The emergence of a potential pandemic has always been a favorite topic for Hollywood, which has given us some good films in the genre in recent years such as The Andromeda Strain, Outbreak and Contagion.

Researchers from Temple University discovered that glycogen synthase kinase-three alpha (GSK-3 alpha) is an overall regulator of aging in many different cell types.

Inhibiting hepatitis C's nonstructural 5A, or NS5A, protein causes viral levels to drop by 99 percent within six hours of administration, and in one clinical trial, it led to sustained drops in viral levels in all treated patients – a stunning validation of the possibility of developing an all-oral hepatitis treatment regimen.

Researchers at New York University Medical Center have discovered that the CCR5 receptor – well known to infectious disease researchers as a co-receptor for HIV entry – is also the receptor that Staphylococcus aureus' leukotoxin ED, or LukED, uses to target specific sets of immune system cells.

Scientists from the National Cancer Institute have found that PARP inhibitors work through other mechanisms in addition to inhibiting the repair of DNA breaks.