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Following one of Earth's five greatest mass extinctions, tiny marine organisms called graptoloids did not begin to rapidly develop new physical traits until about 2 million years after competing species became extinct.

This discovery, based on new research, challenges the widely held assumption that a period of explosive evolution quickly follows for survivors of mass extinctions.

New York, NY, Feb. 13, 2012 – An international team of scientists in Japan, Switzerland, and the United States has confirmed that combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy in cancer treatment enhances the immune system's ability to find and eliminate cancer cells, even when the cancer-associated proteins targeted by the immune system are hidden behind the cancer cell membrane.

MADISON -- Online daters intent on fudging their personal information have a big advantage: most people are terrible at identifying a liar. But new research is turning the tables on deceivers using their own words.

"Generally, people don't want to admit they've lied," says Catalina Toma, communication science professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. "But we don't have to rely on the liars to tell us about their lies. We can read their handiwork."

Fresh insights into how our cells multiply could help scientists develop drugs to treat cancer.

Researchers have gained better understanding of the workings of two key proteins that control cell division. This process must be carried out accurately to keep cells healthy, and when it goes out of control, it can lead to cancer.

The study, led by the University of Edinburgh, could contribute to the development of new drugs that stop cancerous cells multiplying and so prevent the spread of the disease.

North Carolina State University chemists have created a compound that makes existing antibiotics 16 times more effective against recently discovered antibiotic-resistant "superbugs."

High-throughput DNA sequencing technologies are leading to a revolution in how clinicians diagnose and treat cancer. The molecular profiles of individual tumors are beginning to be used in the design of chemotherapeutic programs optimized for the treatment of individual patients. The real revolution, however, is coming with the emerging capability to inexpensively and accurately sequence the entire genome of cancers, allowing for the identification of specific mutations responsible for the disease in individual patients.

2011 brought two of the deadliest bacterial outbreaks the world has seen during the last 25 years. The two epidemics accounted for more than 4,200 cases of infectious disease and 80 deaths. Software developed at Georgia Tech was used to help characterize the bacteria that caused each outbreak. This helps scientists to better understand the underlying microbiologic features of the disease-causing organisms and shows promise for supporting faster and more efficient outbreak investigations in the future.

A USC research team has pinpointed the source of a genetic disorder that causes life-threatening birth defects, which may allow doctors to quickly diagnose and better treat the disease.

Babies born with the disorder, known as Loeys-Dietz syndrome or Marfan syndrome type II, have cleft palates and other facial characteristics similar to babies born with other diseases – but also happen to suffer potentially fatal heart defects, making it critical for them to receive an accurate diagnosis right away.

Making a simple substitution of water or diet soft drinks for drinks with calories can help people lose 4 to 5 pounds, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows.

People who have received a donor organ need lifelong immunosuppressant drugs to keep their immune system from attacking the foreign tissue. However, with a suppressed immune system, many infectious agents turn into a threat. Infections such as with human cytomegalovirus and a certain type of human polyomavirus frequently cause complications in transplant recipients. For these patients it would therefore be particularly beneficial to have substances that suppress the immune system and exert an antiviral activity at the same time – thus killing two birds with one stone.

INDIANAPOLIS -- One of the frustrations for scientists working on HIV/AIDS treatments has been the human immunodeficiency virus’ ability to evade the body’s immune system. Now an Indiana University researcher is testing a compound developed by a Harvard University colleague that could help put the immune system back in the hunt.

It’s not that the human immune system doesn’t recognize HIV. Indeed, an infection causes the body to unleash antibodies that attack the virus, and initially some HIV is destroyed.

LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) developed a new mouse model for studying a devastating childhood brain cancer called medulloblastoma. The animal model mimics the deadliest of four subtypes of human medulloblastoma, a tumor that is triggered by elevated levels of a gene known as Myc. The study, published February 13 in the journal Cancer Cell, also suggests a potential strategy for inhibiting the growth of this tumor type.

Since Charles Darwin first put forth the theory of evolution, scientists have been trying to unlock the mysteries of genetics. But research on the genome — the organism's entire hereditary package encoded in DNA and RNA — has been less extensive. There is a tendency to think of the genome as a static and passive container of information, says Dr. Ehud Lamm of Tel Aviv University's Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas.

rtTitle>(WASHINGTON, February 13, 2012) – Two studies published today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), demonstrate preliminary success of an effective multiple myeloma (MM) regimen in patients with AL amyloidosis, a rare and devastating blood disease that results in deposition of damaging abnormal protein in critical organs of the body, including the kidneys, heart, liver, and intestines, and shares some characteristics with MM.

BOSTON -- A new study by researchers at Tufts Medical Center provides unique insight into factors that affect Medicare decisions on whether to pay for medical technologies. The study, published online by the journal Medical Care, underscores that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has incorporated evidence-based medicine into its decision making, highlighting the importance of the strength and quality of the supporting clinical evidence.