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HANOVER, NH – Dartmouth Medical School researchers have found two proteins that work in concert to ensure proper chromosome segregation during cell division. Their study is in the January 2009 issue of the journal Nature Cell Biology.

This finding is relevant for treating solid cancerous tumors that lose the ability to accurately segregate their chromosomes. Tumors that shuffle chromosomes, a process called chromosomal instability, are known to have a poor prognosis.

New evidence from a study of yeast cells has resulted in the most detailed picture of an organism's evolutionary process to date, says a Texas A&M University chemical engineering professor whose findings provide the first direct evidence of aspects, which up until now have remained mostly theory.

Athens, Ga. – Until credible sightings popped up three years ago, the scientific world was in agreement that ivory-billed woodpeckers had gone the way of the dodo. A new study conducted by University of Georgia researchers reveals that the ivory-billed woodpecker could have persisted if as few as five mated pairs survived the extensive habitat loss during the early 1900's.

With an epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections growing, experts are warning grocery-store pharmacies that antibiotics giveaways are an unhealthy promotional gimmick. If grocery stores want to help customers and save them money during cold and flu season, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) says, they should offer free influenza vaccinations instead.

NEW YORK, January 16, 2009 - Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, funded by JDRF, have discovered that adult beta cells have the ability to replicate with the help of a protein known as cdk6. This research was led by Andrew F. Stewart, M.D., a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The complete findings of this discovery can be found in the early online version of Diabetes.

The gene mediates insulin secretion indirectly via the release of melatonin, which implicates a previously unknown relationship between the sleep-wake rhythm and the fasting glucose level. The finding could open up new possibilities of treatment which go far beyond the primarily symptomatic therapy approaches to diabetes that have been practised until now.

Scientists at deCODE genetics have completed the largest study of ancient DNA from a single population ever undertaken. Analyzing mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to offspring, from 68 skeletal remains, the study provides a detailed look at how a contemporary population differs from that of its ancestors. The study is published January 16 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

HUMANS have actively changed the coats of domestic animals by cherry-picking rare genetic mutations, causing variations such as different colours, bands and spots, according to a new study.

The study on wild and domestic pigs by Uppsala and Durham Universities, published today in the open access journal PLoS Genetics, reveals that the genetic changes happened over thousands of years.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Sun City, AZ, USA, January 15, 2009 – Researchers at Banner Health's Sun Health Research Institute have uncovered evidence that Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be clinically confirmed in patients with apolipoprotein E2 homozygote. The results of their study are published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

ATLANTA (January 16, 2009) – The February edition of the Journal of Nutrition offers new insights into possible associations between infant feeding and health outcomes related to obesity. According to David Barker, M.D., Ph.D., professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Southampton, UK and professor of Cardiovascular in the Department of Medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University and one of the authors of the report, "A longer period of breastfeeding was associated with lower BMI (a measure for weight) at one year of age.

A new Commonwealth Fund study says that policies in the Switzerland and Netherlands that achieve near-universal coverage and low administrative costs can help inform the U.S. health care reform debate. Both countries effectively cover all but one percent of their population—compared with 15 percent uninsured in the U.S.—due to an individual mandate to purchase health insurance and premium assistance for those with low incomes.

For years researchers have puzzled over whether adaptation plays a major role in human evolution or whether most changes are due to neutral, random selection of genes and traits.

Geneticists at Stanford now have laid this question to rest. Their results, scheduled to be published Jan. 16 online in Public Library of Science Genetics, show adaptation-the process by which organisms change to better fit their environment-is indeed a large part of human genomic evolution.

CINCINNATI—Cincinnati scientists have identified a new biomarker that could help predict a person's risk of developing colon cancer and how aggressive it may become.

The University of Cincinnati (UC) team has identified "hotspots"—areas of deleted genetic data—that play a critical role in regulating gene expression and influence colon cancer progression. Researchers speculate that these hotspots could be used as a biomarker for colon cancer.

Scientists at the University of Jena, Germany have put forth a novel explanation of the evolutionary driving force behind a genetic switching circuit that regulates flower development and survival. The hypothesis, based around the obligatory pairing of certain molecules, is published January 16 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology.

Scientists at deCODE genetics have completed the largest study of ancient DNA from a single population ever undertaken. Analyzing mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to offspring, from 68 skeletal remains, the study provides a detailed look at how a contemporary population differs from that of its ancestors. The study is published January 16 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.