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WALL STREET JOURNAL                             Nov 3, 2014

By Amy Dockser Marcus

In the search for answers about Ebola, researchers are starting to look at an unexpected group of people: parents of children who have the rare but fatal genetic disease Niemann-Pick Type C.

Blood and tissue samples from Hugh and Chris Hempel of Reno, Nev., whose children have a rare disease, may help in ongoing Ebola research. Hempel family

The intersection between research in Ebola and NPC disease was surprising, and came after two scientific papers were published in 2011 demonstrating that a protein made by the same gene related to NPC disease is essential for Ebola infection.

Ebola uses the so-called NPC1 protein made by the gene to get into the cell and replicate the virus.

Now, research suggests that the gene that causes NPC disease may also offer protection against Ebola.

Read complete story:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/researchers-study-ebola-link-to-gene-in-rare-disease-1414965218

Scientists know a lot about the virus that causes Ebola — but there are many puzzles that they have yet to solve.

NATURE SCIENCE International Weekly Journal of Science                                   Oct. 29, 2014

To much of the world, the virus behind the devastating Ebola outbreak in Africa seems to have stormed out of nowhere. But Leslie Lobel thinks we should have seen it coming.

In 2012, Lobel and a team of researchers spent six months in Uganda studying the Ebola virus and related viruses. Over the course of their stay, these pathogens caused at least four separate outbreaks of disease in central Africa, affecting more than 100 people. To Lobel, a virologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, the outbreaks felt like the small tremors that can precede a major earthquake. “We all said, something is going on here; something big is going to happen,” he says.

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— World Bank (@WorldBank) August 10, 2014

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Published on Jul 10, 2014

Cities have always had to contend with things like natural disaster, economic and infrastructure collapse, and widespread illness. But globalization, climate change and rapid urbanization are making this moment in history different, and the stresses facing cities all the more complex. So how can cities survive, adapt, and grow, no matter what shocks might lie ahead? Join the Rockefeller Foundation's Judith Rodin for a look at what she calls "the resilience dividend" — investments that can minimize the disruptive effects of strain on a city, while simultaneously creating jobs, social cohesion, and equity.