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Patients who experience dermatologic toxic effects from epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFRIs) have a high prevalence of skin and nail infections, according to a new study published online December 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

LA JOLLA, CA – December 9, 2009 –Even small errors made by cells during protein production can have profound disease effects, and nature has developed ways to uncover these mistakes and correct them. Though in the case of one essential protein building block—the amino acid alanine—nature has been extra careful, developing not one, but two checkpoints in her effort to make sure that this component is used correctly.

PITTSBURGH—The holidays can be challenging for even the most diligent dieters. But are weekends just as detrimental? Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., found that weekend eating patterns change significantly.

Although Charles Darwin is most well-known for his book On the Origin of Species, in which he described the process of natural selection, he greatly contributed to many specific fields within biology.

Despite their ability to fly, tropical birds waited until the formation of the land bridge between North and South America to move northward, according to a University of British Columbia study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.

Two Kent State University professors are part of a team of researchers who recently uncovered a way to pack tetrahedra, considered to be the simplest shaped regular solids with its four triangular sides, more densely than ever before.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ground-breaking discoveries by Michigan State University researchers could help protect honeybees from deadly parasites that have devastated commercial colonies.

The MSU researchers for the first time were able to produce in the laboratory proteins that help channel sodium ions through cell membranes of parasites known as Varroa mites. The research, using cellular frog eggs, also found that these proteins react to chemicals differently than the sodium channel proteins in honeybees, a finding that could be a key to controlling the mites.

Stem cell derived neurons may allow scientists to determine whether breakdowns in the transport of proteins, lipids and other materials within cells trigger the neuronal death and neurodegeneration that characterize Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the rarer but always fatal neurological disorder, Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC), according to a presentation that Lawrence B. Goldstein, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will give at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 49th Annual Meeting, Dec.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research led by the University of Michigan shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals.

A quasicrystal is a solid whose components exhibit long-range order, but without a single pattern or a unit cell that repeats.

A paper on the findings appears in the Dec. 10 issue of Nature. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University collaborated on the study.

Researchers at the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston (PCMM/IDI) have found a link between a common mutation that can lead to cancer and a distant gene regulator that enhances its activity. Discovery of this relationship could lead to drugs targeting B-cell lymphomas, including Burkitt's lymphoma, an aggressive cancer in children, as well as multiple myelomas and other blood-related cancers.

A team of scientists from The University of Alabama used worms to reel in information that they hope will lead to a greater understanding of cellular mechanisms that may be exploited to treat epilepsy. In a new research report in the journal GENETICS (http://www.genetics.org), the researchers explain how the transparent roundworm, C.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Cells are not static. They can transform themselves over time — but change can have dangerous implications. Benign cells, for example, can suddenly change into cancerous ones.

In a paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Michael Kobor reported the structure and function of a key player in regulating chromatin in yeast and humans.

Kobor is a UBC assistant professor of medical genetics and a scientist at The Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at the Child & Family Research Institute.

Toronto – Thinking of rewarding your sales department for a job well done? You might not want to make cash part of the pay-off.

A study to be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that when it comes to distributing resources, people's ideas about what's fair change depending on what's being handed out. If it's something that has its own intrinsic value – in-kind goods such as food or vacation days – people are more likely to see equal distribution of such items as fair.

Scientists searching for the secrets of how calorie-restricted diets increase longevity are reporting discovery of proteins in the fat cells of human volunteers that change as pounds drop off. The proteins could become markers for monitoring or boosting the effectiveness of calorie-restricted diets — the only scientifically proven way of extending life span in animals. Their study appears online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.