Avtar Handa, a horticulture researcher with Purdue University has succeeded in slowing the aging process of transgenic tomato plants - extending the shelf life of picked tomatoes by about a week.

Researchers from Purdue University have improved a previously developed yeast strain by modifying it to now ferment all five types of a plant's sugars - enabling the yeast to produce more biofuel from cellulosic plant material.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced new grants totaling $79 million that was given through the HHMI undergraduate program, and the HHMI Professors program.

Fifty research universities in 30 states and the District of Columbia will be awarded a total of $70 million through the undergraduate program. The schools will use the grants, which range from $800,000 to $2 million over four years, to develop creative, research-based courses and curricula; to give more students vital experience working in the lab; and to improve science teaching from elementary school through college.

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.

HOUSTON – Deleting a gene in mouse embryos caused cardiac defects and early death, leading researchers to identify a mechanism that turns developmental genes off and on as an embryo matures, a team led by a scientist at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported today in Molecular Cell.

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.

On March 29, 2010, US District Judge Robert Sweet of New York ruled the patents held by Myriad Genetics, covering how to detect inherited breast cancer, invalid - citing they "are directed to a law of nature and were therefore improperly granted." Judge Sweet sided with the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented groups including the Association for Molecular Pathology, the American Soci

The man who helped to first sequence the human genome ten years ago, is looking to use biology to tackle the energy problem.

Researchers from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA have been studying the power struggle between the master genetic switches within plant cells that determine the orientation for growth - that is which end will put down roots, and which end will grow the shoot.

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Karolinska Institutet have used novel technology to reveal the different genetic patterns of neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. This discovery may lead to significant advances in the treatment of this malignant disease, which mainly affects small children.