1998: Syphilis Genome Sequenced; 2008: Syphilis on the Rise [News]
Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 17:35
in Biology & Nature
A decade ago, this week, scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the Institute for Genomic Research announced they had decoded the genetic information inside Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted disease (STD) syphilis.At the time, Penelope Hitchcock, the chief of the sexually transmitted disease branch of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), hailed the work as critical to developing better drugs. NIAID director Anthony Fauci added the genome would boost efforts to develop a preventative vaccine. [More]