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Research using a mouse model of human leukemia has provided critical insight into the genetic factors related to the generation and maintenance of myeloid leukemia stem cells. The study, published by Cell Press in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, is likely to have a profound impact on the future design of therapeutic approaches targeted against cancer stem cells.

The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler. A new report in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from adult mice can take on the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor. Transcription factors are genes that control the activity of other genes.

HOUSTON (Feb. 6, 2009) – Stem cells of any kind are defined by their eternal nature, reproducing themselves and providing a pool of cells from which more differentiated tissues arise.

Now a group of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in collaboration with researchers in Australia and the United Kingdom, demonstrate that two specific "sister" genes that control transcription play often overlapping roles in maintaining this pool of hematopoietic or blood cell-forming stem cells.

An international team of scientists led by the University of Leeds has shed new light on the little-understood motor protein called dynein, thought to be involved in progressive neurological disorders such as motor neurone disease.

Researchers from the University's Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology and from the University of Tokyo have for the first time identified key elements of dynein's structure, and the winch-like mechanism by which it moves.

Scientists at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), in Portugal, are to date the only research group in the world capable of isolating the sperm cells in the pollen grain of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This technique was crucial in a study to be published in the latest issue of the journal Cell, which describes how mobile sequences of DNA (called transposable elements) are silenced in the sperm cells, thus ensuring suppression of the mutagenic effects of these DNA elements.

CAREFREE, A.Z. - Arizona has the ability to expand colorectal cancer screening capacity; this potential increase was more pronounced in rural as compared to urban regions, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities.

HOUSTON -- (Feb. 5, 2009) -- Rice University materials scientists have put a new "twist" on carbon nanotube growth. The researchers found the highly touted nanomaterials grow like tiny molecular tapestries, woven from twisting, single-atom threads.

Carbon nanotubes are hollow tubes of pure carbon that measure about one nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter, in diameter. In molecular diagrams, they look like rolled-up sheets of chicken wire. And just like a roll of wire or gift-wrapping paper, nanotubes can be rolled at an odd angle with excess hanging off the end.

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have recently demonstrated the ability to control the spin population of the individual quantum shell states of self-assembled indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dots (QDs). These results are significant in the understanding of QD behavior and scientists' ability to utilize QDs in active devices or for information processing.

SAN ANTONIO - Researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that increased angiogenesis, or blood vessel formation, and vascular endothelial growth factor expression are associated with poor survival in women with sex cord-stromal ovarian tumors. This data was presented in a poster session today at the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists' 40th Annual Meeting on Women's Cancer.

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WASHINGTON — Rapid advances in the biological sciences over the last several decades have yielded great benefits such as medical therapies and vaccines. But some of these same scientific advances could also be used for malicious purposes, a threat that has become more salient to the science and policy communities since the terrorist attacks of 2001.

WASHINGTON -- Rapid advances in the biological sciences over the last several decades have yielded great benefits such as medical therapies and vaccines. But some of these same scientific advances could also be used for malicious purposes, a threat that has become more salient to the science and policy communities since the terrorist attacks of 2001.

A net with large holes won't catch small fish. Likewise, the microscopic fibers in the protective mucus coatings of the eyes, lungs, stomach or reproductive system naturally bundle together and allow the tiniest disease-causing bugs, allergens or pollutants to slip by. But Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a way to chemically shrink the holes in the mucus layer's netting so that it will keep out more of the unwanted particles.

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Nearly 70 percent of minority women agree that health-care organizations sometimes deceive or mislead patients, one of the key findings of a Michigan State University study that researchers say can prevent women from getting breast cancer screenings.

Researchers of the Catalonian Institute of Oncology (Spain) and the University of Granada (Spain) have discovered that extra virgin olive oil may help to combat breast cancer, according to a paper published in the last issue of the renowned scientific journal BMC Cancer. The scientists have confirmed the bioactivity of polyphenols (this is, natural antioxidants) present in olive oil in breast cancer cell lines.