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A new study by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists discovered that the pool of inactive HIV viruses that lingers silently in a patient’s body is larger than expected. The new findings show that the virus reservoir may be up to 60 times larger than previous estimates. These viruses continue to be a threat because they retain the ability to become active even after treatment with the best HIV drugs.

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Neurons deep in the fly’s brain tune in to some of the same basic visual features that neurons in bigger animals such as humans pick out in their surroundings. The new research is an important milestone toward understanding how the fly brain extracts relevant information about a visual scene to guide behavior.

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The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that HHMI investigators Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof, and Yale's James E. Rothman are the recipients of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.

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The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and UCL (University College London) are announcing a 4.2 million Euro ($5.5 million) collaboration to develop and manufacture a state-of-the-art device for detecting neural activity in animal brains. The research will be conducted in conjunction with imec, a world leading nanoelectronics research center in Leuven, Belgium. The proposed device builds on technology currently used to detect extracellular electrical activity in the brains of living animals, but incorporates recording electrodes at a much higher density. This allows researchers to collect more data and better interpret their results.

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A team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists has discovered that some loose breast cancer cells, have a leg up on survival—the genes they express make them more likely to prosper in bone tissue. The team also found that whether or not cancer cells turn on those genes depends on what their surroundings were like in the primary breast tumor. If the breast tumor had molecular patterns similar to those found in bone, the tumor is more likely to spread to bone later.

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Scientists have discovered that an active ingredient in an over-the-counter skin cream slows or stops the effects of Parkinson’s disease on brain cells. Scientists identified the link through biochemical and cellular studies, and the research team is now testing the drug in animal models of Parkinson’s. In 2004, researchers studying an Italian family with a high prevalence of early-onset Parkinson’s disease discovered mutations in a protein called PINK1 associated with the inherited form of the disease. The HHMI research team began their studies with an eye toward developing a way to turn on or crank up PINK1 activity, therefore preventing excess cell death in those with inherited Parkinson’s disease.

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HHMI awards more than $1.8 million in fellowships to 42 international graduate students studying in the U.S.

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Scientists at HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Center have developed a new map of the fly brain that shows the complexity of neural circuits that detect motion. During the five-year project, researchers pinpointed 8,637 connections between 379 neurons in this region of the fly brain. Researchers developed several technological advances to speed the process of mapping, including use of a computer to identify neurons automatically.

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By activating a subset of brain cells in mice, researchers changed the way the animals remembered a particular setting. To determine if they could alter the way a mouse remembered a setting by activating neurons associated with it, researchers attempted to change whether or not a mouse was afraid of a particular cage. Their experiements implicated neurons in the brain's dentate gyrus as being responsible for inducing the animal's false memory of their cage.

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Researchers have found a unique type of methylation, previously found in humans only in embryonic stem cells, before the new survey of neurons. Now, Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists and their collaborators have found that they appear in brain cells during the first years of life, when key learning processes are being established. Methylation is the addition of methyl chemical groups to nucleotide bases in a strand of DNA. The marks influence which genes are expressed or at what levels they’re expressed.

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When injected into mice immediately following a traumatic event, a new drug prevents the animals from developing memory problems and increased anxiety that are indicative of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists utilized mouse studies to suggest that a receptor called Oprl1 is altered in mice with PTSD-like symptoms. They then worked with a group at the Scripps Research Institute who had previously developed the Oprl1-targeted drug to examine its effects on fear memory modulation.

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In one of the first successful attempts at genetically engineering mosquitoes, HHMI researchers have altered the way the insects respond to odors, including the smell of humans and the insect repellant DEET. The research not only demonstrates that mosquitoes can be genetically altered using the latest research techniques, but paves the way to understanding why the insect is so attracted to humans, and how to block that attraction.

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Although genetic factors contribute to congenital heart disease, many children born with heart defects have healthy parents and siblings, suggesting that new mutations that arise spontaneously—known as de novo mutations—might contribute to the disease. New research shows that about 10 percent of these defects are caused by genetic mutations that are absent in the parents of affected children.

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HHMI announces the selection of 27 HHMI investigators, representing 19 institutions – a $150 million investment in basic biomedical research over the next five years.

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For scientists working to uncover the mysteries of the brain, fat is a problem. The fats inside cells bend and scatter light, obscuring researchers’ views when they try to peer deep into tissue. A new technique developed by HHMI scientists solves that problem by removing the fat from the brain and supporting the remaining brain structures in a hydrogel—literally giving scientists a clear view of an intact brain. The technique, called CLARITY, transforms biological tissue into an optically transparent sample that retains its original structure and molecular information.

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At a briefing at the White House, HHMI announces $22.5 million, five-year grant to help major research universities train a new generation of science and mathematics teachers.

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Up to 15 new HHMI professors will receive $1 million over five years to create activities that integrate their research with student learning to enhance undergraduates' understanding of science.

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Scientists have a new view of the cellular machinery that assembles directly on DNA and readies it for transcription into RNA, the first step in protein production.

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Researchers have now found stem cells inside the parasite that cause schistosomiasis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world. These stem cells can regenerate worn-down organs, which may help explain how they can live for years or even decades inside their host.

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EarthViewer, a free, interactive app designed for the iPad, lets users explore the Earth’s history with the touch of a finger by scrolling through 4.5 billion years of geological evolution.

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Rajesh Gokhale has created a compound in his lab in India that stops tuberculosis by hitting four of the bacterium's crucial metabolic pathways at the same time, weakening and ultimately destroying the pathogen. While his compound is not ready for use in humans, Gokhale said it is a step toward a single drug that targets multiple pathways, which could save time and money over the current multi-drug treatment for TB.

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The hunt for gene mutations that contribute to autism has proceeded slowly, largely because autism encompasses a spectrum of diseases. Just as its symptoms vary widely among individuals, so do the genetic mutations that cause them. Now, by focusing on large families in which both parents share a recent ancestor, scientists have honed in on rare mutations that remained elusive in previous studies.

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Scientists may be able to stave off influenza infection by targeting one of more than 100 proteins inside host cells on which the virus depends. These potential drug targets are the result of a study in which researchers tested the ability of a modified influenza virus to infect fruit fly cells.

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Researchers have developed a small molecule that can turn the survival signal for a variety of cancer cells into a death signal. The molecule mimics the activity of Smac, a protein that triggers the suicide of some types of cancer cells. The findings suggest that Smac-mimetic compounds could be useful as targeted cancer treatments for lung and other cancers.

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Researchers have constructed a protein out of amino acids not found in natural proteins, discovering that they can form a complex, stable structure closely resembling a natural protein. Their findings could help scientists design drugs that look and act like real proteins but won't be degraded by enzymes or targeted by the immune system, as natural proteins are.

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Researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar Peter St George-Hyslop have identified a new genetic risk factor associated with the most common form of Alzheimer's disease. The research implicates a gene called SORL1 in late-onset Alzheimer's, which usually strikes after age 65.

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New research shows that at least 10 percent of genes in the human population can vary in the number of copies of DNA sequences they contain"”a finding that alters current thinking that the DNA of any two humans is 99.9 percent similar in content and identity. This discovery of the extent of genetic variation is expected to change the way scientists think about genetic diseases and human evolution.

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Thirty-nine outstanding scientists in Latin America and Canada have been named Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholars. Each will receive a five-year award totaling nearly $500,000.

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More and more people are falling prey to E. coli infection from tainted spinach. E. coli experts like B. Brett Finlay, an HHMI international research scholar at the University of British Columbia in Canada, can explain how the E. coli bacteria place a death grip on intestinal cells.

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New findings from researchers in France support the controversial idea that an error in a single gene is enough to dramatically alter an individual's susceptibility to certain infections.

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A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar in Israel has discovered one reason why so-called "flesh-eating" bacteria are so hard to stop.

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Research to be presented at the HHMI 2006 International Scholars Meeting, 27-Sep: 1) Beating antibiotic-resistant bacteria; 2) Why TB Is Hard to Kill; 3) Malaria Reveals its Secrets; 4) Marijuana's cousins could be new anti-anxiety drugs; 5) Tiny Conspiracies: Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bacteria.

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Research to be presented at the HHMI 2006 International Scholars Meeting, 28-Sep: 1) Taming Anthrax; 2) E. Coli's Salad Days.

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Research to be presented at the HHMI 2006 International Scholars Meeting, 29-Sep: 1) Winning the War Against Malaria "” Treatments; 2) Winning the War Against Malaria "” Vaccines; 3) Bugs, Drugs, and Microarrays; 4) Starving Flesh-eating Bacteria; 5) Love Songs of the Sand Fly Siblings.

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The recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon made a normally tense situation that much worse for Israeli scientists. Two Israeli scientists can share their personal experiences of trying to conduct biomedical research during a war.

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After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian scientists were left to scramble for scarce funding, equipment, and supplies. Russia has gone through many changes since then, but the fundamental problems remain. Talk with two leading Russian scientists about the situation in their homeland.

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Top biomedical scientists from 28 countries will gather at the new Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) to share data from their latest research into some of the world's toughest medical challenges, such as TB, malaria, and antibiotic resistance.

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American and South African scientists working at the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa have discovered how the human immunodeficiency virus "exhausts" killer T cells that would otherwise attack the virus. The researchers found that HIV can simply "turn off" fully functional T cells by flipping a molecular switch on the cells.

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When a faulty protein wreaks havoc in cells and causes disease, researchers are usually quick to point the finger at a wayward gene. Now scientists are learning that some neurodegenerative diseases can develop even though a gene is perfectly normal. The diseases can be caused when the genetic instructions contained in the gene are not executed properly, leading to a lethal buildup of malformed proteins in brain cells.

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Scientists have developed a light microscope so powerful that it allows researchers to discern the precise intracellular location of nearly each individual protein they are studying. The new technique, called photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), far surpasses the resolution of conventional optical microscopes, discriminating molecules that are only two to 25 nanometers apart.

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Malaria has been outsmarting the human immune system for centuries. Now, using real-time imaging to track malaria infections in live mice, researchers have discovered one of the parasite's sneakiest tricks"”using dead liver cells to cloak and transport itself back into the bloodstream after leaving the liver.

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Scientists have identified a key enzyme that the dengue virus uses to replicate, triggering the potentially fatal dengue hemorrhagic fever. The finding could help researchers develop ways to prevent or treat dengue hemorrhagic fever and related viruses that cause West Nile, St. Louis encephalitis, and hepatitis C.

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HHMI researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School have identified a second mutation in a cell growth pathway that causes certain chronic leukemias. Their findings indicate that drugs that target the JAK-STAT pathway are likely to be effective against leukemias caused by either mutation.

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To help young physician-scientists who want to do medical research, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded 13 Early Career Awards. The awards provide $150,000 over three years to promising physician-scientists in their early years as faculty at academic medical centers.

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Certain variants of a simple sugar ameliorate Alzheimer's-like disease in mice, according to a new study by Canadian researchers. Although the studies are still in the early stages, the findings could lead to new therapies that prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, high school and college students, led by an HHMI professor and an HHMI investigator, have isolated and characterized 30 viruses that infect bacteria. As a result, they are co-authors on a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Phage-hunting engagingly combines education and research.

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Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers at Stanford University have found that they can increase bone mass in mice by tweaking the shape of a regulatory protein. That protein, NFATc1, or other proteins that regulate its activity might make good targets for drugs to treat osteoporosis.

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Howard Hughes Medical Institute is awarding $86.4 million to 50 research universities nationwide to help make undergraduate science education more engaging, accessible, and interdisciplinary.

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People with multiple sclerosis carry immune cells that over-react to Epstein-Barr virus. EBV has long been suspected of playing a role in MS, but the mechanism linking it to the disease was poorly understood. The new findings show the culprit may be a population of T cells that helps boost other components of the immune system in response to EBV.

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Researchers have identified a protein that reins in the rogue activity of the molecules that make amyloid-beta peptides, which may prevent normal brain function in people with Alzheimer's disease. Their findings reveal a potentially powerful tool for designing novel Alzheimer's treatments.