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A Virginia Tech geobiologist with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found evidence in the fossil record that complex multicellularity appeared in living things about 600 million years ago – nearly 60 million years before skeletal animals appeared during a huge growth spurt of new life on Earth known as the Cambrian Explosion.

The discovery published online Wednesday in the journal Nature contradicts several longstanding interpretations of multicellular fossils from at least 600 million years ago.

DENVER – The recent launch of two clinical trials offer innovative study designs for patients with lung cancer. These clinical trials are the direct result of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsored workshop chaired by Drs. Fred R. Hirsch, Shakun Malik and Claudio Dansky- Ullman, that brought together the NCI Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), academicians, clinicians as well as industry and government stakeholders to discuss issues and challenges related to clinical trial design and biomarkers for lung cancer targeted-therapies.

Australian researchers have achieved groundbreaking results in a clinical trial using hookworms to reduce the symptoms of celiac disease.

The results are also good news for sufferers of other inflammatory conditions such as asthma and Crohn's disease.

In the small trial run over a year, 12 participants were each experimentally infected with 20 Necator americanus (hookworm) larvae.

Every year, 11.2 of every 100 000 women in Germany develop cervical cancer. Persistent infection with a high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) type is a necessary prerequisite for the development of dysplasia and neoplasia of the cervix. HPV vaccination has been a subject of heated debate since it was incorporated into the vaccination recommendations of the German Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) in 2007. This edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2014; 111: 584–91) reveals that Yvonne Deleré of Berlin's Robert Koch Institute et al.

Immune cells may be responsible for drug resistance in melanoma patients, according to research published in Cancer Discovery.

Cancer Research UK scientists at The University of Manchester found that chemical signals produced by a type of immune cell, called macrophages, also act as a survival signal for melanoma cells.

When the researchers blocked the macrophages' ability to make this signal - called TNF alpha - melanoma tumours were much smaller and easier to treat.

People with lower incomes attempting to quit smoking are 36% more likely to succeed if they use a new interactive website called 'StopAdvisor' than if they use a static information website, finds a randomised controlled trial led by UCL researchers. The trial was funded by the National Prevention Research Initiative, a consortium of 16 UK health research funders.

Overall weight gain during adulthood is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer, but a thickening waist seems to be particularly harmful, indicating the importance of staving off a midriff bulge, the research shows.

The researchers base their findings on almost 93,000 women taking part in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) in England.

The women were all aged over 50, had gone through the menopause, and had no known breast cancer when they entered the study between 2005 and 2010.

Within the first 5 years after the birth of a child, women are at an increased risk of developing metastatic breast cancer. Women diagnosed with postpartum breast cancer have a decreased disease free survival time compared to women that have never given birth. The aggressive tendency of postpartum breast cancer suggests that the post-birth breast environment promotes tumor metastasis. A new study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that dying tumor cells in postpartum breast tissue promote metastatic disease.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Colorado State University (CSU) scientists have provided experimental evidence supporting dromedary camels as the primary reservoir, or carrier, of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The study, designed by scientists from CSU and NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, involved three healthy camels exposed through the eyes, nose and throat to MERS-CoV isolated from a patient.

Body size has long been recognized to play a key role in shaping species interactions, with larger species usually winning conflicts with their smaller counterparts. But Queen's University biologist Paul Martin has found that occasionally, small species of birds can dominate larger species during aggressive interactions, particularly when they interact with distantly related species.

The new findings provide evidence that the evolution of certain traits can allow species to overcome the disadvantage of a smaller size.

Bottom Line: A treatment designed to help older individuals deal with complicated grief (CG) after the loss of a loved one appeared to be more effective than using a treatment designed for depression.

Authors: M. Katherine Shear, M.D., of the Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, and colleagues.

A clinical trial led by UC San Francisco has found that when pregnant women are educated about their choices on prenatal genetic testing, the number of tests actually drops, even when the tests are offered with no out-of-pocket costs.

The findings underscore the need for clear information on all prenatal testing options and their possible outcomes, including the option of no testing, before pregnant women decide whether or not to have genetic testing, the authors said.

HOUSTON, Sept. 24, 2014 – New findings by a biomedical engineer and his team at the University of Houston (UH) raise hope for a new class of drugs to treat lupus that may not include the long list of adverse risks and side effects often associated with current treatments for this disease.

An analysis of millions of Arabic-language tweets confirms high levels of anti-Americanism there, provides new and interesting information about attitudes in the Middle East toward particular U.S. actions, and charts a path for using Twitter to measure public sentiment in ways opinion polls cannot.

The findings also highlight policy challenges — and opportunities — for the United States in the Middle East, said Amaney Jamal, a professor of politics at Princeton University who conducted the research with colleagues at Princeton and Harvard University.

Ottawa, Canada – September 24, 2014 – Ovarian cancer is the most deadly gynecological cancer, claiming the lives of more than 50% of women who are diagnosed with the disease. A study involving Ottawa and Taiwan researchers, published today in the influential Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provides new insight into why ovarian cancer is often resistant to chemotherapy, as well as a potential way to improve its diagnosis and treatment.