genome of 'forgotten ape'

Dear All
In this week's Nature, there is an article about the whole genome sequencing of bonobo and
more than 3% of human genome is found to be similar to bonobo than with chimpanzees.
Sowdhamini

** The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes
Kay Prufer, Kasper Munch, Ines Hellmann, Keiko Akagi, Jason R. Miller 
et al.
 http://links.ealert.nature.com/ctt?kn=93&ms=MzkzOTEzMzkS1&r=MjA1NzU2OTA0MAS2&b=2&j=MTQ4MzM2MTM2S0&mt=1&rt=0

Lab Day 2012 celebration

Dear ALL,

Please find the link for the lab day celebration..

https://picasaweb.google.com/108149987886665872224/LabDay2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMuCjOLe_Z_28wE&feat=directlink

They look great :)

Thanks and Regards,
Sony M

Have you taken your vitamins today ?

Dear All
Please see a nice story presented connecting Vitamin K, electron carrier and Parkinson's disease.
Vitamin K2 Is a Mitochondrial Electron Carrier That Rescues Pink1 Deficiency Melissa Vos et al. Adding vitamin K rescues fruit flies bearing a mutation in a Parkinson's disease gene homolog. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/336/6086/1306 <http://app.aaas-science.org/e/er?s=1906&lid=16944&elq=082c663cc08345e3a3a6a8ac1a556144>
Sowdhamini

avian flu could go airborne!

Dear All
Please see news in Science below. It appears that with as small as three amino acid mutations, avian flu virus could be airborne and spread to mammals without any intermediate host. In this case, we are perhaps glad that there is an eight-month long debate on this possibility !
Sowdhamini

Science 22 June 2012:
Vol. 336 no. 6088 pp. 1494-1497
DOI: 10.1126/science.336.6088.1494

• News & Analysis

Avian Influenza

Public at Last, H5N1 Study Offers Insight Into Virus's Possible Path to Pandemic

1. Martin Enserink*

Summary

Depending on your point of view, the study that appears on page 1534 of this week's issue of Science marks another good week for public health experts trying to protect a vulnerable world from a new influenza pandemic—or for future bioterrorists bent on unleashing one. The paper describes how a handful of mutations might give the H5N1 avian influenza virus, which typically infects birds, the potential to move easily between mammals and touch off a human flu pandemic. It appears after more than 8 months of often fierce international debate over whether the results should be made public—and whether researchers should have conducted the experiments at all.