An interesting paper from May 10th, the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports on research from Vanderbilt University that used a "reporter molecule" and a custom camera equipped monitoring station for the monitoring of cell division division over a long period of time. What they discovered was the biological clock wasn't regulating cell division in their test cells. This implies that there is an opportunity to reactivate the biological clock in tumors with drug therapy, there by reducing growth rates.

Researchers from George Washington University Medical Center have discovered a way to detect a specific autism spectrum disorder by using blood samples. Additionally the researchers discovered that drugs which affect the methylation state of genes may reverse some of autism's effects.

A March 24, 2010 press release from Johns Hopkins details a research team that screened hundreds of thousands of small chemical compounds, and identified a class of compounds that - at least in a test tube - blocks tuberculosis growth. The scientists screened 175,000 small chemical compounds and identified a potent class of compounds that selectively slows down this protein’s activity.

Vanderbilt University has published a study that reports human cells moving in what seem to be independent ways similar to amoebae and bacteria. These results are thought to be a first in cell biology and were inspired in a unique way. The researchers’ adopted some new assumptions

Researchers have been able to see how heart failure affects the surface of an individual heart muscle cell in minute detail, using a new nanoscale scanning technique developed at Imperial College London.

First proposed in 1929 by J.B.S. Haldane in his essay on the origin of life, the "soup theory" suggested that life as we know it was the result of UV radiation converting methane, ammonia and water into the first organic compounds in the early earth oceans. The first cells grew by fermenting this organic primordial soup to generate energy in the form of ATP.

Researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville are unlocking some of the secrets that allow bacteria to respond and adapt to changes in their environment - and hope their findings may be used to enhance medicines that fight harmful bacteria or even to develop ways to better utilize bacteria in agriculture and other similar applications.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers and their colleagues have identified an enzyme that can effectively wipe a cell’s developmental slate clean, essentially giving a fresh start. The enzyme, which is thought to help genetically reprogram fertilized eggs as part of normal development, may help scientists create stem cells and arrest the growth of cancers.

A multi-institutional research team have recently identified a gene - called Microfibril-Associated Glycoprotein 2, or MAGP2 - that offers promise as a personalized treatment target for ovarian cancer. Not previously associated with any type of cancer, MAGP2 was found to be over-expressed in papillary serous ovarian tumors of patients who died more quickly from the disease.

Finding and treating a tumor without disturbing normal tissue presents challenges -- sometimes the most effective therapies can be invasive and harsh.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have devised a way they might deliver the right therapy directly to tumors using special molecules, called aptamers, which specifically bind to living tumor tissue.