Innate DB

This website holds a certain “innate” appeal for immunology researchers as it is an excellent database for gene interactions and pathways related to innate immunity. A collaboration between groups at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and the Teagasc Animal Bioscience Centre in Ireland, Innate DB provides users with many ways to explore the information contained within the database. With three options, you can search by genes and proteins, molecular interactions, or pathway. You can upload a list of genes to analyze in the context of molecular interactions, and you can visualize networks of molecular interactions. The website also provides links to free software programs and other gene-interaction databases. The page is organized well and with its wealth of resources, one could spend a lot of time mining the database. (I dare say that it is infectious.)
www.innatedb.ca

Vaccines and the Infectious Diseases They Prevent

A schizophrenic site, Vaccines and the Infectious Diseases They Prevent provides a considerable amount of useful medical information about seven devastating diseases, but its URL and the opening page leads visitors to believe it only concerns tetanus. Fortunately, that is not the case, as a click on the small panel of disease names at the top of the opening page reveals. Diseases include influenza, meningococcal disease, polio, rabies, tetanus, travelers’ diseases, and haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease. Information about each disease is informative and tightly organized. There is a lot to learn here. Did you know that bats can bite so softly that it can occur while people are asleep without waking them? How about the fact that bats were linked to 24 of the 32 human cases of rabies in the 1990s? Check out this clever site for other interesting info.
www.tetanus.org

Immunology@NIH

Immunology at NIH, at first glance, would, logically, seem to be devoted mostly to the topic of immunology, but on closer examination, the site appears instead to be more about the people involved in the discipline than about immunology itself. The opening page provides four research snapshots, but clicking on them reveals little about immunology. For example, the heading titled Structural Biology brings up a pop-up window with a single image and a description referring to a single researcher. The same is true of the headings titled “Immune Cell Signaling”, “Autoimmunity”, and “Molecular Immunology,” except some also contain a single hyperlinked reference. Yawn. Is this the best the NIH could do? I think not. Other features of the site include a section related to careers at the NIH, interest groups, and links. At least the last items have a reasonable amount of content. I think this entire site needs to be rethought out before it’s ready for prime time.
http://www.immunology.nih.gov

Science Bulletins

The American Museum of Natural History has, as one might expect, an attractive site, with many visually pleasing pages on general topics in natural history. It was a pleasant surprise, though, to discover that, in addition to general information on things like volcanoes, astronomy, and tsunamis, the Science Bulletins section of the site has helpful coverage of biology and molecular biology that is not strictly aimed at general audiences. Probably the most interesting article at press time, in this regard, concerns a surprising discovery that survivors of the 1918 flu epidemic are still able to mount an immune defense against the virus that caused it. Previously, it was thought that immunity might give out much earlier. Other segments covered stem cells, cloning for conservation, and nicely produced videos on topics spanning all of biology. A pleasant but welcome surprise.
www.amnh.org/sciencebulletins