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Nearly all organisms contain pieces of DNA that do not really belong to them. These "transposable elements", so called because they are capable of moving around within and between genomes, generally represent a drain on the host's resources and in certain cases may lead directly to disease, e.g. when they insert themselves within an essential host gene. The factors that govern the spread of transposable elements within a population are broadly understood but many of the finer points remain unclear.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that "bat flies" have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years.

For bats, that's a long time to deal with a parasite doing its best vampire impression. Maybe it is nature's revenge on the vampire bat, an aggressive blood consumer in its own right that will feed on anything from sheep to dogs and humans.

Free-flowing cancer cells have been mapped with unprecedented accuracy in the bloodstream of patients with prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer, using a brand new approach, in an attempt to assess and control the disease as it spreads in real time through the body, and solve the problem of predicting response and resistance to therapies.

Breastfeeding is associated with improved lung function at school age, particularly in children of asthmatic mothers, according to a new study from researchers in Switzerland and the UK.

It can be difficult to distinguish between people with normal age-associated memory loss and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However people with aMCI are at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), and identification of these people would mean that they could begin treatment as early as possible. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Geriatrics shows that specific questions, included as part of a questionnaire designed to help diagnose AD, are also able to discriminate between normal memory loss and aMCI.

LA JOLLA, CA – Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Scripps Health, and collaborating cancer physicians have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of an advanced blood test for detecting and analyzing circulating tumor cells (CTCs)—breakaway cells from patients' solid tumors—from cancer patients. The findings, reported in five new papers, show that the highly sensitive blood analysis provides information that may soon be comparable to that from some types of surgical biopsies.

SEATTLE – Malaria is killing more people worldwide than previously thought, but the number of deaths has fallen rapidly as efforts to combat the disease have ramped up, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

Sexually active adults aged 45 and over are being encouraged to pay more thought to safe sex in line with recent figures showing that STIs in 50-90 year olds have doubled in the past ten years.

In an editorial published in the Student BMJ, Rachel von Simson, medical student at King's College London and Ranjababu Kulasegaram, consultant genitourinary physician at St Thomas' Hospital London, discuss research showing that 80% of 50-90 years olds are sexually active.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Feb. 2, 2012 — Combination drug therapy may be needed to combat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Van Andel Research Institute (VARI).

The study, "STAT3 is Activated by JAK2 Independent of Key Oncogenic Driver Mutation in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma," was published online today, Feb. 2, 2012, by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) ONE.

NEW YORK, February 2, 2012 – Postmenopausal women may be at higher risk of having a stroke than they think.

The communities of marine microorganisms that make up half the biomass in the oceans and are responsible for half the photosynthesis the world over, mostly remain enigmatic. A few abundant groups have had their genomes described, but the natures and functions of the rest remain mysterious.

Understanding how the changing global environment might affect these important ecosystem players is like trying to understand the solar system when all you can discern are the brightest objects in the sky.

PHILADELPHIA (February 2, 2012)— A new study by food safety researchers at Drexel University demonstrates that plasma can be an effective method for killing pathogens on uncooked poultry. The proof-of-concept study was published in the January issue of the Journal of Food Protection.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Feb. 2, 2012) – Two UAHuntsville faculty members from the College of Business were published today in the prestigious journal Science for their investigation of an important issue in research ethics.

AURORA, Colo. (Feb. 2, 2012) – Different kinds of lung cancer behave in different ways, suggesting they are fundamentally different diseases. According to a University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in Cancer, the official journal of the American Cancer Society, different subgroups of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) show distinct patterns of spread in the body.

When a devastating 2004 hurricane wiped out a Caribbean lizard population, University of California, Davis, researchers had an unprecedented opportunity to address a long-simmering controversy in evolutionary biology. Their findings –- from the first experimental study of the so-called "founder effect" in a natural setting -- are published in the Feb. 3 edition of Science Express, the online publication of the journal Science, which will publish the study in print on Feb. 17.