Context. Before the launch of the Swift satellite, the majority of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows for which Lyα was redshifted into the observable spectrum showed evidence for a damped Lyα absorber. This small sample indicated that GRBs explode either in galaxies, or regions within them, having high neutral hydrogen column densities. Aims. To increase the spectroscopic sample of GRBs with...

We analyze and discuss the position of GRB 060218 and GRB 060614 in the E p,i – E iso plane. GRB 060218 is important because of its similarity with GRB 980425, the proto–type event of the GRB–SN connection. While GRB 980425 is an outlier of the E p,i – E iso correlation, we find that GRB 060218 is fully consistent with it. This evidence, combined with the 'chromatic' behavior of the afterglow l...

Immunotoxins containing bacterial or plant toxins have shown promise in cancer-targeted therapy, but their long-term clinical use may be hampered by vascular leak syndrome and immunogenicity of the toxin. We incorporated human granzyme B (GrB) as an effector and generated completely human chimeric fusion proteins containing the humanized anti-Her2/neu single-chain antibody 4D5 (designated GrB/4...

We analyze and discuss the location in the E p,i – E iso plane of two peculiar Gamma–Ray Bursts: GRB 060218 and GRB 060614. GRB 060218 is important because of its very low redshift z = 0.033, its low isotropic–equivalent radiated energy E iso ∼ 7 × 10 49 erg and its clear association with a supernova (SN) event (SN 2006aj). Under these respects, GRB 060218 is the event most similar to GRB 98042...

Recently, it has been reported that human B cells express and secrete the cytotoxic protease granzyme B (GrB) after stimulation with IL-21 and BCR cross-linking. To date, there are few clues on the function of GrB in B cell biology. As experimental transgenic murine systems should provide insights into these issues, we assayed for GrB in C57BL/6 B cells using an extensive array of physiological...

The gamma-ray burst GRB 060218 is an important event because of its very low redshift z = 0.0331, its low isotropic–equivalent radiated energy E iso ∼ 7 × 10 49 erg and its clear association with a supernova (SN) event (SN 2006aj). Under these respects, GRB 060218 is the event most similar to GRB 980425, the proto–type event of the GRB–SN connection. However, while the peak energy E p,i and E i...

The attempt to secure conclusive, spectroscopic evidence for the GRB/SN connection has been a central theme in most GRB observing time proposals since the discovery of the very unusual GRB 980425 associated with the peculiar type Ib/c SN 1998bw. GRB 030329 provided this evidence to everybody’s satisfaction. In this contribution we show the results of a spectroscopic campaign of the supernova as...

We calculate the unseen-but-true GRB-event rate from a current flux-limited sample of 33 GRBs with individually measured redshifts. We consider a GRBevent rate which is proportional to the star-formation rate, in view of the GRBSNe association in SN1998bw and GRB030329. By fitting a log-normal distribution of GRB peak-luminosities, we find a ratio 1/fr ≃ 450 for the true-to-observed GRB-event r...

We report evidence from the 3B Catalogue that short (T90 < 10 s) and long (T90 > 10 s) GRB represent different populations and processes: Their spectral behavior is qualitatively different, with short bursts harder in the BATSE range, but chiefly long bursts detected at higher photon energies; 〈V/Vmax〉 = 0.385 ± 0.019 for short GRB but 〈V/Vmax〉 = 0.282 ± 0.014 for long GRB, differing by 0.103 ±...