Open access protocol for using lentivirus for RNAi.

Open access protocol for studying extravasation.

Open access protocol for nuclear transfer in human embryonic stem cells.

Open access protocol for explant cultures of mouse developing gonad.

Open access protocol for cerebellar granule neuron culture.

Open access method for the neurosphere assay.

It's been a mystery for medical researchers: How does the AIDS virus bring itself back to life after powerful drugs allow infected people to eliminate all signs of the disease in their blood? Now, new research suggests HIV can hibernate inside a small number of cells -- or even a single cell -- until re-emerging to wreak havoc. Study co-author Huldrych Gunthard, a researcher at University Hospital Zurich, in Switzerland, said the findings are actually good news, because they suggest that the virus isn't replicating itself while dormant. That could mean that AIDS patients who adhere to their drug regimens as prescribed will avoid having to fight a newly strengthened virus.

Tissue cultures have been successfully exploited to dissect cellular and molecular mechanisms of microbial infections. Most of the methods used in this model conclude with data describing host and pathogen ‘average’ responses. Microscopy, however, reveals that such interplay is very diverse and that both partners are composed of phenotypically heterogeneous populations. Thus, upon co-incubation in the plate assay, neither all cultured host cells are infected nor all pathogen cells inflict alterations in host physiology. Despite its obvious impact in data interpretation, the basis of this heterogeneity remains in most cases unknown. Addressing this issue is encouraging since may contribute to uncover novel interactions in the host–pathogen scenario.

This review rather than covering the whole field intends to highlight recent findings on the Listeria monocytogenes infectious process or some Listeria specific traits, place them within the framework of well-established data, and demonstrate how this Gram-positive bacterium has, in two decades, emerged as a multifaceted paradigm. Indeed, the cell biology of the infectious process has been deciphered in great detail and provided insights in both the way bacterial pathogen manipulate the host and unsuspected functions of well-known cellular proteins. The intra- and intercellular motility has in particular been instrumental in understanding actin-based motility in general. The analysis of the two main Listeria invasion proteins and that of their host specificities have illustrated how in vitro studies can help generating or choosing relevant animal models for in vivo studies. Listeria post-genomics studies have highlighted the power of comparative genomics in virulence studies. Together, Listeria, after being recognized as a powerful tool in immunology, now appears as one of the most insightful models in infection biology.