Five scientists from Duke University Medical Center and three from Duke University have been chosen for the distinct honor of fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center uncovered naturally occurring variations of a gene named TRPA1 that is important for the function of pain-sensing neurons throughout the animal kingdom. The gene makes an ion channel, which floods sensory neurons with calcium ions when the fly is near a heat source, causing fruit fly larvae to respond with a corkscrew-style rolling motion away from the heat source.  View a video of an escaping larva .

One of the most comprehensive studies to date of the microbes that are found in extremely low-birthweight infants found that hard-to-treat Candida fungus is often present, as well as some harmful bacteria and parasites. Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center and Nicholas School of the Environment looked at the microbes in 11 premature infants and found much less diversity than in full-term infants. “The babies’ guts were taken over by microbes we know are dangerous if they get into the blood,” said senior author Patrick Seed, MD, PhD , assistant professor of pediatrics at Duke

A commonly held theory says that flu virus persists in Southeast and Eastern Asia, making this region the source of seasonal flu epidemics in other parts of the world. However, researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore have found that influenza A virus doesn’t persist in those tropical regions as the only global source of annual epidemics.

Infectious films of staph bacteria that collect around an implanted cardiac device, such as a pacemaker, often force a second surgery to replace the device at a cost of up to $100,000. But not all implanted cardiac devices become infected

High cholesterol has been found to contribute to a loss of bone density in two ways, according to researchers at Duke University Medical Center. It blocks formation of new bone cells and it encourages the activity of mechanisms responsible for breaking down bone. The findings, from studies on mice, open new possibilities for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis and highlight a possible new way that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may improve bone health.