The pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) made the cover of the prestigious journal Science this week. For their part in the multinational effort to sequence and tag the sexually transmitted parasite, Chang Gung Hospital's Chiu Cheng-hsun (邱政洵) and Petrus Tang (鄧致剛) received co-author credit in the article Draft Genome Sequence of the Sexually Transmitted Pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis.
The Chang Gung team worked on generating expressed sequence tags from the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of the pathogen. Eventually, more than 70,000 tags were found, corresponding to 26,000 genes.
"We were all shocked that such a tiny organism had such a huge genome," Chiu said. In comparison, the human genome only carries 17,000 to 18,000 genes, Chiu added.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Despite its prevalence, TV is not well-known to the general public.
"It is probably the second-most common sexually transmitted disease, with an estimated 180 million sufferers worldwide" Chiu said. "But the majority of those who have it are not even aware of the infection." Chiu said that many carriers of TV never develop any symptoms.
Although TV is treatable with the antibiotic metronidazole, diagnosis remains slow and inadequate.
"We hope our work will help develop a better, more rapid clinical test for TV and perhaps even a new cure," Chiu said. "This is especially urgent as oversea studies show metronidazole resistance is rapidly increasing."
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
RSS