Vanquish

Abstract: Abstract : The Deployed Warfighter Protection research program (DWFP) is an initiative to develop and validate novel methods to protect United States military deployed abroad from threats posed by disease-carrying insects. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, leishmaniasis, and chikungunya are among the most important health risks facing deployed troops. There are no vaccines for many diseases transmitted by biting insects, so methods in insect management and control, as well as personal protection, are the primary tools available to protect troops. During and following World War II, scientists from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) were regularly funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) to develop new methods and materials for controlling biting insects, particularly those that transmit diseases to humans. This highly successful collaboration produced tools that are still part of our insect-control arsenal today. Examples include: Deet (N,N-diethyl-3-methyl-benzamide), the primary ingredient in the majority of insect repellents available today. Ultra low volume application of insecticides, a methodology that distributes a limited amount of chemical per acre by optimizing the dispersion and concentration of size-limited droplets, now the standard method used by spray trucks deployed to protect neighborhoods against mosquitoes. Permethrin-impregnated fabrics for personal protection against the bites of ticks, mosquitoes, and other blood-feeding flying insects. Permethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insect repellent that is used to treat uniforms, bed nets, tentage, and other fabrics.

Abstract: A gene-therapy technique that aims to prevent mothers from passing on harmful genes to children through their mitochondria — the cell’s energyproducing structures — might not always work. Mitochondrial replacement therapy involves swapping faulty mitochondria for those of a healthy donor. But if even a small number of mutant mitochondria remain after the transfer — a common occurrence — they can outcompete healthy mitochondria in a child’s cells and potentially cause the disease that the therapy was designed to avoid, experiments suggest. “It would defeat the purpose of doing mitochondrial replacement,” says Dieter Egli, a stem-cell scientist at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute who led the work. Egli says that the finding could guide ways to surmount this hurdle, but he recommends that the procedure not be used in the meantime. The UK government last year legalized mitochondrial replacement therapy, although the country’s fertility regulator has yet to give the green light to its use in the clinic. In the United States, a panel convened by the National R E P R O D U C T I V E M E D I C I N E