Not all people infected by tuberculosis bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) fall ill. It is estimated that almost a third of the world's population is infected, but only a small percentage (some 8.6 million people) actually develop the disease. Researchers from the Internal Medicine Service of the Complejo Asistencial Universitario de León (CAULE) and the Instituto de Biomedicina (Ibiomed) of the University of León have been working for seven years on the analysis of the immune response to tuberculosis.

A study of the Universidade da Beira Interior published in the scientific journal Experimental Cell Research shows that a protein known as regucalcin has a protective effect against breast cancer. Experiments were carried out on animals to pave the way to the use of this molecule to prevent tumours or develop therapies.

Specialists in bioinformatics and computational biology of the Institute of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Aveiro (Instituto de Engenharia Electrónica e Telemática de Aveiro, IEETA) have identified specific DNA sequences of the Ebola virus that allow the differentiation of the various species of the latter and the distinguishing of the African outbreak of early 2014 from other episodes of the disease. This work, recently published in the scientific journal Bioinformatics, may have future applications in the diagnosis and treatment of Ebola.