiny opossum's genome has shed light on how evolution creates new creatures from old, showing that change primarily comes from finding new ways of turning existing genes on and off.
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