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A team of biologists from the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) reported today that Madagascar's radiated tortoise – considered one of the most beautiful tortoise species – is rapidly nearing extinction due to rampant hunting for its meat and the illegal pet trade.

The team predicts that unless drastic conservation measures take place, the species will be driven to extinction within the next 20 years.

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that exposure to three common chemical classes—phenols, phthalates and phytoestrogens—in young girls may disrupt the timing of pubertal development, and put girls at risk for health complications later in life. The study, the first to examine the effects of these chemicals on pubertal development, is currently published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The mysterious life cycle of a sheep virus that causes malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) has been discovered by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their university collaborators—the first step in developing a vaccine against the disease.

Microbiologist Hong Li and veterinary medical officer Naomi Taus at the ARS Animal Diseases Research Unit in Pullman, Wash., collaborated on the research with Lindsay Oaks at Washington State University and Donal O'Toole at the University of Wyoming.

Durham, NC – Surplus food can be a double-edged sword for bottom-feeders in the ocean deep, according to a new study in the April issue of Ecology. While extra nutrients give a boost to large animals on the deep sea floor, the feeding frenzy that results wreaks havoc on smaller animals in the seafloor sediment, researchers say.

Descend thousands of feet under the ocean to the deep sea floor, and you'll find a blue-black world of cold and darkness, blanketed in muddy ooze. In this world without sunlight, food is often in short supply.

Philadelphia, PA, April 5, 2010 – The recently discovered retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV), has been identified in some prostate cancer patients. In light of conflicting data concerning XMRV, standardized diagnostic testing is important to identify patients in which XMRV is present and to determine whether it plays a role in the incidence of prostate cancer.

DURHAM, North Carolina -- When forest biologist Claire Williams boards ferries bound for North Carolina's Outer Banks, the barrier islands that line the NC coast, ferry captains call her the "Pollen Lady."

Each spring from 2006 to 2009, Williams traveled back and forth from the islands to the mainland, collecting pine pollen blown far offshore. She wanted to find out if pollen from the loblolly pine — the most commonly planted tree in the southern United States — can still germinate after drifting long distances.

DURHAM, N.C. – Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have identified a set of naturally occurring antibodies that can block one of the key ways the AIDS virus gains entry into certain blood cells. They say the discovery, published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, expands traditional notions about how the immune system fights HIV and offers a potential new strategy for HIV vaccine design.

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHM) today announced the publication of data showing phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting antibodies can block one of the key ways the AIDS virus gains entry into certain blood cells. The data were generated by scientists at Duke University as part of their ongoing AIDS vaccine research. The article titled "Anti-Phospholipid Human Monoclonal Antibodies Inhibit CCR5-Tropic HIV-1 and Induces β-Chemokines" is available online today and will be published in the April 12, 2010 edition of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The neurodegenerative disease spinocerebellar ataxia type 5 (SCA5) damages nerve cells in two ways. University of Minnesota researchers now report that the defective protein responsible for the disease cuts the number of synaptic terminals and snarls traffic inside neurons. The study appears in the April 5 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).

Previous research has shown that women with breast cancer are more likely than other women to develop ovarian cancer, but now researchers from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have shown that actually only women with a known Western Swedish mutation behind hereditary breast cancer run this increased risk of ovarian cancer.

Researchers at Umeå University and the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered that traces of many medicines can be found in fish that have been swimming in treated waste water. One such medicine, the hormone levonorgestrel, was found in higher concentrations in the blood of fish than in women who take the contraceptive pill. Elevated levels of this hormone can lead to infertility in fish.

NEW YORK, April 5, 2010 – Alpha cells in the pancreas, which do not produce insulin, can convert into insulin-producing beta cells, advancing the prospect of regenerating beta cells as a cure for type 1 diabetes. The findings come from a study at the University of Geneva, co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, that is published today in the online edition of the scientific journal Nature.

Chevy Chase, MD— According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), regular moderate-intensity aerobic exercise led to a modest reduction in offspring birth weight without restricting the development of maternal insulin resistance.

Chevy Chase, MD—Patients with type 2 diabetes are generally treated similarly despite the fact that they may have underlying differences that could affect their therapeutic response. Seeking to address this critical health issue, an international multidisciplinary group of experts just issued recommendations for individualized treatment in a consensus statement to be published in the April 2010 issue of the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is the first to refute the widely held belief that intentional weight loss in older adults leads to increased risk of death.