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The timing and pattern of the migration of early modern humans has been a source of much debate and research. Now, a new study uses genetic analysis to look for clues about the migration of the first modern humans who moved out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago.

A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

Led by the University of Leeds and the University of Porto in Portugal, the study is published today in American Journal of Human Genetics and provides intriguing insight into the earliest stages of modern human migration, say the researchers.

SEATTLE – Using a combination of evolutionary biology and virology, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have traced the birth of the ability of some HIV-related viruses to defeat a newly discovered cellular-defense system in primates.

The research, led by Michael Emerman, Ph.D., a member of the Hutchinson Center's Human Biology and Basic Sciences Division, and Harmit Malik, Ph.D., a member of the Center's Basic Sciences Division, was published online Jan. 26 ahead of the Feb. 16 print issue of Cell Host & Microbe.

All living organisms are made up of cells, behind these intricate life forms lie complex cellular processes that allow our bodies to function. Researchers working on protein secretion — a fundamental process in biology — have revealed how protein channels in the membrane are activated by special signals contained in proteins destined for secretion. The results help explain the underlying mechanism responsible for the release of proteins such as hormones and antibodies into the blood stream.

In a study that holds major implications for breast cancer research as well as basic cell biology, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini. This rotation, which the researchers call "CAMo," for coherent angular motion, is necessary for the cells to form spheres.

MIT researchers have discovered that certain photosynthetic ocean bacteria need to beware of viruses bearing gifts: These viruses are really con artists carrying genetic material taken from their previous bacterial hosts that tricks the new host into using its own machinery to activate the genes, a process never before documented in any virus-bacteria relationship.

Researchers at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada have identified a possible cause for the loss of a tumour suppressor gene (known as PTEN) that can lead to the development of more aggressive forms of prostate cancer.

"This discovery gives us a greater understanding of how aggressive prostate cancer develops because we now have some insight into the mechanism by which the PTEN gene is destroyed," says Jeremy Squire, a professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine.

Asian women who consumed an average of 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day—the equivalent of roughly two cups of coffee—had elevated estrogen levels when compared to women who consumed less, according to a study of reproductive age women by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study comparing the carbon-holding power of freshwater wetlands has produced measurements suggesting that wetlands in temperate regions are more valuable as carbon sinks than current policies imply, according to researchers.

The study compared several wetlands at two Ohio wetland sites: one composed of mostly stagnant water and one characterized by water regularly flowing through it. The study showed that the stagnant wetland had an average carbon storage rate per year that is almost twice as high as the carbon storage rate of the flow-through wetland.

HOUSTON — Scientists have connected two signature characteristics of pancreatic cancer, identifying a self-perpetuating "vicious cycle" of molecular activity and a new potential target for drugs to treat one of the most lehal forms of cancer.

The research, reported in the journal Cancer Cell and led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, connected the molecular dots between:

The earth is alive, asserts a revolutionary scientific theory of life emerging from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The trans-disciplinary theory demonstrates that purportedly inanimate, non-living objects—for example, planets, water, proteins, and DNA—are animate, that is, alive. With its broad explanatory power, applicable to all areas of science and medicine, this novel paradigm aims to catalyze a veritable renaissance.

Researchers at CIC Biogune, the Cooperative Centre for Research into Biosciences and led by Dr. Maria Luz Martinez Chantar, have found a strong relationship between high levels of Hu antigen R (HuR) protein and the malignancy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, through a novel molecular process in the investigation of this pathology and known as neddylation. The project provides new opportunities for making advances in the quest for personalised therapeutic applications in the treatment for Hepatocarcinoma.

A new system for delivering a drug to organ transplant patients, which could avoid the risk of harmful side effects, is being developed by scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

The drug, cyclosporine (CsA), is widely used in transplant operations and helps prevent the patient's body rejecting the organ but it can cause adverse drug reactions, of which the most serious problems are kidney and liver damage, in the doses which are currently administered in the long term.

Scientists have found that micron-size particles which are trapped at fluid interfaces exhibit a collective dynamic that is subject to seemingly unrelated governing laws. These laws show a smooth transitioning from long-ranged cosmological-style gravitational attraction down to short-range attractive and repulsive forces. The study by Johannes Bleibel from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, and his colleagues has just been published in the journal EPJ E¹ .

CHICAGO – The overall prevalence of oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is approximately 7 percent among men and women ages 14 to 69 years in the United States, while the prevalence among men is higher than among women, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium.