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SAN FRANCISCO—Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center (MBIC) are advancing the state-of-the-art in live cell fluorescent imaging by developing a new class of fluorescent probes that span the spectrum — from violet to the near-infrared. The new technology, called fluoromodules, can be used to monitor biological activities of individual proteins in living cells in real time.

If you're older, a woman, and suffering from either dementia or diabetes, you are the most likely to be exposed to unsubsidized medication costs in the US. This is known as the coverage gap for enrollees of Medicare Part D – the US federal program which subsidizes the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries. According to Dr. Susan Ettner from UCLA in the US, and her colleagues, these clinically vulnerable groups should be counseled on how to best manage costs through either drug substitution or discontinuation of specific, non-essential medications.

Pittsburgh, PA -- Scientists may have made an "a-maize-ing" discovery that could lead to higher corn yields in the United States. In a new research report published in the March 2010 issue of the journal Genetics (http://www.genetics.org), scientists used tropical maize from Mexico and Thailand to discover chromosome regions responsible for detecting seasonal changes in flowering time (called the "photoperiod response").

WASHINGTON -- Eleven questions that should shape the next decade of geographical sciences research were identified today in a new report by the National Research Council. Reflecting a time when populations are moving and natural resources are being depleted, the questions aim to provide a more complete understanding of where and how landscapes are changing to help society manage and adapt to the transformation of Earth's surface.

Montreal, March 25, 2010 – Canadian researchers have discovered a previously hidden channel to attack leukemia and other cancer cells, according to a new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The findings from the Université de Montréal, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and Université Laval may change the way doctors treat cancer patients.

A recent study confirms that the standard hepatitis C (HCV) therapy, pegylated interferon and ribavirin, is significantly less effective in urban minority patients treated in an ordinary clinical practice setting compared with results produced during clinical trials. Results of this study appear in the April issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

In the '80s, Spanish researchers found the first fossils of Cloudina in Spain, a small fossil of tubular appearance and one of the first animals that developed an external skeleton between 550 and 543 million years ago. Now palaeontologists from the University of Extremadura have discovered a new species, Cloudina carinata, the fossil of which has preserved its tridimensional shape.

LOS ANGELES (March 24, 2010) – Physician-scientists at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that a genetic variation is associated with lower risk of sudden cardiac arrest, a disorder that gives little warning and is fatal in about 95 percent of cases. Findings will be published tomorrow by the Public Library of Science (PloS One).

Barcelona, Spain: Women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer believe the risk of the disease occurring in their unaffected breast is as much as ten times higher than it actually is. As a result, they are choosing to have prophylactic mastectomies based on a false perception of increased risk, according to new research.

Barcelona, Spain: An international team of researchers has discovered a new way of detecting which breast cancer patients are going to respond best to chemotherapy that includes anthracycline antibiotics*.

The research, presented at the seventh European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC7) in Barcelona today (Thursday), is important because, until now, there was conflicting evidence about the best way of predicting response to anthracyclines and it was unclear whether any of the known biomarkers, such as the genes HER2 and TOP2A, were accurate indicators of response to these drugs.

LONDON, UK (25 March 2010)—A report to be released at a pivotal global meeting on agriculture finds that transforming the agriculture agenda to meet the challenges of a warmer, environmentally-degraded world of 9 billion people will require changes "as radical as those that occurred during industrial and agricultural revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries."

A study of UK schoolchildren has revealed that Black Africans, Indians and Bangladeshis have a similar or lower prevalence of asthma than White children, while Black Caribbean and Mixed Black Caribbean/White boys are more likely to have asthma. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Pediatrics studied the occurrence of asthma, investigating ethnic differences in risk factors.

Research at the University of Leeds could pave the way to a new generation of painkillers by providing a new theory of how inflammation causes pain.

An international group of scientists led by Dr Nikita Gamper of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences has discovered how two proteins play a key role in the way we feel pain, offering new targets on which drug development can be focused. The findings are published online today (March 24) in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The occurrence of an unusual type of fracture of the femur, or the thigh bone, is very low in patients with osteoporosis, including those treated with the drug family known as bisphosphonates, according to a new study led by a team of UCSF epidemiologists.

Rival colonies of bacteria can produce a lethal chemical that keeps competitors at bay, scientists report this week. By halting the growth of nearby colonies and even killing some of the cells, groups of bacteria preserve scarce resources for themselves, even when the encroaching colony is closely related.