Mutation Allows Coronavirus to Infect More Cells, Study Finds. Scientists Urge Caution.

For months, scientists have debated why one genetic variation of the coronavirus became dominant in many parts of the world. Many scientists argue that the variation spread widely by chance, multiplying outward from explosive outbreaks in Europe. Others have proposed the possibility that a mutation gave it some kind of biological edge and have been… Read More: Mutation Allows Coronavirus to Infect More Cells, Study Finds. Scientists… »

Blood pressure drug improves response to cancer therapy

Scientists at Heidelberg University Hospital and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have discovered that a drug to lower blood pressure alters the tissue characteristics of secondary tumours, or metastases, from colon cancer. The ‘stiffness’ of these metastases has an effect on the success of cancer therapies. The results are published in Cancer Cell. Heidelberg… Read More: Blood pressure drug improves response to cancer therapy »

Public health workers fighting virus face growing threats

Emily Brown was stretched thin. As the director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in rural Colorado, she was working 12- and 14-hour days, struggling to respond to the pandemic with only five full-time employees for more than 11,000 residents. Case counts were rising. She was already at odds with county commissioners, who… Read More: Public health workers fighting virus face growing threats »