Females find social interactions to be more rewarding than males, study reveals

IMAGE: Dr. Elliott Albers, director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and Regents’ Professor of Neuroscience at Georgia State University. view more  Credit: Georgia State University ATLANTA-Females find same-sex social interactions to be more rewarding than males, and females are more sensitive to the rewarding actions of oxytocin (OT) than males, according to a research study…

Vaccination with Streptococcus mitis could protect against virulent sibling, Streptococcus pneumonia

Vaccinating laboratory mice with Streptococcus mitis bacteria prevents their virulent sibling, Streptococcus pneumoniae from infecting the mice. The research suggests that vaccination of humans with live S. mitis might offer protection from some of the many serotypes of S. pneumoniae that vaccines currently do not exist for. This pathogen is one of the most common…

University of Konstanz develops first genetic switch for C. elegans

IMAGE: Left: How the ribozyme-based genetic switch works. A self-cleaving tetracycline-dependent ribozyme results in mRNA decay and down-regulation of gene expression. Adding tetracycline inhibits ribozyme activity, which stabilizes the mRNA and… view more  Credit: L. A. Wurmthaler, M. Gamerdinger, J. S. Hartig With their first ever RNA-based inducible system for switching on genes in the roundworm…