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Not just for sushi — but for research. You know that burning sensation when you eat wasabi? Researchers at University of California San Francisco think new information about the so-called “wasabi receptor” can help improve pain medications. The wasabi receptor is a protein inside our nerve cells. It reacts to spicy things like wasabi, and even tear gas. UCSF researchers used new imaging technology to better map the protein. They're experimenting with blocking the pain receptor's response. Pain medications and anti-itch medications could become more effective as a result.

A year ago, a mystery virus began to kill people in China. Causing an illness dubbed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the virus quickly spread beyond Asia and for a few months stirred fears of a worldwide epidemic. With stunning speed, scientists identified the virus and decoded its genetic sequence (SN: 4/26/03, p. 262: http://www.sciencenews.org/20030426/fob8.asp). Now, a research team has claimed victory in the race to identify the cellular receptor—the protein to which the virus attaches when it infects cells—for the SARS virus. Since the protein turned out to be a well-known one that had previously been implicated in heart...