A new study from researchers at The Pirbright Institute suggests that pigs may be a good model for evaluating the effectiveness of vaccines designed to protect against seasonal human flu.
Researchers at The Pirbright Institute have used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tool to knock out a gene in Culex quinquefasciatus Say, an understudied species of mosquito that spreads a variety of bird, animal and human diseases, including West Nile virus. The study provides the first characterisation of a gene that determines eye colour in this species, which will prove a valuable marker for researchers looking to modify this mosquito to control wild populations and aid disease prevention.
Researchers from The Pirbright Institute have shown that glutamine, a protein building block, is essential for the replication of Marek’s disease virus in chickens. Their study revealed that cells infected with the virus were unable to survive glutamine deprivation, a finding that could be used to develop treatments for the disease.
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