The monthly technology column featuring timely tech trends, tips and updates.
Compiled by Bill Beggs Jr.
For inclusion in Tech Talk: please e-mail your tech information as a press release to: meg@sggdesign.com
Childhood Malnutrition Study Garners Millions from Gates Foundation
Washington University School of Medicine researchers will join forces with University of Virginia in Charlottesville scientists to study whether severely malnourished infants have a different mix of intestinal microbes than healthy infants.
Researchers surmise that the same microbes linked to obesity in lab animals might also be linked to malnutrition. The three-year project intends to shed light on the interplay among diet, the gut microbial community, immune system and human genome.
The $5.5 million Wash. U. grant is part of a nearly $30
million Gates Foundation initiative to uncover the root causes of malnutrition in the developing world.
SLU Researchers Study Tick Saliva as Potential Myasthenia Gravis Treatment
Looking for a better treatment for the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis,
Saint Louis University researchers have found that a protein in tick saliva shows promise in limiting the severity of the disease in lab rats.
Myasthenia gravis is a highly debilitating, chronic neuromuscular disorder that researchers believe stems from an overreaction of an immune system component that specifically defends against parasites, bacteria and other pathogens. The tick saliva protein works to inhibit the immune system component that allows ticks to attach themselves to a human host.
High School Students at Danforth Center Win Research Awards
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center honored three budding young scientists for research conducted at the center.
Bridget Waller of Cor Jesu Academy, Randall S. Ray II of Wentzville Holt and Andrew Williams of Parkway South worked as part of the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program sponsored by the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Both Waller and Ray were offered an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Colorado Springs. Williams was a finalist
at the Greater St. Louis Science Fair:
Honors Division.
