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Last Thursday, eccentric American millionaire John McAfee gave a small speech outside the police department in San Pedro, Belize, about supporting local law enforcement and how the law was necessary to curb the negative aspect of the human animal. The Nov. 8 afternoon soiree was held because of the towns growing crime problem. During the event, the 67-year-old McAfeewho was accompanied by his 17-year-old girlfriend and his bodyguarddonated stun guns, pepper spray, handcuffs, metal detectors, and swat batons to the tiny police force.

A view of John McAfee's Facebook page. (Karen Bleier, AFP / Getty Images)

Four days later, McAfee, who sports blond-tinted hair and body tattoos, was on the run from the very same police department, and is now wanted for questioning in the murder of his neighbor, Greg Faull, a retired Florida contractor he had an ongoing feud with.Faull was found by his maid face-up in a pool of bloodinside his two-story home north of San Pedro, a town on the island of Ambergris Caye. He had been shot once in the back of his head.

The Nov. 11 death of Faull came as a huge shock to the small, touristy village of locals and ex-pats, who get around the island on golf carts. Until this incident, the town of 20,000 was known mostly for having the second-largest barrier reef in the world after Australia, and as the place to go to for snorkeling with friendly nurse sharks. Although the town has seen a rise in home burglaries, most of the crime involves petty theft and drug hustlers trying to make a buck off tourists.

It doesnt look like a robbery, but a hit, said a shocked San Pedro Mayor Daniel Guerrero.

So far, police have detained two people who have been seen with, or worked with [McAfee], but the investigation is still in its infancy, says Raphael Martinez, spokesman for Belizes Ministry of National Security.

Although police have declined to say if McAfee is their No. 1 suspect, Martinez told The Daily Beast there were no signs of forced entry. Nor do police believe Faulls death was a burglary or robbery gone bad. We havent established the motive, but burglary or robbery doesnt seem to be it, Martinez says. Nothing of major importance was missing from his house. He added, We are still seeking Mr. McAfee for questioning but he cant seem to be found so far.

At least, that is, by the police. McAfee contacted Wired magazine about his innocence and claimed Faull was not the real target of the killer. McAfee was.

McAfee also claimed that he spent the last few days hiding in boats and sleeping in ditches and on a lice-infested mattress because he fears the cops will kill him if he goes to them. You can say Im paranoid about it but they will kill me, there is no question, he told Wired. Theyve been trying to get me for months. They want to silence me. I am not well liked by the prime minister. I am just a thorn in everybodys side.

I smiled as I read [the article], said Martinez. We dont live in the type of country where we can pick someone up and arbitrarily kill them. Our laws are based on British laws, and if he fears for his life he should be accompanied by someone or have someone come along with him when he comes in for questioning. He also said in the article that there is no better place for him to live than Belize. I am just wondering what his frame of mind is.

Originally posted here:
From Anti-Virus Mogul to Killer?

Inovio Pharmaceuticals announced that its synthetic hepatitis B, or HBV, therapeutic vaccine generated strong T cell responses that eliminated targeted liver cells in mice. This data points to the DNA vaccine's potential to clear HBV infection and thereby prevent liver cancer in humans, an encouraging development given that nearly one-third of the world's population is infected with hepatitis B, with 400 million at risk of developing liver cancer. In the study, Inovio researchers and collaborators constructed a DNA vaccine encoding an HBV core antigen using the SynCon vaccine technology and administered it via Inovio's proprietary electroporation-based delivery technology. Researchers observed that the vaccine induced strong "killer" T cells in an animal model. Importantly, those killer T cells, while found systemically, were also present in the liver and provided clearance of HBV antigen-expressing liver cells without inducing liver damage. The company is also investigating additional HBV antigens to develop a multi-component vaccine that can provide the host immune system multiple targets to clear the hepatitis B virus and infected liver cells.

Read more:
Inovio's HBV therapeutic vaccine generated strong T cell responses

Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in the fight against cancer and are working to find a way to get the body's natural killer cells to eliminate cancerous cells.

Researchers at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre have discovered a new molecule that a cancer cell can produce on its surface to convince the body's natural killer cells it poses no danger.

The research team, led by Dr Dan Andrews and Professor Mark Smyth from the Cellular Immunology Laboratory at the centre, says the cancer cells fool the body's natural immune defences into ignoring their threat.

Dr Andrews said the discovery would open the door to the development of new treatments to interrupt this deception.

The findings were published overnight in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Immunology.

Dr Andrews says each natural killer cell is part of a roving biological security team, performing sweeping scans by temporarily binding one of its receptors to a corresponding molecule on every cell's surface, like a key into a lock.

"When a cell becomes infected or damaged, it loses these surface molecules; when a natural killer cell cannot find a lock to bind to, it recognises that cell as a threat and destroys it," he says.

Researchers from around the world have been hunting for each lock to correspond to the 10 identified natural killer cell surface keys, but only investigating the MHC-I class of molecule, or classical MHC-I.

The lock Dr Andrews and his team have discovered, called H2-M3, is a non-classical MHC-I molecule.

"Now we have identified the role H2-M3 plays in cancer growth, we can learn more about how it binds to natural killer cell receptors and plan new therapies to specifically target these types of interactions," Dr Andrews said.

Originally posted here:
Cell breakthrough in cancer fight

BLUE BELL, Pa., Nov. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE MKT: INO) announced today that its synthetic hepatitis B (HBV) therapeutic vaccine generated strong T cell responses that eliminated targeted liver cells in mice. This data points to the DNA vaccine's potential to clear HBV infection and thereby prevent liver cancer in humans, an encouraging development given that nearly one-third of the world's population is infected with hepatitis B, with 400 million at risk of developing liver cancer.

Results from this preclinical study appear in the peer-reviewed journal, Cancer Gene Therapy, in an article entitled, "Synthetic DNA immunogen encoding hepatitis B core antigen drives immune response in liver."

In the study, Inovio researchers and collaborators constructed a DNA vaccine encoding an HBV core antigen using the SynCon vaccine technology and administered it via Inovio's proprietary electroporation-based delivery technology. Researchers observed that the vaccine induced strong "killer" T cells in an animal model. Importantly, those killer T cells, while found systemically, were also present in the liver and provided clearance of HBV antigen-expressing liver cells without inducing liver damage.

The company is also investigating additional HBV antigens to develop a multi-component vaccine that can provide the host immune system multiple targets to clear the hepatitis B virus and infected liver cells.

Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio's President and CEO, said, "Inovio has established a potent immune therapeutics platform. With our recent scientific breakthrough represented by our human data showing the powerful killing effect of T cells generated by our cervical dysplasia therapeutic vaccine, we are encouraged by the published preclinical results generated by our therapeutic vaccine against HBV. Hepatitis B is one of the most important global health problems, and we are excited by the prospect of addressing HBV and other chronic infectious diseases with our vaccines.

Scientific Discussion of Results

With a quarter of a billion people chronically infected worldwide and at risk of developing liver cancer, there is a critical need for an effective HBV therapeutic vaccine that can induce strong antigen-specific immune responses and subsequently deploy the immune responses towards the liver.

In this study, Inovio developed a synthetic DNA vaccine which is encoded for the HBcAg antigen and represents a consensus of the unique HBcAg DNA sequences of all major HBV genotypes (A through E). When delivered by electroporation, researchers first demonstrated that this vaccine elicited strong HBcAg-specific T cell and antibody responses in the periphery (outside of the liver) by ELISpot, ICS and cell proliferation assays. Researchers observed that the vaccination could also induce antigen-specific CD8 and CD4 T cells that produced both IFN-y and TNF-a in the liver, indicating a strong vaccine-induced T cell response was also present in the liver.

Furthermore, study researchers found the vaccine-specific T cells exhibited a killing function, and could migrate to and stay in the liver and cause clearance of target cells without any evidence of liver injury. Taken together, this is the first study to provide evidence that intramuscular immunization can induce killer T cells that can migrate to the liver and eliminate target cells.

About Hepatitis B and Liver Cancer

Read this article:
Inovio Therapeutic Hepatitis B Vaccine Killer T Cells Demonstrate Potential to Clear HBV in Liver

November 9, 2012, 5:49 AM PST

Takeaway: The difference between a biological virus and a computer virus is blurring. Learn how a researcher infected himself with a computer virus.

A few years ago, I worked on a series about computer malware. I wish I could say the articles were a hit because of my herculean effort, but I cant. That honor goes to the incredible member discussions particularly the ones discussing similarities between malware propagation and how we humans spread our maladies.

Another article Ive written that garnered much the same interest looked at how computer scientists were able to enhance digital communications by replicating neural networks discovered strangely enough in fruit flies. Lead scientist, Dr. Ziv Bar-Joseph:

Biological systems address many challenges presented by computer networking. For instance, biological processes are often distributed, as are communication systems used by computers. Thus, I believe, solutions for many computer-network problems can be based on what we learn from biological systems.

My interest in this subject may not be as lofty as Mr. Einstein and his desire to explain the entire universe using one equation. But, Im starting to see signs that the convergence between biology and digital electronics is impacting computer security. Something I do consider important. So, when I stumbled across a web page asking, Could you become infected with a Computer Virus, I had to check it out.

After watching the TEDxTalk associated with the webpage, I was somewhat disappointed. The title is technically correct, but not what I had envisioned or so I thought. The talk starts out with Dr. Mark Gasson, senior research fellow at University of Reading, explaining how he inserted a RFID chip under the skin between his thumb and first finger.

Next, Dr. Gasson discussed several useful functions he programmed into the RFID device:

Heres where the talk got interesting. After the RFID implant was in place, Dr. Gasson was able to infect it with a virus. And more importantly, infect (replicate the virus) other devices:

We did two experiments: one with the computer system securing building access using smart card or RFID devices. We infected that computer with a virus. The computer was able to transfer the virus to the implant when I tried to gain access.

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The convergence of biological and computer viruses